I took my D to a local University this weekend to practice with an accompanist for an upcoming event. He was like no accompanist we’ve ever come in contact with. I would say he is more of an accompanist/coach. He was absolutely amazing. He made suggestions about dynamics, phrasing, diction and presentation. Of course, he prefaced it all with saying if he was offering anything in opposition to her voice teacher, to disregard. He was dead on with everything, though.
Come to find out, he’s also a diction coach. Is that something any of your young singers (high school) work/worked with outside of their regular voice teacher?
That wonderful person is a vocal coach, and they augment the work of a voice prof with an eye toward polishing and performance. Sometimes they have a degree in collaborative piano.
In college my daughter has as many coaching sessions as she can fit in while preparing for a performance.
While they may correct diction, at some schools separate diction classes are required along with each language of the repertoire studied.
“Coaching” starts in college. In general high schoolers are working with a “teacher” only. My D had coaches and teachers throughout college. Presently she only uses a coach. He works for a opera company as a coach/accompanist (most are both) and is now the music director for an opera she is in.
In college, if cast in a production, my D would also have a diction coach. So you see your teacher weekly, your coach weekly and your diction coach weekly (when in a production). She would also work with her accompanist…who was also a grad student working to be a coach (now with an opera company as an accompanist/coach - he was excellent). Some people worry about getting “lost” in college. Frankly I don’t know how you get lost bc…you have so many people working with you! Note coaching may not start right away. It could be more in Sophomore year or as you get in productions. My D had so so accompanist (still very good for a Freshman) until she started working with her friend who was amazing in Sophomore year.
My D told me teachers teach you how to sing…the mechanics etc. Once you get older and master these mechanics, it’s really the coach that helps you with rep and singing. My D still meets with her coach fairly regularly. He also gives her advice on her career…what to accept, what not to accept and has good connections that help her.
Agree with above posts. In High School my D Soprano only did diction as needed in lessons. Learned everything for audition phonetically. Now in college she is taking a specific Italian Diction class offered by conservatory that all freshmen are in. Next year will be German, Junior year will be French
@buoyant he is a diction coach and has a doctorate in accompanying…if i recall correctly. He is a collaborative pianist at our local universiry. His resume ( I looked up later) is pretty impressive. He had so.much to offer in regards to being sensitive to the music and interpretation.
I just never encountered that outside of the singing lesson. Seems like a valuable resource!
My kid works once-in-awhile with a vocal coach. He has one or two voice lessons a week (one at his high school and one at precollege), and if he is getting ready for a performance of is in a show, he will sometimes drop one of the voice lessons and replace it with coaching. The vocal coach he uses is also someone we use as an accompanist for auditions and competitions. It is super helpful.
@Pl1277 - haha no disagreement! ? I was only adding that your singer may have academic classes in diction too. Mine has had 4 semesters in addition 7 semesters of various languages. It’s so very fundamental to opera.
@buoyant oh, I didn’t take it that way at all. Weve been having a heck of a time finding an accompanist lately, so meeting someone like him was a blessing. We’ve certainly learned that not everyone who is a great piano player is a good accompanist!