Tonia Sina presents “Emotional Safety on Stage, In Rehearsal, and In the Studio.”

NATS Conference attendees wanting to get their experience off to a great start can take advantage of one of the event’s Pre-Conference Workshops. Scheduled for Friday, June 26 from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., these highly interactive sessions focus on the most current topics in our profession. The fee is $55 per ticket, in addition to the conference registration. Registrants for the 2020 NATS National Conference can add tickets for the one of the Pre-Conference Workshops during the registration process.

The Pre-Conference Workshops include five concurrent sessions, offering choices for the diverse membership of NATS. Topics include acoustic and perceptual voice pedagogy; voice and hearing health; teaching the singer songwriter; emotional safety on stage, in rehearsal, and in the studio; and aligning your business practices with your teaching.

Register and add a Pre-Conference workshop to your itinerary! Take advantage of our early registration rates (valid through April 1, 2020).

The 2020 Pre-Conference Workshops include:

Acoustic and Perceptual Voice Pedagogy: From Impulse and Affect to Pedagogy and Performance
Presenters: Ken Bozeman, Chadley Ballantyne, and Ian Howell

Our understanding of how the human vocal instrument creates sounds continues to improve. As this knowledge advances, the implications for vocal technique and practical application become more clear. Through lecture and demonstration this workshop will offer insight into how the sound of the singing voice is created and perceived, the fundamentals of acoustic registration, and how speech motor control and speech acquisition can be leveraged to create effective teaching strategies. Join our presenters as they unpack the complexities of how we produce and perceive sound, how the sound interacts within the vocal tract, and how our speech motor control system can be developed to assist us in overcoming challenges in all vocal styles.

Voice and Hearing Health for Singers and Voice Teachers
Presenters: Lucinda Halstead MD, Deanna McBroom, Chandler Thompson and Randall Dick

Join experts from our collaboration with Athletes in the Arts and the Performing Arts Medical Association to address a variety of topics on voice and hearing health and solidify your approach to addressing these issues in your studio and in your own life.  Laryngeal Massage/Head-Neck Relaxation, Preserving hearing and preventing hearing loss, common vocal injuries across the age spectrum, healthy management of vocal and physical load, and updates on commonly used medications, alternative medications, and therapeutic techniques.  This and more will be covered providing you access to some of the most up to date information available.

Teaching the Singer Songwriter
Presenters: Marcelle Gauvin and Matthew Edwards

Training singers who write their own music requires a different mindset in the studio. Story reigns supreme and vocal technique is viewed as a way to unlock the voice so that the story can be told more effectively. Preconceived tonal goals and standard vocal exercises are not enough to take a student to the next level in this context. Instead, the teacher must address the needs of the person they are working with, help them pursue their tonal goals, and free their vocal mechanism so that they can focus on connecting with their audience. This pre-conference workshop will introduce participants to new ways to think outside the box when a singer-songwriter comes into the room and will include brief sample sessions with several singer songwriters applying the methods and processes outlined in the workshop. 

Emotional Safety on Stage, In Rehearsal, and In the Studio
Presenter: Tonia Sina 

With issues of consent, sexual harassment, and Title IX at the forefront within our profession and associated industries join Tonia Sina Ellis founder of Intimacy Directors International (IDI) as she introduces us to the philosophy of The Pillars which have codified practice of choreographing moments of staged intimacy in order to create safe, repeatable, and effective storytelling. In addition, NATS has worked specifically with IDI to, for the first time, create and introduce protocols for voice teachers/coaches/conductors to use in the studio to create safe space for the one on one lesson environment whether in the institutional, independent studio, community, or multi-teacher studio environments. Be part of the first wave of voice professionals introduced to and trained in these protocols.  

When Pedagogy Meets Profession
Presenter: Michelle Markwart Deveaux

Catapult your voice business to the next level by aligning your business practices & structure with your already incomparable teaching.  Business Strategist & Coach and Independent Studio Owner Michelle Markwart Deveaux will take you through an intensive interactive training designed to cultivate enthusiastic reflection on how essential areas of your voice teaching have a direct connection to the business practices that you employ. You will learn how to leverage those connections for increased joy and revenue.  We'll begin to unearth your pedagogy in a new way, find the gold, and insure this gold can be woven into your systems, policies, student/client communication, and marketing.

This workshop is for those who make a living full or part time in a voice related business, or have an entrepreneurial stake in the voice world. Whether you are a solo or multi-teacher studio owner, teaching artist, or a college/university professor, there is no reason you cannot create clarity and abundance in every part of your enterprise.