University of Minnesota Duluth
 
 

Vocal Area

percussion_picWelcome 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 Resources

Check out the UMD library for many excellent resources. If you can't find something, ask Pam Enrici (penrici@d.umn.edu) and she will help you find ANYTHING!

Resources at the library:
• Song Index
• NAXOS Music Library
• NAXOS Video Library

To download music:
• ArtSong Central—this is a new site where you can download standard repertoire for FREE!!!
• FreeHand Music—classical, pop and musical theatre music—prices start under $2.00 a piece
• Schubertline—a large selection of classical artsong and arias—prices start around $2.00 a piece (prices are listed in English pounds but your credit card company will automatically convert them)
• Everynote—an excellent collection of arias and songs—prices start under $2.00 a piece
•  IMSLP—Petrucci Music Library (http://imslp.org/wiki/)—a huge collection of FREE music that are in the public domain

IPA and Translations:
• IPA Source—this is an excellent website for IPA and word-for-word translations of songs and arias—they charge a nominal fee for each song but the better value is to purchase a subscription
• Aria Database—an excellent archive for almost every opera aria out there—poetic translations, mini synopses and other information
• The Lied and Art Song Text Page—a huge collection of poetic translations of art songs
• Babelfish—a translation tool—if you can't find the translation of a song or aria, you can enter the text into this translator—it won't be 100% accurate but it will be a start
• American Art Song—this is an excellent resource for...you guessed it....American Art Song!

 

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