​  Panel: Videos on Videos: Teaching Voice in the TikTok Era

 Many voice teachers of the 21st century have undoubtedly had students come into lessons referencing or asking questions about voice   lesson/technique videos they have seen on TikTok or Instagram. It is the job of the voice teacher to decipher the information being shared,   separating useful information from information that may be less useful, and then being able to guide the student to achieve the desired result   in a way that is rooted in Evidence-Based Voice Pedagogy (EBVP) and Practice. This panel will look at several videos that have been found on   TikTok or Instagram to decipher and discuss what information is useful, and also to brainstorm ways to achieve the desired results through   their experience and expertise, a pillar of Evidence-Based Voice Pedagogy (EBVP).​​

Cate Frazier-Neely, MM​​

Cate Frazier-Neely is the co-author of the International Impact Award-winning, Amazon best-selling book, “Singing Through Change: Women’s Voices in Midlife Menopause and Beyond.” She is also a featured pioneer pedagogue in Dr. Elizabeth Benson’s book, “Training Contemporary Commercial Singers.” (Compton Press.)

Cate has taught singing for 43 years. Currently she is a private SVS/Voice Teacher, affiliated with SLPs at Johns Hopkins Otolaryngology in Bethesda, Maryland and as a team with SLPs and voice teachers in the US, Canada, and Australia. She and her husband recently relocated from Washington DC to Olympia, Washington.

Cate grew up in a family of professional musicians with a strong vocal, instrumental, classical, folk, and jazz background.  She began working with children’s choirs at age 13, accompanying choirs at 14, and taught piano & voice to professor’s children in college and for theater majors while in graduate school. In 1980 she began to include the rhythmic emphases and emotional vocal expressions of popular music with the principles of classical vocal pedagogy. This was followed in the mid-1980’s by incorporating yoga, mindfulness, heart-healing and somatic education into her work with performers. Before the Internet, she managed to find like-minded colleagues and teachers in many different disciplines and was able to solidify her awareness that singing is a powerful force for health and wellness, even as she moved through her own former severe health history.

Guided by her, singers have earned contracts with Broadway musicals, Disney Tokyo, Virginia Opera and Washington Opera, the former Cirque de Soleil, and are jazz artists appearing in venues throughout the US and Russia. Two students are college professors in CCM and two students have won Grammy Awards (for Sound Engineering and Best Rancho/Mariachi Album.)  Students have been finalists or winners of the Washington (DC) Area Music Awards for best classical ensemble, folk duo, Brazilian jazz soloist, Bluegrass Band, Bluegrass soloist & Gospel/Inspirational album.

Cate worked with child actors in film and stage and those touring with such popular acts as Bella Thorne and Hillary Duff.  For 35 years she also worked with teenagers, voice over artists, adult amateurs, and the hearing impaired. Early in her work she served as an adjunct faculty member at American University, Northern VA Community College and was the acting voice department Chair at American University for Dr. Elizabeth Vrenios’ sabbatical. For 20 years she enjoyed her work as a member of the Senior Voice/Choral/and Chamber Music faculty at Levine Music.  While there, she founded and sustained a vital adult treble community chorus program which formed many of her methods and opinions about working with older female singers.

Cate sang professionally for many years in contemporary chamber music, opera, cabaret, oratorio and as soloist with orchestras before developing bi-lateral vocal fold paresis. *She worked with composers, venues and grant foundations to premier over 300 American works in eight languages.  Collaborations took place with such luminary composers as the late John Cage; Clare Shore (student of Vincent Persichetti;) Lori Laitman (hailed by Gramophone Magazine;) and the late Ulf Grahn (Nevona Records and Royal Stockholm Philharmonic.) She premiered the role of ‘Elizabeth’ in Chris Patton’s musical, “A Family Reunion,” at DC’s Signature Theater which was accompanied solely by laser harp.

She earned excellent reviews in print media for opera roles from Mozart’s Fiordiligi to Robert Kapilow’s the Grouch in “Green Eggs and Ham,” solo appearances with orchestras, and oratorio.  She was the first woman cast as Aslan the Lion in Thomas Tierney’s Off-Broadway musical, Narnia, where she took off her lion’s mane and played second keyboard in the orchestra pit during much of Act II.  She has been an Artist-in-Residence for the Renwick Gallery of Art, the National Museum of Women in the Arts, The Phillips’ Collection, and the Smithsonian Associates’ Program.

The late Randolf Mauldin, maestro and coach at Washington Opera and of Broadway musicals, wrote that “CFN is a highly intelligent musician with an excellent understanding of style, a composer’s singer and a singer’s singer.’  Her experiences include being a published composer and arranger of treble choral music, a collaborative pianist in classical and musical theater and a flautist, oboist and bassoonist in community events and houses of worship. Over the years she founded several organizations and acted as Artistic Director to help underserved singers, composers and educators.  (Several of these organizations can still be found on The Wayback Machine, such as The Washington Vocal Consortium and Singer’s Centre for Girls,)

Cate holds the M.M. in Vocal Performance and Pedagogy; the B.M. n Vocal Performance with a minor in piano and organ; a Certificate in Leadership Through Emotional Intelligence from Case Western Reserve’s Departments of Psychology and Business and multiple certifications in CCM pedagogy principles. She has held office for the Maryland/DC Chapter of NATS and presented for local, regional, and national NATS conferences as well as the International Congress of Voice Teachers.  Cate has been a guest on numerous podcasts, YouTube channels and other media as well as written articles for singing magazines, journals and her website’s blog.

Explored interests that inform her work include the visual arts, expressive arts’ therapy, tribal belly dance, somatic perception, energy healing, world religions and the sciences.  Her son Adam is an internationally known jazz-fusion and pop bassist, composer and YouTube Influencer in the fields of new music, performance, jazz education and general music history.  Her daughter, Angela, is a social worker for a major Seattle hospital, social justice organizer, deep music lover and an all-around sassy, classy human being.  www.catefnstudios.com

Financial Disclosure: Ms. Frazier-Neely has no financial relationships to disclose. 

Non-Financial Disclosure: Ms. Frazier-Neely has no non-financial relationships to disclose.