Voice
More portable than a laptop, what a great instrument singers have. And the UIUC voice faculty uses that portability: Sylvia Stone and Jerold Siena, for example, teach in Austria and Italy in the summers, and Siena recently sang at the Metropolitan Opera. Cynthia Haymon-Coleman has sung in venues from England and Europe to Israel and the Far East. Ollie Watts Davis, who began conducting the Black Chorus as a doctoral student at UIUC, now is a recitalist and oratorio singer comfortable as well with jazz or rhythm and blues. Barrington Coleman also revels in several musical styles and venues, from opera at Glyndebourne or oratorio in Chicago to a jazz trio and conducting the Men’s Glee Club in Urbana. The voice faculty has the flexibility to serve the needs of music educators, choral directors, and future opera singers. The proof is out there: William Stone, Erie Mills, Eric Halfvarson, Jerry Hadley, and Nathan Gunn are among our graduates who have gone on to exciting work at the Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera, Houston Opera, and elsewhere.

The School of Music is proud to announce the appointment of Yvonne Gonzales Redman of the Metropolitan Opera as Associate Professor of Voice, effective August 16, 2008. Welcome Ms. Redman!