Eastman School of Music has consistently been rated by musicians and national college-ranking organizations as one of the best schools for the aspiring opera singer. Eastman graduates frequently go on to very successful careers in all areas of professional music. Recently Classical Singer asked Dale Moore, past president of NATS and well-respected member of the voice faculty at Eastman, what singers needed to know before coming to a conservatory.
“Out of the roughly 110 voice majors here right now, comparatively few will have major singing careers. This is the type of thing that has to be made clear, and we try to make it very clear.”
Moore left a position on the Indiana University School of Music faculty to begin a professorship at the arguably even more prestigious Eastman School of Music. Eastman, affiliated with the University of Rochester in New York, is a household name for most professional musicians.
“Talk about what your priorities should be. Learn to sing–there’s your first priority. Having an excellent high school counselor is invaluable–to advise you about the right preparation. This information must be made available to parents and counselors.
“The university-age vocalist faces some unique challenges in the higher education environment,” said Moore. “The most variable aspect [for the young university singer] is what the student brings to the school. If a piano or instrumental student has no musical skills, they won’t get in anywhere. Yet singers can enter college with gorgeous voices and no training. They may have been ‘discovered’ by their high school choral director or a private voice teacher, who’s so thrilled with that raw talent that they teach the music to the singer by ear, they record accompaniments. They spoon-feed those singers, essentially. But then those students are up the creek when they come to school because they don’t have any skills. University voice teachers understand that singers mature much later. But that’s why, very often, novice voice majors end up in remedial theory classes.”
Singers mature when their bodies mature, and only very rarely before. Taking all these factors into consideration, it should come as no surprise when the freshman voice major may have some substantial leveling work to do–and knowledge, in this case, is definitely power. “It takes real work if singers are going to catch up,” Moore said. “In singing there is a tremendous gap that can occur between voice majors and instrumental majors. I personally loved theory when I was in school, but many did not. The voice majors can spend a lot of time doing theory instead of practicing, and the voice teachers sometimes object pretty strenuously to that. We need to be aware of this disparity.
“We strongly recommend that singers either come prepared with keyboard skills or that they acquire those skills quickly because they will be required to pass a piano proficiency exam. If they aren’t familiar with music theory, we tell them to buy a basic theory book and learn some fundamentals before they start classes. The theory course here is intense,and moves very fast.”
As one of the most competitive and renowned music conservatories in the world, Eastman has stringent requirements for its students. “Our students take a year of humanities,” Moore said, “and a full year of language and diction for each of the three major languages. We finally had to actually cut back on music courses. We wanted our students to be able to do more outside of music–drama courses, fencing class, that sort of thing. We don’t have a lot of requirements for English, psychology, history–what a university might refer to as the ‘core’ coursework.”
What can new students expect in terms of finding the teacher they want and the courses that are right for them? “We send all new students a teacher preference sheet, where they list three teachers in order of priority. We find this approach works pretty well. Some students do call ahead and say, ‘I want to study with you,’ and if the teacher accepts, the student puts down that teacher as their top choice. The teacher tells the dean’s office that he/she accepts the student, and it goes from there.
“There is no perfect system. At Eastman, things seem to sift themselves out pretty well most of the time. There can be problems, but I think students will be happy with the teacher they get–which is, of course, how it should be! We have a very strong music education department, which allows most students to finish everything in four or four-and-a-half years.” [Ed: Many music education degrees require up to five years to complete.]
When asked if he thought there were any areas of improvement he could see, Moore responded, “If I were designing a degree, I would cut down theory requirements to as little as two years and history to one year, so that kids have room for second-year study in at least two languages. [At Eastman] there are virtually no electives the first two years. They have more room for maneuvering during their junior and senior years.”
Of course, parents can have trouble understanding the desire for a conservatory degree. The tuition is higher, the demands on the student’s time can be huge, and what happens after graduation? Moore understands. “Let’s say one family has a child who goes to school to get a computer degree. He steps right out into a $35K job. Those parents find out that child number two, who’s getting a degree in vocal performance, can’t possibly earn that salary right off. Parents generally don’t understand what a tremendously competitive field singing is. Of course it’s very bewildering!
“The most important thing in any decision of where to go for school is to get with a good voice teacher for your first four years. Even if you go to a lesser-known school, get a good singing teacher–that’s the best thing. As long as you learn to sing well, everything will fall into place. If you don’t, you will always be behind.”
Dale Moore has had a prodigious career as a teacher of voice, including 10 years at Indiana University_Bloomington. A Fulbright scholar and past national president of NATS, the baritone now makes his home in New York State, where he has been a member of the Eastman School of Music vocal faculty since 1995.
