Dear Mary Beth and Vocalisters
There is no doubt that you can confront the choral director who disagrees
with the quality of tone your students present in his choir. You can take
Michael's suggestion to "face him off" and consider his opinions an attack
on your integrity as a voice teacher but I doubt that this will help your
cause nor that of your students very much.
Although you may disagree with his tonal concepts as he applies them to
choral singing and you may disapprove of what you perceive to be his method
of training voices, the fact still remains that it is his choir and your
students do not have to sing in it. But if they do wish to take part in
the choir, as is most often the case, then you really are left in the
position of trying to teach them well AND help them have a positive
experience in their choral activities.
Choral vocal tone and solo vocal tone are different by definition. A chorus
of soloists is usually only seen and heard on an opera stage.
It is not necessary for a singer to sing technically incorrect to provide a
choral tone unless the required tone is outside the ability of the singer.
I am suggesting that there is less need for the student taking voice
lessons to produce one particular kind of tone than there is a need to
develop a good technical basis for singing. Most well trained singers can
produce a very wide variety of tone depending on the music being sung.
It is one thing for the choral director to indicate that he prefers one tone
over another. It is quite something else if the choral director is saying
that he does not think you are a good teacher.
In the former case I would attempt to find out from your students what they
perceive the choral director wants and discuss with them how to produce
this tone if it is possible to do so and remain true to your teaching
ideals. It would also be good to share with the choral director your
understanding of what he appears to want as you have gotten it from your
students. Many times there is a lot of misunderstanding by the students
and you are getting the information through a variety of filters.
In the latter case, I would immediately request a meeting with the choral
director so that you can explain how his comments are perceived by his
students and the fact that these comments can be interpreted as a
defamation of your character.
Regards
--
Lloyd W. Hanson, DMA
Professor of Voice, Vocal Pedagogy
School of Performing Arts
Northern Arizona University
Flagstaff, AZ 86011
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