Welcome to the Otto B. Schoepfle Vocal Arts Center Richard Miller, Director By Michael Chipman
	OBSVAC is located at Robertson 308. The center houses: stroboscopic and fiber-optic instrumentation a mixing device displays four types of vocal analyses concurrently, allowing examination of both the function and the timbre of the artistic singing voice a sonograph workstation transforms the phonations of the voice into electrical signals and displays them as waves on a computer screen a computerized system for analyzing, synthesizing, and manipulating vocal sounds a nasometer measures nasality in the voice a laryngograph determines the accuracy of pitch and vocal onset a spirometer tests critical pulmonary functions to determine vital capacity and flow rate a system to measure levels of air flow, air pressure, and sound pressure. Students use the sophisticated audio and video equipment to record, play back and analyze their performances. RELATED STORIES: Rebecca Fromherz, OBSVAC Student Coordinator: On a Personal Note  Otto B. Schoepfle Vocal Arts Laboratory Home		Back row left to right: Rebecca Fromherz, Joseph Greaves, Dan Okulitch, Mark McQuade, Marc Callahan. Front row left to right: Richard Miller, Bucky the Skeleton, Scott Skiba It takes a lot to make it in the competitive world of opera. Dynamic stage presence, physical fitness, and innate musicality are necessary components for increasing the odds of success for young singers. But by far the most important, basic ingredient in a successful operatic career, is a solid, healthy technique. How does a young singer develop the kind of technique that will sustain a long and varied career in opera? The Otto B. Schoepfle Vocal Arts Lab, located on the third floor of the Robertson building of Oberlin Conservatory offers some answers.   The Otto B. Schoepfle Vocal Arts Center (OBSVAC), named for a longtime supporter of the Conservatory, is the first of its kind to be incorporated into a program of vocal instruction in the United States, and is one of the few places in the world where a singer can actually see what his or her singing looks like. Why would a singer want to see that? Put simply, all singers, especially young singers need constant feedback to refine their singing to a professional level. OBSVAC provides powerful, instant feedback to enrich and accelerate a singer's technical progress. OBSVAC reaches national and international audiences through professor Richard Miller's yearly workshops around the world. Also, many voice teachers visit Oberlin every summer for Miller's annual pedagogy workshop in which OBSVAC plays an integral role. Many teachers, inspired by the benefits of OBSVAC, have used their experiences at OBSVAC to model new centers around the country. NINE WAYS TO USE OBSVAC: The Spectrograph This is the most commonly used machine in the lab. A singer can bring in a videotape of a lesson, a tape recording, or sing live into the spectrograph, which displays the "balance" in a singer's sound. Professional singers try to develop a "chiaroscuro" (light/dark) balanced sound in their voice in which both depth (or darkness) and a ringing quality (or brightness) are present. The spectrograph shows when both sounds are present and balanced, along with vibrato rate, pitch variation and vowel formation. The Respitrace A new addition to OBSVAC this year, the respitrace tracks a singer's inhalation, exhalation, breath management, also known as "the appoggio" or breath support. It shows the movement of the abdominal and chest walls during inhalation and exhalation. The Respitrace is valuable in evaluating breathing techniques. The Vowel Chart and Nasometer The Vowel Chart shows how pure (and therefore, how resonant) a singer's vowels are in comparison with spoken vowels. The nasometer measures the amount of nasality in the singing tone, and is especially valuable in the analysis of French nasalants. Students can use this machine to measure degree and duration of nasality. Analyze Your Own Recordings Bring in your favorite recording of your favorite singer and see what their sound "looks" like. This will allow you to observe what acoustic qualities the great singers have in their voices. You can see what sounds make it in the professional world. OBSVAC boasts a state-of-the-art stereo, audio, and visual system with cassette decks, compact disk players, turntables, speakers, video screens, and DAT players, all of which are connected to the lab equipment for analysis and study. The Laryngoscopes With this equipment, a singer can actually see his or her vocal cords in action. OBSVAC has three laryngoscopes: two flexible scopes, on which a microscopic camera on the end of a tiny tube is inserted into the nasal passage and down the back of the throat, and one rigid scope which is used for viewing the larynx through the mouth. Licensed Otolaryngologists perform the Laryngoscopy, a painless procedure that provides the fascinating opportunity to see what actually happens in the throat when a singer sings. Book Holdings If a book has been written in the past century on vocal pedagogy or the vocal mechanism, you will probably find it on the shelves of OBSVAC. Also, Professor Richard Miller's definitive texts, including The Structure of Singing, The Art of Singing, Training Tenor Voices, and National Schools of Singing, among several others, are available for study. There is also a collection of anatomical models and charts which provide physiological understanding of the singing instrument. Video Holdings OBSVAC holds an impressive catalogue of rare recordings of great singers of the past on videocassette. Many are archival copies of the famous, "Voices of Firestone" series, which include live performances by such legendary singers as Joan Sutherland, Franco Corelli, Robert Merrill, Jussi Bjoerling, Leontyne Price, Leonard Warren, George London, and Maria Callas. Lab Appointments During lab appointments, student staff members are available to run machinery and interpret all feedback from the equipment. Student staff members do not serve as teachers; in a sense, lab appointments are "guided practice sessions" with the use of OBSVAC equipment. Students and their teachers can also schedule a time to meet with a trained OBSVAC student staff member to have a voice lesson in the lab, which provides immediate visual representation of the ideas the teacher is trying to communicate. Participate in Research Projects and Workshops Every year the OBSVAC student assistants, together with Professor Richard Miller, plan events, attend workshops, view operas on video, hold group study sessions, arrange guest lectures and symposia on care of the voice for singers. These events are all free of charge to Oberlin students. BRIEF HISTORY OF OBSVAC: In 1989 the Kulas Foundation pledged $26,200 for the purchase of laboratory equipment with the condition that matching funds be found. Matching funds were pledged in the name of Otto B. Schoepfle, by the Elyria Chronicle-Telegram. 1989 was devoted to selecting and assembling instrumentation. The laboratory was officially dedicated on December 17, 1989. Because Miller was on Curriculum Development Grant, Spring Semester 1990, the laboratory remained closed until July 1990. The summer of 1990 and the academic year of 1990-91 witnessed much progress in research and calibration of instruments. OBSVAC moved to a larger, state of the art location and was rededicated on Saturday, February 28, 1998. In 1998, OBSVAC broadened its capabilities by purchasing the laryngoscopes and Respitrace. It has also welcomed several affiliate scholars to the team who aid in research projects and the execution of medical procedures.
			RICHARD MILLER Richard Miller is Wheeler Professor of Singing and director of the Otto B. Schoepfle Vocal Arts Center at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. His long performance career has been distinguished in Europe and America by diversity in opera, recital and oratorio. He is known internationally for master classes and institutes in systematic vocal technique and artistic interpretation. For more than two decades he has taught or undertaken vocal research in thirty-eight states, fourteen European countries, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Decorated Chevalier/Officier into the Order of Arts and Letters by the French Ministry of Culture, for fifteen years he has been visiting professor at Salzburg's International Summer Academy, Mozarteum. He serves as adjunct staff member in the Department of Otolaryngology and Communicative Disorders, Cleveland Clinic, is an associate of Collegium Medicorum Theatri, and a member of the American Academy of Teachers of Singing. He was editor of The NATS Journal (1980-87), is author of over one hundred articles in professional journals, and standard studio and pedagogy texts, including National Techniques of Singing (Scarecrow Press), The Structure of Singing, Training Tenor Voices (Schirmer Books/Macmillan), and On the Art of Singing(Oxford University Press). His students are engaged as premier singers in major American and European opera houses.
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