Imaging the future of music theatre singing training – vocal, emotional and genre demands
The vocal demands on musical theatre singers are evolving rapidly as the form expands beyond traditional musicals to music theatre, performance art, plays with music and everything in between.
The music theatre genre now demands that singers are across the technical demands of pop to opera to hip hop. As the industry moves from an Americo-British tradition to an increasingly international artform, other singing timbres and styles are also emerging in standard music theatre repertoire. Traditional delineations of technical demands including “legit” and “belt” are no longer sufficient to describe the range of technical requirements needed in music theatre.
Singers in conservatory settings are taught by industry specialists and pedagogues who approach this multi-varied work from a variety of perspectives. A survey of these methodologies shows that not only is there a diverse range of language codes between pop specialists, music theatre specialists, bel canto specialists, and others.
This paper analyses the role of music theatre pedagogues in upskilling students for the unique and expanding vocal portfolio of the industry now and into the future. This paper will involve some audience participation.
Dr. NARELLE YEO
Associate Professor Narelle Yeo is the inaugural Program Leader of the Music Theatre course at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music at the University of Sydney. Narelle designed and devised the course at the Sydney Conservatorium based on her experience in the USA teaching, directing and performing in a diverse range of styles from musical theatre, theatre and opera. She has advanced degrees from Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music and the San Francisco Conservatory. She has performed over 40 roles in opera, musical theatre and cabaret, ranging from CioCioSan in Madama Butterfly to the soprano Sharon in Terence McNally’s Masterclass for Pacific Repertory Theatre, to Guenevere in Camelot to Mrs Johnstone in Blood Brothers to Anna I in Weill’s Die Sieben Tödsunden (Seven Deadly Sins). On the concert stage, she soloed for the San Francisco Symphony and the Berkeley Symphony before returning to Australia. Narelle has premiered a number of new works in both the USA and Australia, including recently directing and singing the lead role of Queen Elizabeth in the world premiere of Annus Horribilis in Hobart by composer Thomas Rimes, and directing/ dramaturging A Box of Memories by Erin McKellar in Adelaide, Sydney and remotely for a season in Pittsburgh. Narelle’s directing resume includes directing over 30 opera and musical theatre productions. She was mentored by renowned US director Willene Gunn, and has directed new works at the Moorambilla Festival, Brisbane Festival and directed Bernstein’s Mass with 500 performers for the 100 year anniversary of the Con in the Sydney Opera House. Narelle spearheaded the Music Theatre Research Network in Australia, and also co-created Bayumi Birrung (music stars in the Sydney language), a music program for talented Indigenous musicians. She also developed Amplification – Mentoring for Women/Womxn in the Creative and Performing Arts. She has three published CDs, two celebrating the work of mid-century composer Meta Overmann and one CD based on her research on the songs of Henry Handel Richardson Let Spring Come… on Toccata Classics, London.