December 12, 2011 (Tuscaloosa, AL) – The UA School of Music and the Voice Department are pleased to announce the residency of esteemed voice pedagogue Dr. Donald Gray Miller and the Voce Vista-Pro Workshop to be held on January 21 and 22, 2012 in the Moody music building. The two-day workshop is primarily a training session in the practical application of VoceVista and the EGG in the voice studio. It is open to those who come from an institution with a site license for VoceVista-Pro or who have purchased an individual license for $150. ** There is no additional fee.  New subscribers are welcome who pay for the $150 individual license. The book Resonance in Singing: Voice Building Through Acoustic Feedback, which includes the software program, will be available at the discounted price of $50.

For more information Dr. Miller and Voce Vista-Pro, including its history and development, please see www.vocevista.com.

From Dr. Miller:

The two days of the workshop will follow this plan:  On the first day, the component signals and displays of VoceVista –Prospectrogram, power spectrum, EGG, waveforms, vibrato — will be introduced. This enables beginners to join those with more experience in using the program, as well as providing a review for those who are not yet complete masters of the signals.

The second day will concentrate on the practical problems in learning to use the program for feedback in singing instruction: getting the program installed and working in the participants’ own laptops, and practicing basic operations to enable further exploration beyond that which can be covered in the workshop.

**A few words explaining the individual license: The software program VoceVista-Pro comes with the book Resonance in Singing.  The price is modest: $70 for the package at www.voiceinsideview.com. A motivated reader could master the program with the information in the book alone, and we hope many people will. Getting started on your own is not easy, however, and the subject matter — like singing itself — remains complex, even for the diligent student.

The individual license — for a one-time payment of $150 — gives admission to occasional hands-on workshops that instruct in effective use of VoceVista. It also gives discounts: of $20 on the book-with-software, and of $50 on the electroglottograph (EGG), if and when that is desired. Finally, subscribers can claim a couple of half-days of individual tutoring from Don Miller in the Netherlands, as a good number have already done.

For more information on the workshop, please contact UA Voice Faculty members Dr. Jennifer Cowgill (205-348-4690; jcowgill@music.ua.edu) or Dr. Ray Chenez (205-348-1432; rchenez@music.ua.edu).

Tuscaloosa, AL – The UA Opera Theatre has advanced for the third year in a row to the finals of the National Opera Association’s (NOA) Collegiate Opera Scenes Competition to be held at that organization’s national convention in Memphis, TN on January 5, 2012.  Paul Houghtaling, Opera Theatre Director, will accompany Jennifer Bryant, soprano, Perry Davis Harper, tenor, Brad Baker, pianist, and Amir Zaheri, Opera Theatre Composer-in Residence, to the finals where they will compete with a duet from Massenet’s Manon.  Costumes were designed by Jack Schmitz of the UA Department of Theatre & Dance. Mr. Zaheri and Dr. Houghtaling will make a presentation on Mr. Zaheri’s opera The Raven’s Revenge which received its world premiere by the UA Opera Theatre in March of 2011.

Tuscaloosa, AL – The UA Opera Theatre has announced a change to their 2011-2012 season.  Due to cast changes and  scheduling issues, Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte will be performed on March 2 and 4 in place of the previously-announced La boheme.  UA’s Huxford Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Maestro Demondrae Thurmon, will be featured and the orchestra will be conducted by Maestro Andy Anderson of the Mobile Opera.  Please see  the UA School of Music Calendar of Events or the Opera Theatre website for more details and information on tickets and plan to join the Opera Theatre for Mozart’s glorious score and comic gem brought to life on the stage of the Concert Hall. This production will be Paul Houghtaling’s first production in the Concert Hall. Two performances only!