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Dr. P and Sarah address this week's controversial Ian Bostridge performance where he stopped mid song cycle to ask the audience to put down their phones and turn off the flash functions. It was a varied and weaving conversation with two sort of opposite perspectives. In the end, the take home point was, be courteous, consider others, and let's get audience members in seats. Join us.

The #VocalFam is joined by the Sparks and Wiry Cries duo of Martha Guth and Erika Switzer to talk about their joint art song centered project. They share about the importance of diversifying your career as a performing artist and how they both landed in the realm of art song. Also they share about Song Slams. Dr. P and Sarah had the chance to attend the Song Slam in Chicago at NATS National. If one comes to a city near you, do NOT miss it! A truly invigorating creative experience. 

NATS President Diana Allan and President-Elect Alexis Davis-Hazell join us to preview the upcoming NATS National Conference in Knoxville from June 28-July 2. Please consider joining us for all the tremendous activities, sessions, and  information this upcoming summer!

Coming off of Dr. P's recent faculty search and interview process Sarah was curious to hear more about what the job search process is like in 2024. Dr. P shares some thoughts on the overall academic music job market (the bleak part), followed by some recommendations for those applying for positions, and finally some hopefulness about why you still might consider pursuing graduate degrees in voice.

One of our VocalFri philosophies has always been not getting caught up on what terminology we use, as long as we can define and describe how we are using those words. We discussed this on an older episode, but we've seen a lot of recent posts regarding terminology and it seemed like a good time to revisit this topic. An interesting, winding conversation.
 

Sarah and Dr. P dove into various perspectives of repertoire selection in teaching classical, musical theater, and contemporary styles. Dr. P had revised his graduate repertoire for teaching course last fall and we finally had a chance to break it down. We did some life updates first. Rep discussions begins around the 15:00 minute mark.