Sigma Alpha Iota

Spring 2021 16 16 P A N P I P E S M arch 2020: e world is shaken as the first global pandemic in over 100 years descends upon the planet. No corner of the earth is le untouched, and musicians are no exception. From live performing to teaching, musicians all over the world found themselves with their metaphorical musical rugs pulled from beneath them. What would the future hold in a world where physical human interaction was cancelled? What impact could we have as artists and teachers as we're forced apart in a field where connecting with audiences and students is key? is question held special weight for me, as I had made an enormous life change six months earlier. Aer a decade of dedication to arts administration, I decided to take the plunge into academia, returning to school to obtain my Advanced Certificate in Vocal Pedagogy at NYU Steinhardt aer realizing voice teaching was where my heart was happiest. I had always advocated for the power of music study. I had gathered an eclectic roster of students in my many years teaching private voice on nights and weekends - from teenage Broadway hopefuls to ex-professionals looking to revisit their repertoire; from a French fashion draper finding his voice for the first time to a 25-year-old stroke victim finding his voice again - and speaking to their unique experiences every week fueled me as a teacher and as an artist myself. Each of these people came to me with a different goal or expectation for vocal study, and almost all le having seen music touch their lives in completely unforeseen ways. ey experienced increased confidence, new ways to communicate, an appreciation for what their physical bodies were capable of. I was consistently awed at seeing what vocal study could do for each of these students, and humbled to be a part of their journeys. Perhaps this was why the chance to teach non-music majors at NYU excited me so much: the chance to help a new constituency to learn just how much music could affect their lives. Cut to six months later, and the transition from office professional to graduate student seemed insignificant compared to the shi to a life lived entirely online. Finding new ways to introduce the joys of music study to non- musicians now revolved around ways to keep the learning enriching through a computer screen, and attempting to lead my new horses to water, let alone getting them to drink, seemed impossible given the distraction public health uncertainty caused. Was I making a difference at all? How could I possibly combat a global health crisis with music study? My first glimmer of an answer came at the end of my first semester, in the form of a short reflection I asked my students to write in place of the jury they would have given were our lessons still in person. e assignment was open-ended: share anything at all you took away from our lessons together. Hearing just how much of the technical work stuck as my students walked me through exercises from support to interpretation made me smile, but one student's paper especially stuck out to me. is student had signed in to their second online lesson aer our first handful of in person lessons and mentioned that they'd planned to drop the course when it moved online but decided to stick it out at seeing how effective our first online lesson had been. I hadn't expected to lose this particular student over the format shi, and it stuck in the back of my brain throughout the semester. I kept asking myself, "How is this going?" "How is the student feeling?" At the end of the semester, this student's reflection talked about all the things they had gained and ended with: "Compared to the start of the semester, what I have been able to overcome means so much more to me than what is still standing in my way." e success of this student inspired me to reach out to others. As I struggled to find the balance between challenging my students and demanding too much when the stress of looming life changes took center stage in their worlds, I had to ask: "What role does voice study play in the life of a COVID-era college student?" And ask I did. ere's Trystan Weatherford Knowles, a junior majoring in Economics and French, who had started his study with me the year prior, taking a semester off when he enrolled in a study abroad program in France for the spring. en the pandemic hit, interrupting his semester in Europe. He finds himself at home in South Carolina this semester, sharing his study space with his parents and nine-year-old brother. Trystan came to me with an eclectic taste in music, but an ear for punk rock. Always open-minded, Trystan has applied himself with dedication to classical, theater, and vocal standards, always able to see the benefit in what learning these genres can do for his voice. "Singing keeps me cognizant of cardiovascular health," Trystan said when I A Bright Light in a Dark Tunnel Vocal Study in the Time of COVID-19 VOCAL STUDY

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