The singers at College of the Holy Cross are an amazing bunch of intelligent, passionate, and creative artists. They have embraced the regular application of vocology brilliantly, and have regular questions. They also help us create new translations of ongoing research. This fall we set a huge challenge in front of them. With relatively few of them having had much operatic experience, we asked them to prepare an opera scenes program where all 25 were soloists. There are several very challenging arias, and many difficult choral moments as well. The vocal development needed for this repertoire, and internalizing a difficult program proved a challenge, of course, but the hardest part was connecting emotionally to a diverse repertoire in several languages. Here we find a common challenge, one that people often, mistakingly, assume that voice science has few answers for. What we found was that through vocal engagement and focus on their sensory motor adjustments, they were able to regularly train engagement with their limbic system as well, coupling motor adjustments with emotional intention. The result was an engaging, artistically pleasing performance that brought their performance abilities to new heights.
~David H.
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