Taking a Different Path: From Voice Teacher to Speech-Language Pathologist

Abstract

Taking a Different Path: From Voice Teacher to Speech-Language Pathologist Brian Manternach (bio), Elizabeth Lanza (bio), and Megan Lee (bio) THE INDEPENDENT TEACHER INTRODUCTION In a 2019 Journal of Singing article, D. Brian Lee outlines the many advantages voice teachers may enjoy when they take on "non-voicerelated jobs."1 He highlights how they can provide financial stability, an outlet for creative pursuits outside of music, and the freedom to take on students and performance opportunities out of desire rather than necessity. Besides non-voice-related jobs, many voice teachers also find themselves drawn to music adjacent careers, where the skills they have developed as singers and educators are even more directly applicable. One of these fields is speech-language pathology. According to the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), speech-language pathologists (also called SLPs) are experts in communication who work with people of all ages to treat many types of communication and swallowing problems.2 They have a variety of areas of focus, including addressing problems with speech sounds (how we create sounds and put sounds together into words), language (how well we understand what we hear or read and how we use words to tell others what we are thinking), and voice (how our voices sound).3 SLPs work in a variety of settings, including private practices, physicians' offices, hospitals, schools, colleges and universities, rehabilitation centers, and long-term and residential health care facilities.4 This column will provide profiles of two voice teacher-singers who have shifted to speech-language pathology (one working professional and one current graduate student). We will explore their backgrounds and experiences, the elements that led them to shift careers, and how their work as voice teachers informs their work in speech-language pathology. MUSICAL BEGINNINGS Elizabeth Lanza claims she was in love with musical theatre from day one. She means this quite literally, since the soundtrack to Guys and Dolls was playing in the background when she was born. Her parents—both theatre aficionados—provided a steady stream of classic Golden Age musicals like Oklahoma, Camelot, My Fair Lady, and Fiddler on the Roof in their house during her formative years. The season tickets her family held at their local Equity theatre also allowed for many opportunities to see live, professional [End Page 383] theatre up close. Lanza specifically remembers watching the actors on stage and thinking, "I could do that!" In fact, she did "do that," albeit on a much smaller stage, as she and her cousin would regularly mount their own living room productions of The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast. Even at that early age, Lanza appreciated music as a vehicle for storytelling, which only grew throughout middle school and high school. She credits her high school choir director and "an incredibly supportive voice teacher" for playing significant roles in her decision to major in music in college and to pursue it as a career. Megan Lee similarly developed a love of singing that began in early childhood. Instead of the footlights of the theatrical stage, however, she found her passion in the choir stalls of a cathedral. When she was 10 years old, Lee began attending the renowned Madeleine Choir School in Salt Lake City, where—instead of Oklahoma and Camelot—she sang everything from Gregorian chant to Poulenc. Lee never considered herself a "natural" when it came to singing. Although she developed strong musicianship, sight-reading skills, and choral singing abilities throughout her schooling, she felt that singing always presented challenges to overcome. When she first started taking voice lessons, it was primarily because of her goal to get into one of the top choirs at her school. However, she soon became fascinated with vocal technique, the mind-body connection, and the functioning of the vocal mechanism. Studying voice in college seemed a logical next step, given how her background had placed her on that path. But she also viewed pursuing voice at the next level as a personal challenge. Knowing how hard she had worked on her singing during her teen years, she saw college vocal studies as a tremendous opportunity for self-exploration. COLLEGE AND EARLY CAREER When...