Violet Joy Hansen, BA, BFA, MFA​​

Violet Joy Hansen is a voice teacher and singing voice researcher, slotted to present on spectral moments at the Voice Foundation Symposium 2024. She is completing her MFA in Musical Theater Vocal Pedagogy from Boston Conservatory at Berklee under Kevin Wilson.

​  Using Spectral Moment Analysis to Quantify the Acoustic Differences Between   Opera and Musical Theatre Styles in Treble Voices

  Established spectral analysis methods, including LTAS and formant tuning, have been used to describe acoustic differences in various genres   of singing. However, further research is required to compare acoustic differences between genres systematically. Spectral moments have been   used to describe the EGG decontacting pattern, recording technology, measures of patients with dysphonia, speech sounds, and synthesized   singing with individually altered fo, vibrato rate, vibrato extent, vowel (fR1, fR2, and fR3), spectral tilt, and duration. This study will expand on   previous findings by exploring spectral moments as a means to characterize genre differences in the singing voice. Method: Four cis-gender   female soprano singers with professional performance experience in both musical theatre and opera will sing English-language excerpts from   standard repertoire. Calibrated voice recordings will be taken with an Earthworks M23 flat response, omnidirectional cardioid microphone in   a controlled acoustic environment. Each excerpt contains a sustained pitch/vowel of E4 on [I], Bb4 on [ɔ], or E5 on [ε]. LTAS from genre-   paired pitch/vowels will be analyzed using spectral moments in PRAAT. Spectral mean (M1), spectral standard deviation (M2), spectral   skewness (M3), and spectral kurtosis (M4) will be calculated for each audio sample. Linear models with modified Bonferroni corrections will   be applied. Results/Conclusion: Data collection and analysis are ongoing.​​

Financial Disclosure: Ms. Hansen has no financial relationships to disclose. 

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