Singing their way to an A

The lights dim and the soft chatter of the audience slowly dies down. A girl in an elegant dress takes the stage while young men and women of similar attire wait their turn in the audience below. The pianist begins to play and when the girl opens her mouth, notes bellow out.

What does a situation like this have to do with CFCC?

Well, CFCC offers more than just an A.A. degree. It offers vocal and performance training for all aspiring music students. In order to receive this training, students must sign up for the Applied Voice class.

The class not only allows students to harness techniques to improve their vocal ability, but also presents a vocal recital every semester that allows students to showcase their training and gives them real performance experience.

“This class has given me a lot of confidence,” said Kayela Covey, 20, music major. “Before I got my training at CFCC I was shy about getting up in front of people to sing, I now have confidence in myself knowing that I have improved on my voice and improved on knowing when I have made a mistake.”

The showcase is also preparation for the students voice jury performance. It is during this performance that their teachers will grade them on their voice and performance and factor it as their final grade.

On Thursday, April 8, 2010, the voice class had their spring semester voice recital. The showcase had students walk onto the stage, stand in front of the piano and sing two songs.

One song was classical in origin, while the other was from more of a musical-theater genre. When the student was done, they would exit the stage and the next performer would enter to the spot where the previous student had been.

The vocal ranges varied from bass to tenor for the young men and alto to first soprano for the young women.

The show was divided up into two groups: graduating students and non-graduating students. One of the two teachers, Gregory Ruffer, introduced the graduating students by announcing that they had been accepted to some of the top musical conservatories in America.

Some of the schools students had been accepted to were: The Boston Conservatory, The University of Maryland and Eastman School of Music.

One student in particular, Wes Hunter, 20, vocal performance major at CFCC, was accepted to The Boston Conservatory and said how the training at CFCC prepared him for entrance into this music conservatory.

“The training at CFCC has been amazing,” Hunter said. “It has opened up my voice to my potential for auditions, and given the students a lot of performance experience with the variation, voice recital and patriot singers shows.”

Hunter said he appreciated the closeness he had with teachers and other students.

“It’s also great because it’s small so students get to work one-on-one with the teacher and really get to know each other and feed off each other for learning technique,” Hunter said.

For any students wanting to take this class, it is recommended that they sign up early because spots fill up fast.

The class is a one-on-one lesson with one of the two teachers who instruct the training (Gregory Ruffer or Lesley Mann) and provides a focus on classical, foreign language and musical-theater technique.

Inge Uys, 19, theater major at CFCC said, “The Applied Voice class allowed me to develop my chest voice which is really important to me because you have to have a strong chest voice for musical theater which is the career I want to pursue.”