The voice faculty at the University of Toronto likewise draws heavily from the cultural riches of its host city. Toronto boasts a population of four million people and is known for its cultural diversity.
“This is part of what makes the U of T unique,” says Lorna MacDonald, head of the voice faculty. “Being in Toronto, we can draw on the talent of so many people in the city. Our complement of full-time to part-time faculty is very heavily part-time, which allows us the diversity of so many different backgrounds and choices.”
Music has been a part of the University of Toronto for more than 150 years. The university granted its first bachelor of music degree in 1846 and established the Faculty of Music in 1918, the first faculty for the study of music at a Canadian university. All graduate students receive scholarships, and scholarships and bursaries are available at various times at the undergraduate level. (Scholarships are awarded purely on merit, while bursaries exist specifically to assist students in need.)
The university itself boasts more than 60,000 students on three campuses, but as MacDonald notes, “U of T is a huge place. It’s a city in itself. But if you look at the numbers in the Faculty of Music, it’s a small community within a very large city. For the student who wants to have a strong second area, we have the resources of a major international research university to call on. Students can structure electives that a conservatory setting doesn’t allow, and yet … we are able to give the kind of mentoring and individual attention that a conservatory system might offer. We’re always striking a balance between both of those: the richness of the university and yet the individuality of a smaller faculty. I think that’s a real strength.”
With about 550 students—and just over 100 of those students in the voice and opera programs—the School of Music at U of T is relatively small. The many ensembles in the school provide students with practical opportunities both to perform and to hear a vast range of musical repertoire as part of their studies.
The University of Toronto mounts two fully staged productions with orchestra each year. The program also produces two semi-staged operas with piano accompaniment, one contemporary opera scenes program and one program devoted to new opera compositions by graduate composition majors, plus individual staged aria classes.
Within the scope of casting for upcoming productions, undergraduates are eligible to participate in opera productions and audition for major roles in their third and fourth years, though Opera Diploma and graduate students sing the majority of lead roles.
“On occasion, undergraduate students are cast in comprimario roles,” says MacDonald. “In their third and fourth years, however, our undergrads can audition for the Opera Component, which means that in addition to their regular work, they become part of the Opera Division.”
The Opera Division works much like a Young Artist Program in that participants have daily obligations for eight hours a day, such as coachings and rehearsals.
“In the first two years of undergraduate voice, a performance major will do the traditional choral program. And then they have the option in third year to audition for the Opera Chorus, and for them that becomes their major ensemble. The ones who don’t want to do Opera Chorus can continue in other ensembles, like the McMillan Singers or the choral program. There is so much flexibility that hopefully what we do is tailor the program so that it builds on their strengths and helps them with their weaknesses. For those students who get into the undergraduate Opera Component, they are both very busy and get a very rich experience.”
The Faculty of Music is located on the main campus at the University of Toronto, in midtown Toronto. This places it on a subway line, making it very accessible to the city’s libraries, museums, concert halls and theaters. This provides ready access to multitudes of performance and performance-attendance opportunities.
“Toronto is a very culturally diverse city, and one of the things that makes our program unique,” says MacDonald, “is that an incoming undergraduate singer can do the traditional vocal work, and get a very strong background in pedagogy, and voice science, and health. They can participate in the traditional, historical and contemporary ensembles, but they can also do things like African drumming, and Japanese drumming and dancing. This way they get a real opportunity to know what the musical world is, and it’s not just Schubert anymore. Plus, I think [the strong ethnomusicology that U of T offers] informs [the students’] Schubert and it informs their Bellini. It gives them an even better basis and foundation.”
The dean of the school, Gage Averill, joked in a recent speech that this is “thinking outside the Bachs.”
“This faculty has opened up in recent years to a much wider world of music … ” he explained. “Not only Western art music, but jazz, film music, pop, musical theatre, music technology—even rock—and an array of music from around the world now demands our scholarly attention and provides expressive outlets for our students.”
Along with its commitment to offering a broad spectrum of music traditions within the thorough scholarship of a traditional music program, the University of Toronto continues to develop new programs. The School of Music is in the process of beginning a new master’s program in voice pedagogy and performance, as well as recently developed graduate programs in speech language pathology. The school seeks to have as many collaborative programs as possible, often keeping in mind the research interests of faculty as well as the requirements for solid training for the students. A current study, for example, is looking at how humans process musical information and how that can be transferred into the teaching studio.
