ABSTRACT

Drawing on 30 years of teaching experience, author Timothy Cheek demonstrates how a university lyric diction class—traditionally specialized and Eurocentric—can become transformative, through engaging students with other languages and cultures, and promoting diversity, equity, inclusivity, and antiracism.

Raising new possibilities for traditional lyric diction pedagogy, this book explores how to provide students with experiences that speed their growth, help them to see the big picture, spark their curiosity, clarify and expand their digital resources and skills, and set them on a path of international collaboration. Arguing against compartmentalization in voice curricula, and exploring opportunities for creativity, the author provides a guide to new approaches that will aid schools’ decisions about diction curricula in the challenging but promising era of 21st-century pedagogy. 

Voice faculty, diction instructors, curriculum committees, graduate students in related fields, and music school administrators should all find this book insightful and thought-provoking as it goes to the heart of issues critical to the long-term development of today’s voice students.

chapter |3 pages

Introduction

chapter 1|11 pages

Lyric Diction Classes for the 21st Century

chapter 2|11 pages

The Role of Lyric Diction Classes

Laying a Foundation of Best Practice

chapter 3|14 pages

Collaboration, Curiosity, and Creativity

Through Diversity, Equity, and Inclusivity

chapter 4|18 pages

From Imitation to Communication

Best (and Worst) Use of Digital and Other Tools

chapter 5|22 pages

From Compartmentalization to Transformation

Meeting New Challenges for Today's Singers

chapter 6|32 pages

Virtual Exchange

A Window to the 21st Century