Deborah Popham

Congratulations to Dr. Deborah Popham, this year’s recipient of the Voice Pedagogy Award from the NATS Foundation. The $500 prize is awarded annually to a candidate who is a member of NATS, for the purpose of study at a seminar or workshop on voice pedagogy and/or voice science. Dr. Popham will be attending the Summer Vocology Institute through the University of Utah.

The award will help offset the cost of completing the summer institute to earn her Vocology certificate through the National Center for Voice and Speech and the University of Utah. Last summer Dr. Popham successfully completed block one, and will be completing blocks two and three this summer to earn the certificate. She is extremely passionate about healthy vocal habits and injury prevention in both singing and speaking and this program will further develop her research and teaching.

Dr. Popham joined the faculty at Sam Houston State University in 2016 as an Assistant Professor of Music and Coordinator of Vocal Studies. She has performed internationally as a soloist throughout Canada, Italy and Switzerland, including the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto, Italy, and she is a founding member of the ensemble, Trio Roma. An active recitalist as well, she has been guest recitalist and master clinician throughout the United States. In 2014, she was selected as one of twelve teachers to participate in the prestigious NATS Intern Program, as well as the recipient of the NATS Emerging Leader Award for the Southeast Region.

Dr. Popham’s students have won at District and Regional NATS auditions in both classical and musical theatre categories, and have been accepted into numerous universities, summer programs and in summer stock programs around the country. Her students have been finalists in the NATS National Student Auditions and the Classical Singer Competition. She is committed to her students’ overall vocal health, particularly as future educators and frequent voice users. Her Vocology coursework will have direct implications for her studio, allowing her to be a more effective and efficient teacher and researcher.

Click HERE for more information about the NATS Foundation Voice Pedagogy Award. Application deadline is February 15 of the year in which the seminar will take place.