Undergraduate Voice
Undergraduate Voice
As a student in the undergraduate voice program at University of North Carolina School of the Arts, you will be part of a musical family that will both challenge and nurture you, support you and dare you to be your best.
Bachelor of Music
The conservatory atmosphere means your voice studies will be at the heart of everything you do at UNCSA. The dedicated faculty – who bring with them the experience and knowledge of being professional musicians – spend ample time with you during weekly private lessons and studio performance classes that help you grow as an artist and as a person. Their personalized attention will help foster your passion for music and future success in a life as a professional singer. Your vocal health is of utmost importance. Voice students receive free annual laryngeal scopings from the Wake Forest School of Medicine, as well as attend seminars and training sessions on topics like breathing, stretching and relaxation.
Performance opportunities are many and include participation in the Cantata Singers, roles in major opera productions by the A.J. Fletcher Opera Institute, opera scenes or full one-act operas and solo recitals. There are also plenty of potential paid opportunities, including positions with the Piedmont Opera, choral and section leaders in church services or concerts, soloist positions at weddings and other social gatherings, and local opera chorus jobs. The voice program also enjoys a relationship with the Magnolia Baroque Festival.
First–Second Years
In your first two years of undergraduate voice degree study, you will begin private
lessons, master classes and participation in the Cantata Singers while studying the
foundations of music theory, aural and keyboard skills and musical styles. You will
pursue liberal arts courses along with dance movement, acting and stage make-up for singers and elementary Italian
and German. In your freshman through junior years, you are also required to attend
a weekly Performance Hour, where you will perform for your peers throughout the School
of Music. Because of the uniquely small size of the Fletcher Opera graduate program,
undergraduates have regular opportunities to fill roles on the main stage as well.
Third–Fourth Years
Your studies will continue in your third and fourth years with additional liberal
arts courses, vocal diction and literature, elementary French and career development
classes. In your senior year, you will fulfill your capstone graduation requirement,
a full recital at both a juried recital hearing and a public performance.
Careers
Graduates of the voice program at UNCSA have gone on to distinguished careers in music and other fields. Alumni have sung with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Metropolitan Opera, Seattle Opera, Chautauqua Opera Festival, and Central City Opera, among others. Other graduates have positions as an executive director of a theatre company in Gallup, New Mexico, and as instructors at Davidson College, Salem College, and The Music Academy of North Carolina. Still others have harnessed the commitment and hard work they cultivated at UNCSA to fund their own opera productions and work as freelance performers.
