Karen Nevins, M.A. in Performance
"Music is like a feather on the breath of God" (Hildegard von Bingen)
Welcome to karennevins.com
Music feeds the soul and clears the mind. It provides sanction and promotes creativity. In today's struggle to preserve music and the arts, changing curriculum requirements steadily challenge us to stand firm in support of the arts for the benefit of generations to come.
As school music programs are being cut (and even college music degree programs are being cut!!) I look at my own life and the lives of my children to ask, "what would life have been without our music?" While I sang my first performance at age five at my grandparents 50th wedding anniversary, I studied instrumental music more seriously through middle school and high school. Instrumental music and associated achievements were beautifully gratifying, but eventually my appreciation for poetry and the harmonies of voice drew me toward choral music. Ultimately, choral music allowed me to develop beautiful texts through music, synthesizing a higher art form.
Unlike the handheld instrument, the voice is God given and most unique. It must be gently nurtured for a healthy mastery of resonance. The art of beautiful singing is truly scientific. The drive to sing well requires a deep musical passion and persistence toward excellence. A singer's goal is to develop maximum resonance. This skill requires tenacity toward developing the clarity of hard (healthy) onset and resonant perfection. When nurtured and cultivated, the voice is an instrument we can carry with us throughout a lifetime. Why else, aside love of the art of singing and from passion for putting beautiful texts to music, would a thirty-eight year old mother of three children have exhausted all musical options at church and in the community to find herself pursuing a 5-1/2 year degree program in music education? Fulfilling my dream for music making allowed me to inspire my students and sing with my children and teach my grandchildren. Any child who feels emotionally fed by his/her music should be encouraged to sing for a lifetime!!
Today and throughout history, our society utilizes music to celebrate every life event. In fact, music has existed in every documented historical culture as a vital means of cultural expression and communication. In medieval times, music was NOT taught with Reading and Language as one might think. In the earliest ancient educational archives, music was recorded as being taught with mathematical sciences such as astronomy, geometry, and arithmetic. After all, music is the science of sound and requires a strong knowledge of physical anatomy and the application of precise and cognitive mathematics processes. Because vocal music utilizes text, it also supports improved reading skills, expressive phrasing and is integral to an applicable understanding of syllabic stress through cognitive rhythmic subdivision. Additionally, the articulation of all cultural languages are utilized in choral/vocal music by which the universal International Phonetic Alphabet can be applied.
In a nutshell, choral music is one musical art form that permits hands-on integration of the science of voice (anatomy), acoustics and sound (physics), mathematics through rhythmic counting and cognitive subdivision, history and cultural trends through the ages, cognitive multi-tasking, a clear recognition and understanding of historical (Italian) musical terms, muscular/physical exertion through oral and pharyngeal soft-tissue coordination, coordinated breathing, rhythmic movement and oxygenation. Likewise, through historical and multi-cultural literature, all cultural languages the universal International Phonetic Alphabet facilitate classical and contemporary poetry are cultivated through the choral art. Rhythmic application of the text and syllabic stress facilitate improved speech articulation and musical aesthetics and dynamic sensitivity with a goal of beautiful tone painting.
Within the competitive music classroom flows the development of critical life skills, improved self-confidence and self-respect, and goal setting with a persistence toward excellence through the team effort. Over the decades, music that was once identified and taught as a science or math at the elementary or secondary levels, is considered an elective when, for many students, it is the music class and "choral family" that draws them to the school each day.
As state mandates override our childrens' choices for electives with changing curriculum, I can still recall how a single piece of music or a beautifully tuned chord peaked sensitivity in me, bringing tears to my eyes as a young musician in band and choir. In my precious Interlochen Arts Academy All-State experience as a high school sophomore, the haunting tones of a bassoon playing in a nearby woods impressed a lasting memory that will carry me to my grave. Likewise, my daughter's 1998 MSVMA State Honors Choir experience changed her life.
Today's young people deal with personal struggles we could not fathom in our youth and hopefully they have found sanction in my choral classroom. I've been told by many adults that their high school music experiences are the memories they hold most dear to their hearts when all else was forgotten. Why then, do must music educators struggle to assure that school music programs survive? May all who support the performing and fine arts, recognize the importance assuring enriched art education for today's youth and continue to speak out for your politicians to save the arts.
Below are my vocal/choral clinician and adjudication offerings:
- Private Solo and Group Voice Instruction--All Levels
- Veteran Choral Adjudication and Clinician Specialist;
- Church Choir Clinician
- English and Foreign Language Diction Specialist.
- International Phonetic Alphabet for diction, vowel modification and resonance
- Veteran Solo Clinician Specialist
- Expressive Musical Interpretation
- Kodaly Sight Singing