Fredonia’s School of Music voice students, who also include majors in Musical Theatre, recently competed at the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) competition recently at Nazareth College in Rochester.
This year’s competition included 209 participants and all of the 19 categories had participants from schools including Fredonia, Eastman School of Music and SUNY Potsdam. The categories below the advanced level are divided by gender and year of study. The day included two rounds - in the first round of adjudicating, the students receive comments from three to four teachers in the chapter, and then qualify to move on to a semi-final round. Those who advance then sing again for a new set of teachers, who give them both comments, and rate them.
Fredonia had 36 students participate and of those, 26 advanced to the second round and of those, 10 placed in their respective categories and of those, four won their categories.
The winners from Fredonia include Patricia Luecken (studio of Dr. Angela Haas, formerly of Kristen Norwalk), won first place in the Second Year Collegiate Women category, Jeffrey Kringer (studio of Professor Daniel Ihasz) won first place in the Lower Division Collegiate Musical Theatre Men category, Michaela Tramuta (studio of Dr. Haas) won third place in the Lower Division Collegiate Musical Theatre Women category, Tyler Mecklenburg (studio of Adjunct Lecturer Laurie Tramuta) won third place in the Third Year Collegiate Men category, Allison Snavely (studio of Professor Ihasz) won first place in the Fourth/Fifth Year Collegiate Women category, Billy Blair (studio of Haas) won first place in the Upper Division Collegiate Musical Theatre Men category, Steven Saelzler (studio of Tramuta) won second place in the Upper Division Collegiate Musical Theatre Men category, Anna Chicco (studio of Haas) won first place in the Upper Division Collegiate Musical Theatre Women category, Christine Boehm (studio of Dr. Robert Strauss) won second place in the Upper Division Collegiate Musical Theatre Women category, Stevie Jackson (studio of Dr. Strauss) won third place in the Upper Division Collegiate Musical Theatre Women category.
NATS was founded on March 23, 1944, in Cincinnati, Ohio, at a luncheon during the annual convention of the Music Teachers National Association (MTNA). A group of 13 teachers and 87 proxies voted to bring the association into existence that day with the purpose of "establishing and maintaining the highest standards of ethical principles and practice in the profession, and to establish and maintain the highest possible standards of competence in the voice teaching profession, to conduct and encourage research and to disseminate resulting information to the profession at large, and to encourage effective cooperation among vocal teachers for their protection, welfare and advancement."
