Performance - Voice
Program Website
Students interested in preparing for a professional singing career or for graduate study in vocal music should consider a Vocal Performance major at Stetson University. This degree is designed to give students a solid foundation in vocal technique, performance, repertoire, pedagogy, and musicianship. In addition, students will have the opportunity to sing with a variety of choral groups, including Concert Choir, Stetson Chorale, Choral Union, and Stetson Men.
Performance majors also perform principal roles in fully staged productions of operas and musicals. All roles in Stetson musicals and operas are sung by Stetson voice majors.
Recent Stetson productions have included Mozart's "Magic Flute" (Spring 2008), Copland's "Tender Land" and Puccini's "La Boheme" (Fall 2007), Rossini's "L'Italiana" (Spring 2007), Shakespeare's "Merry Wives of Windsor" (Spring 2006), and Mozart's "Don Giovanni" (piano only, Fall 2006). Other performances have included Jason Robert Brown's "Songs for a New World" (Fall 2005), Bernstein's "Trouble in Tahiti" and Giannini's "Hansel and Gretel" (Fall 2004), Gilbert and Sullivan's "Trial by Jury" and Purcell's "Dido and Aeneas"(Spring 2004), Puccini's "La Rondine" (Fall 2003), Sondheim's "Sweeney Todd" (Spring 2003), Humperdinck's "Hansel and Gretel" and Britten's "Curlew River" (Spring 2002), Mozart's "La Clemenza di Tito"(Fall 2002) and Sondheim's "Into the Woods" (2001).
Faculty
Faculty members are all performing artists with expertise in the field of vocal performance, and are active in opera, oratorio and recitals. They include:
- Mary Jane Christeson; mezzo soprano
- Russell Alan Franks, M.M., University of Cincinnati Conservatory of Music; bass/baritone, opera
- Andrew L. Larson, D.M.A., University of Illinois; tenor; interim director of choral activities; conductor, Concert Choir, Stetson Women's Chorale,
- Lloyd D. Linney, D.M., Florida State University; soprano
- Craig W. Maddox; D.M. Florida State University; Voice Performance; M.M., Florida State University; Opera Directing; Chair Voice; baritone
- Mollie Rich, Professor Emeritus
Special Features
Donovan Singletary, a bass-baritone who graduated from Stetson in December 2006, won the New York City Metropolitan Opera's National Council Grand Finals in New York in March 2006. Stetson student Tai Oney won the Metropolitan Opera Council District Competition in 2007.
Stetson's Hollis Voice Laboratory and portable satellite labs are available to help students develop their professional singing voice through visual as well as aural aids.
Course Information
Performance majors participate in weekly private lessons, studio performance classes, and student recitals. Check this link for more details on Course Requirements.
Career Opportunities
Stetson graduates are well prepared for entrance into the graduate voice programs at the best schools of music and conservatories in the country. They have also received training in conducting and pedagogy, to help them prepare for private voice teaching and jobs in church music. Some of Stetson's most advanced students are prepared to go directly into the musical theatre and opera performing world.
Graduates perform with the San Francisco Opera, St. Louis Opera, Central City Opera, Utah Symphony Opera, Tanglewood Festival, Des Moines Opera, Boston Symphony, Metropolitan Opera, Ft. Worth Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Seattle Opera, Florida Grand Opera, and Atlanta Symphony.
Alumni Highlights
- Cedric Leiba, , “Rent” - Broadway National Touring Company
- Brent Turner, , Santa Fe Opera, Utah Opera, etc.
- Tai Oney, '07, Central City Opera, Boston Baroque
- Donovan Singletary, '06, not just winning the Met, but also singing roles at the Metropolitan Opera, Seattle Opera, Ft. Worth Opera, etc.
- Jamie Gagliano, '03, Baltimore Lyric Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera
- Sara Downs, '03, Knoxville Opera
- Yvonne Strumecki, '02, Sarasota Opera
- Glorivy Arroyo, '00, Opera Boston, Tanglewood Music Center, Boston Modern Orchestra Project
- Daniel Cilli,, '00, Utah Opera, Houston Opera Studio
- Katherine Rohrer,'98, San Francisco Opera, St. Louis Opera, Central City Opera, Opera Colorado, San Francisco Symphony, Boston Symphony, Florida Grand Opera
- Brace Negron, '98, Title Role in The Pied Piper of Hamelin World Premier Recording, Opera North Young Artist Program, Utah Opera
- Lori Ann Fuller, '96, Chicago Lyric Opera, Los Angeles Opera, BBC orchestra
- Stacey Wheeler, '96, Sarasota Opera, Chicago Lyric Opera Chorus
- Bobb Robinson, '96, Washington National Cathedral (Soloist/Section Leader)
- Michael Shawn Lewis, '93, Phantom of the Opera, Hamburg, Germany; Broadway leads
- Steve Lucas, '93, Phantom of the Opera, Hamburg, Germany, Broadway Leads
- Maria Zouves, '87, San Francisco Opera, St. Louis Opera, Central City Opera
