The Collegian Online
Have you ever wanted to sing in front of an audience? Have you ever wondered if your voice had the quality of the next great Alto, Soprano or even an American Idol?
Music 110, voice for non majors, allows students who are not interested in pursuing music as a major can participate in voice classes.
“Music 110 is open to anybody and anyone interested in singing,” said professor Dr. Anthony Radford. “It’s a great gateway to singing. We cultivate the class to be an atmosphere of support. It also gets you interested in singing as an art form. It gets students exposed to different concerts and interested in the voice of singing.”
According to Radford, the class has grown since fall 2008 and the enrollment has increased to full capacity since.
“It’s becoming more popular and it’s a fun class,” Radford said. “The class helps build confidence. This is a great course to get rid of those inhibitions.”
Radford said that the voice program is an intensive training program.
“It’s like sports. You come in one on one with the professors to build stamina, range and voice. You start out with 30 minutes and as you progress through the major, you go up to an hour,” Radford said.
To become a voice major at Fresno State, students have to audition in front of the voice faculty with two songs. One song can be the student’s choice and the other must be a classical piece.
To graduate with a degree from the program, voice majors have to perform a 60-minute solo and the recital songs must be from five different languages and four different time periods.
“It’s not impossible to pick it up coming to the university, but it would help if you have been singing,” Radford said. “It’s a challenging major, it takes rigor and dedication to be in voice. There are 30 voice majors in a combination of performance and education. Some want to be singers and some would like to be teachers.”
Graduate student Lisa Howell, 29, who has studied singing for 11 years says she and is excited about completing her major.
“I enjoy it a lot. I’m taking a lot of extra courses to make it exactly the major I want,” Howell said. “I think it’s a really good program.”
Radford, the newest professor in the voice program has also introduced a program called Fresno State Opera.
“We had performances Nov. 21 and Nov. 22 in the Walberg recital hall,” Radford said. “There will be more in April where the students will perform the whole opera. It will be in Italian with supertitles, the translation would be projected up top.”
The Opera is titled “L’elisir D’Amore” and will open April 16 and will run through April 18.