Clifton Ware Group-Voice Pedagogy Award
Awards to support teachers working with students in a group setting
The Group-Voice Pedagogy Award has been established by Clifton Ware, professor emeritus (voice, voice pedagogy), University of Minnesota Twin Cities and a long-time NATS member. It is designed to highlight the concept of “Class Voice” and its potential impact for singers through offerings in community, independent, and academic settings.
ELIGIBILITY
Applicants for this award must be currently active NATS members who want to advance the idea of learning to sing together in group instructional settings such as group-voice classes, studio classes, choral and musical-theater ensembles; small group lessons of 2-3 similar voice types for students taking private lessons; student and teacher practicums, workshops; or other innovative group teaching. The annual award amount is up to $1,000.
DEADLINE
May 8, 2023
View example of winning application
PAST AWARD RECIPIENTS
- 2022 - Amelia Rollings Bigler
About Clifton Ware and the Award
“I believe teaching voice classes provides special benefits that help students collaboratively and systematically learn all essential vocal-music skills, including voice production, song repertoire and styles, language diction, performance, and mind-body health,” Ware explains. “In addition, group voice provides dynamic social interactions that aid in developing social skills, like self-expression, empathetic listening, and therapeutic wellbeing. Group voice may include a variety of venues — from choral ensembles and voice-classes for undergraduate voice majors and elective-level students — to voice-studio classes, pedagogy practicum courses that combine graduate students working with undergraduates, and community-education voice classes for adults.”
With this award, NATS celebrates the contributions of Dr. Ware to encourage many to explore, discover, and develop the potential of their singing voices through “class-voice instruction.” His publications have helped many as they developed curriculum for class voice. (Adventures in Singing: A Process for Exploring, Discovering, and Developing Vocal Potential and The Basics of Vocal Pedagogy)
“I have great admiration and respect for the NATS Intern Program, which began in 1991, when I helped organize and host the first program at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities in Minneapolis,” Ware recounts. “It climaxed with my participation in the more highly-developed 2004 Intern Program held at Colorado State University, when serving as one of four master teachers.”
Ware received his doctorate from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, in 1970. His accomplishments as a singer-teacher include extensive performance as tenor soloist in recital, opera, and oratorio, and authorship of four books — Adventures in Singing (4/e 2008), Basics of Vocal Pedagogy (1998), The Singer’s Life: Goals and Roles (2005), and The Aging Challenge: Making the Most of Life After 50 (2009). He also has given numerous national and international presentations, including talks, workshops, masterclasses, and service as a master teacher with the 2004 NATS Intern Program.
Ware served as Minnesota NATS president in the 1970s, and later as member of the NATS Foundation Board. Since his retirement in 2007, he has served residences at Austin Peay University in Clarksville, Tennessee and the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, and he has presented occasional master classes at colleges and universities. Ware and his wife Bettye are co-founders and organizers of Citizens for Sustainability and The Sustainability Education Forum, which included producing Sustainability News + Views, an e-newsletter from 2013 to 2019. The couple also created the texts and music for 36 songs, including 13 Eco Songs (2009).
