Nearly two decades ago, during an undergraduate pedagogy course, my fellow students and I were regularly directed to investigate vocal issues by consulting what was then known as the NATS Bulletin, a professional periodical that one could find within the library shelves at our university. Prior to this, I didn’t know of any professional organizations for, by, or about voice teachers.
At that point, I recognized NATS as a library reference only, not as an organization. The articles inside the bulletin ran the gamut of discussions about, say, the cuneiform cartilages, or a catalog listing of songs by Poldowski, or insights from a seasoned voice teacher-author into helping a student avoid nasal twang. I confess at my then tender age and experience I understood very little of what I read, particularly the vocal science jargon, but I seemed to sense that this was a valuable resource and parent organization. Beyond that, I knew next to nothing about gaining membership in NATS, nor any reason for doing so.
It is only today that I begin to understand more about this organization, after nearly 10 years as a member and two years as a chapter president. I am not a reigning authority on NATS, merely a citizen in its membership. I have gradually become aware, however, that many singers out there have either no knowledge of NATS, or misconceptions about it or its relevance in the teaching and performing world. Within my limited sphere, I would like to help shed more light on the organization.
What is NATS, and who runs it?
The National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) is an organization created to instill greater unity of purpose and professionalism within the instruction of singing, to exhibit and follow a high code of ethics, and to foster greater performance, teaching and research skills so that all members of the organization may benefit themselves and their students. NATS has also fostered decades of singing competitions at district, regional and national levels to encourage the development of talent.
NATS has a national board of officers, all of whom are nominated for positions and voted into office by the general membership through periodic dissemination of ballots. Likewise, NATS has regional and district governorships in the following regions throughout the United States and Canada:
• Cal/Western (Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada, and Utah)
• Central (Illinois, Iowa, and Missouri)
• Eastern (Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Quebec (including Ottawa), and West Virginia)
• Great Lakes (Indiana, Michigan, Ohio,
and Ontario (excluding the Ottawa area)
• Inter-Mountain (Alberta, Idaho, Montana, eastern Oregon, and eastern Washington)
• Mid-Atlantic (Maryland, North Carolina,
South Carolina, Virginia, and Washington, D.C.)
• Mid-South (Kentucky and Tennessee)
• New England (Connecticut, Maine,
Massachusetts, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, New Hampshire, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Rhode Island, and Vermont)
• North Central (Manitoba, Minnesota,
North Dakota, Saskatchewan, South
Dakota, and Wisconsin)
• Northwestern(Alaska, British Columbia, western Oregon, and western Washington)
• Southeastern (Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands)
• Southern (Arkansas, Louisiana, and
Mississippi)
• Texoma (New Mexico, Oklahoma, and
Texas)
• West Central (Colorado, Kansas,
Nebraska, and Wyoming) as well as various international chapters throughout the world.
Current national leadership changes took place in mid-July at the national convention in New Orleans. Check the official NATS website for more details (www.nats.org) or check the latest issue of the NATS Journal of Singing (the latest moniker for the periodical previously referred to as the Bulletin).
Why should I consider becoming a member?
The desire to belong to a great organization of fellow voice teachers who follow a high code of teaching ethics, though a lofty and worthwhile motivation, may not be enough for you. And even if it is, the cost of annual national membership dues may scare you off, unless you know more. (We’ll talk more about national and local dues later.) Even then, you may decide to put your hard-earned dollars elsewhere. But if you do, perhaps you’ll be better informed.
Some of the greatest and—to my mind—well-hidden benefits of membership might be more visible in a short list format. Some benefit the teacher first and foremost, but in the end all of them should be seen as beneficial to the voice student as well, by logical extension.
1. Annual subscription (five issues a year) to the official Journal of Singing.
2. Inter Nos, a newsletter published three times a year (fall, winter, and spring) featuring more information and detail about regional and local activities, policies, etc.
3. Important linking of information to other important teaching and singing organizations such as the Music Teachers National Association (MTNA), American Academy of Teachers of Singing (AATS), International Congress of Voice Teachers (ICVT), European Voice Teacher Association (EVTA), Pan European Voice Conference (PEVOC) and many others.
4. Local pedagogical/social network within each local chapter or district (separate chapter dues apply), with local workshops, master classes and activities.
5. Access to three to four regional workshops per year (2003-04 workshops were held in venues such as Princeton, N.J.; Flagstaff, Ariz.; Salt Lake City, Utah; and Miami, Fla.) on topics such as “Children, Teens & Adults in the Private Voice Studio,” “Introduction to Vocology,” “Spanish & Portuguese Song,” and “New Music for Voice.”)
6. National conventions held every other year, usually in July (past venues have included Toronto, Philadelphia, San Diego, and this year, New Orleans).
7. Regular (chapter/district and/or by region) annual “Student Auditions” in which students studying with NATS members sing in front of panels of local NATS adjudicators, competing for monetary prizes and other awards. Entry divisions may include those for younger students (generally no younger than 15 years) and range up to those for adults of any age. Further, most areas sponsor classical and musical theater divisions within which the various levels and ages may participate.
8. The NATSAA (NATS Artists Awards) competition. This competition is different from regular student auditions; in which each applicant prepares a song recital containing approximately 16 selections in various language and style requirements; this competition proceeds from local or district levels to regional and national levels, culminating every two years at the national convention, where finalists win cash prizes from $1,500 (sixth place) to $5,000 and a recital at Carnegie Hall (first place), alongside other worthy tidbits such as subscriptions to Classical Singer and Opera America. The first-place winner not only performs at Carnegie Hall, but is invited to perform two years later at the next national NATS convention as well. Due to this factor, only truly advanced students should be encouraged to apply and audition.
9. Full (member’s only) access to the NATS website, www.nats.org, with its attendant network of voice teacher information, a journal of singing index of articles back to 1944 (articles themselves are not online), weekly Web chats, lists of upcoming events, downloadable forms, and more.
10. The NATS Intern program, a lesser-known but valuable opportunity in which regular members of NATS who have taught full time for no more than five years make application to be tutored by pedagogical greats from across the country, in an approximately two- to three-week program. Approximately 10-12 interns are chosen for this honor, and the program is hosted in a different venue across the country each year. Internship applications are available to NATS members at the website (as are downloadable applications and forms for other contingencies, including applying for NATS membership).
11. Various levels of membership for greater flexibility in meeting needs of the professional population:
Full membership (for those who meet the standards of teaching expectations, which include amount of years teaching a minimum amount of students, ethics and behavior, reputation as a teacher of merit, etc.) full information on criteria for full membership is available at website).
Associate membership (for those meeting the above criteria only in part, and those with less teaching experience).
Affiliate membership (for those professionals in related fields such as music publishing, accompanying or other instrumental careers linked to singing, etc.
Note: only full members may vote, hold office and sponsor students auditioning for NATS. All other benefits of membership remain the same regardless of type of membership.
1. Opportunities for leadership and service, at local chapter, district, regional or national levels; as well as opportunities for periodic performance and publishing (within national conventions, regional workshops, and within the Journal of Singing).
2. NATS-sponsored “Art Song Composition Competition,” in which qualified song composers throughout the world are eligible to compete. Winners are announced at each national convention. Check the website for more information. One of the obvious benefits to singers and voice teachers alike is the perpetuation of art song as a genre. Additionally, NATS helps build good relations between classical composers and singers by sponsoring this worthy endeavor.
How much are dues?
First, it is important to reiterate that there are (potentially) two separate sets of dues a NATS member generally pays. The most critical of these are the national dues, without which you cannot receive the Journal of Singing or Inter Nos, have full access to the website or the ability to enter students into various competitions. In short, admittance into the organization is not complete until national dues are paid.
Currently, for a member residing in the United States, national dues are—gulp—$72 for a single full membership annually (and these charges may change again, depending on the decisions made by the national board). Costs vary depending on type of membership (full membership is charged the most).
Before you go into full-blown sticker shock, it may be helpful to indicate what (beyond the Journal of Singing, for instance) the dues actually cover. To be sure, a portion of national dues covers the publication and shipping of the journal, as well as Inter Nos and other periodic mailings (such as invoices for dues, and occasional ballots to vote for for national and regional board members). NATS Executive Director William Vessels explained generally where the money goes.
“On the average, over the past seven years, personnel costs have run 22 percent and administrative expenses have been 14 percent of the annual budgets. This means that 64 percent of the budget is spent on direct benefits to members. At $72, member dues is a bargain rate in comparison with other similar associations.”
Some funds go into the various regions to help support local activities. Ofttimes, in my past two years as chapter president, I have found our chapter in need of extra funds so we could invite a really great master class clinician to our humble chapter meeting, or so we could give more cash to our students doing yearly student auditions at the chapter level. I was able to secure some of these critical funds by making a plea to the regional office. So—in effect—general membership dues were helping my chapter members be better at what we do.
The initial sting of $72 may not go away entirely, but it can be soothed a little by better knowledge of where the money goes.
Second, chapter dues are assessed annually. The amount charged depends on various factors, namely how large the chapter is, how much the cost of proposed yearly activities and mailings is likely to be, and how much is to be allocated as seed money for student auditions.
Take it from me as a former chapter president, not all members pay local dues. While it is their option to only be a card-carrying national member and elect not to be involved at the local level, I often feel that local dues would stay at a manageable rate if more members were willing to participate fully at the local level, thus driving down local dues rates.
My chapter currently charges $25 annually for local dues. Some chapters in my Cal/Western region are up to $35 or $40 (presumably these are those in larger metropolitan areas like Los Angeles or San Francisco, where perhaps local members chafe a bit less at the costs than those of us in my area).
When you add up national and local dues, you can see immediately that membership in NATS is not for the financially faint of heart, particularly if you are also receiving Classical Singer, Opera America, Opera News, et al. It takes a lot of thought and careful budgeting. Only those armed with enough information may be able to determine whether the benefits outweigh the costs.
This article is only the seedbed for gaining the proper information. To really decide, I recommend you check out the resources. Attend a local chapter meeting of NATS (the website should be helpful in pointing out to you how to find it). Peruse a copy of the Journal of Singing in a nearby music library. Talk to others who are members and find out how they feel about their membership in NATS.
So how do I join?
If you find yourself ready to take the step and join this important organization, you will need to remind yourself of the criteria for membership (mentioned above). You can read more about all of these things at www.nats.org.
Once you are primed with information and ready to go, you may access an application online, which you should print out, fill out, and send back with a $20 application fee, and ONE letter of recommendation from a current NATS member you trust to know your background. All of these items should be sent together, via snail mail (do not fax the application and letter of recommendation, unless you are willing to pay your application fee via credit card for an extra 4 percent cost) to:
NATS Executive Office
4745 Sutton Park Court, Ste. 201
Jacksonville, FL 32224
Phone: (904) 992-9101 or
contact NATS via e-mail at info@nats.org.
How do I find out more information generally?
Again, the best location is the website, www.nats.org. Additionally, if you have a friend who is a member and might let you look over his or her shoulder while at the computer, you can see what is available to “members only” on the site, including information on financial statements and audit summaries, decisions about rates for dues (readers may wish to consult the back issues of Inter Nos at the NATS website, which often contain more details on policies, finances and the like), and access to all other databases and latest information.
Concluding Thoughts
I found an experience I had while I was getting my doctorate to be particularly telling. I was speaking with a teacher about my plans to attend a certain NATS workshop in Lansing, Mich. within the month. The instructor was not a member of NATS, nor ever wished to be, so far as I could tell. The response I got, though not a specific caution against such an endeavor, nonetheless left me with the distinct impression that this teacher felt NATS was made up of a bunch of crusty old codgers who imagined that they alone held the answers to the mysteries of the vocal universe, a group whose actual teaching behaviors fell far below the proposed code of ethics in the organization, a group who—in short—were dangerous and not to be trusted with actual teaching (not if one wished to end up with a good career and solid technique). [Editor’s note: see Joan Boytim’s article in this issue for a firm rebuttal!]
I am still somewhat amused by this view, though I am not naïve enough to suppose that NATS is a perfect organization filled by those who perfectly adhere to its tenets and teach with miraculous precision, turning out fabulous students time and again. The fact is that there are bad teachers as well as excellent ones, and that most bad teachers don’t recognize themselves for what they are. None of this need put a stain on the actual organization, whose aims are precisely what they should be—to aspire to a higher standard of excellence in the art of teaching singing.
Judge for yourself, and be willing to help the standard grow. We need more great teachers out there! Decide what you can offer and see if NATS might help you along your teaching path. If we encourage each other and act our best as pedagogues, any organization out there worthy of our attention will only grow as a result.
