| Dear David, My advice to you regarding competitions is to use the KISS technique. That's an acronym for "keep it simple stupid." As a judge I look for good singing. This means good vocal coordination and all that entails, musicality, reasonable musicianship, and communication skills all appropriate to the singer's instrument, age, length of study and temperament. I am not impressed by a lot of technically and dramatically demanding literature which pushes the singer's instrument out of shape. I want to hear and see a singer who is happy to sing, comfortable with what she's doing, doing it with clear point of view, good intonation and great enthusiasm. For my money, and that of my NATS and university colleagues, if that means the arias are from the "Twenty-four Italian Songs and Arias" I say 'hooray." If the French song is a bergerette, that's wonderful. If the English piece is an arrangement of a folk song and it encourages good things from your singer - Go for it. How your singers sing is much more important than what they sing. I don't mean to seem preachy, it's just that in our NATS district and in the MTNA we are seeing teachers pushing big arias and heavy art songs and too many languages on very naive singers. This makes it next to impossible for us to be fair to the singer and adjudicate the singing because we're all aghast at the repertoire choices and the damage being done to some of the young voices as they struggle through pieces they shouldn't sing until their doctoral studies. Now to your question, I don't know of any listing of repertoire which NATS student competitors have sung. Contact your district NATS officers (or check the website) for the requirements for compeitions. They're set out by age, years of study, languages, numbers of songs and time allowed. Good luck to you in your first year of teaching. What an exciting and challenging time you have ahead of you. Cindy Donnell
I am starting my first year as a college voice teacher this fall, and I was wondering if anyone knows of any online programs of NATS competitions. I would like to peruse what other directors are expecting of their students, and what arias, etc. are appropriate for differing age groups for this competition. Thanks for any help you can give me.
David Grogan
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