Vocal Area
Welcome
to UMD's Vocal Area! As the largest area in the music department, there
is singing everywhere! The Vocal Area provides opportunities for anyone
in the University who wants to sing.
Our five full time vocal music faculty members enjoy regional, national and international reputations as performers and educators. All of our undergraduate and graduate vocal performance majors and music education majors are taught by our full time faculty. We also offer vocal lessons for non-majors taught by our part time faculty who have performance and stage credits. Each of our voice professors is committed to demanding standards of performance and dedicated to assisting every undergraduate and graduate student in their pursuit of excellence in their chosen field of study. For more information about our voice faculty, click here.
Our vocal students have many performance opportunities. We have several
choral organizations. The primary choral ensembles are University Singers
and Concert Chorale and the secondary chamber ensembles include Chamber
Singers and two Vocal Jazz groups. Every other year, our combined choral
ensembles perform a masterwork with full orchestra. Several of the choral
groups tour regionally, nationally and internationally. For more information
on our Choral Ensembles, click here.
For those students who want to sing on the main stage, we offer one opera
production each year from our Opera Studio. Our past performances include:
Suor Angelica and Pagliacci in 2010 and Hansel and Gretel in 2011. Opera
Studio also produces an opera scenes program each year.
All undergraduate and graduate voice majors in vocal performance and music
education are required to perform solo recitals in Weber Hall. Undergraduate
and graduate students also have weekly Master Classes in which they perform
in front of the entire vocal department. Guest Artists are frequently invited
to critique and be of assistance to performers in these Master Classes.
Recent guest artists have been: Mark Thomsen, Isabel Bayrakdarian, Jeanette
Thompson and Margo Garrett.
Our vocal music department hosts the first round of the Classical Singer
Magazine University Competition. Our students and guest singers have found
our collaborative accompanists and performance hall to be an exceptional
performance experience.
Students should visit the forms page for most recent voice area documents relating to study in this discipline at UMD.
Vocal Recordings
Recording samples (mp3s) from the Vocal Department | mp3s
Feel free to visit us anytime! Shadow a graduate or undergraduate student to classes and rehearsals, take a free voice lesson with one of our voice teachers, come see a performance! Just contact by emailing Julie Topie in the music office to set up your visit – jtopie@d.umn.edu.
For Information about music department programs and upcoming concerts, please call 218-726-8877
University of Minnesota Campuses