Can We Listen
"CAN WE TALK?" was a signature phrase used by comedian Joan Rivers in her monologues and interviews on The Tonight Show. More recently, we have had Michael Myers on Saturday Night Live playing the talk show host who says, "I'm totally verklemmt, talk amongst yourselves." Both these phrases began to have lives of their own, eliciting laughter all by themselves. "Can we listen?" does not have the same comedic zing, but as voice teachers that is what we do above all else: we are professional listeners. Listening does not begin and end in the studio, but permeates every facet of our personal and professional lives. We listen as individuals, as members of families, communities, and organizations, and as citizens of our countries and the world at large. Good communication or a productive dialogue depends in large part on active, skilled listening. Poet John Muir wrote that "When we tug at a single thing in nature, we find it attached to the rest of the world," a statement clearly applicable to the art of listening. NATS as an organization wants to listen to its members, and in October a questionnaire was sent out with the dues notice. The response thus far has been almost 90% an almost unbelievable return. Thank you all! The Executive Office staff is busily tabulating the results, and while it may take some time, this will help us to serve you better. The vote on the new Code of Ethics was 1954 for and 41 against, with a December 1,2006 postmark deadline. It seems that there was lively discussion of the new code, and I assume listening played an important role in that discussion. I spoke at some length with two members who felt that they would have to vote against it, and would like very much to hear from the other 39. If you checked the boxes agreeing to take part in a discussion of pedagogy instructors or to be part of a dialogue between collegiate and private voice studio teachers, you will be contacted sometime this spring and summer. For my 2006 2008 term in office I have appointed two ad hoc committees: a pedagogy committee (Kathryn Barnes Burroughs, chair) and a private studio/collegiate studio liaison committee (Jo Ella Todd and Pamela Glaros, cochairs) The pedagogy committee will facilitate communication among those teaching pedagogy courses at colleges and universities, providing the opportunity to share syllabi, discuss texts, practicums, and procedures. The liaison committee between collegiate and private studio teachers will discuss the ways in which we can work together better; for example, Kimberlyn Jones of Master's College in California is part of a program that successfully invites participation by area private teachers a program that others might want to emulate. The collegiate teacher sees the students only during their academic careers and the private teacher sees them both before and after that; anything we can do to smooth these transitions for the student would be beneficial to all. There is a possibility that each of these committees will lead to a panel on its topic at the 2008 National Conference. Listening to our colleagues, and they to us, also can provide us with a better understanding of what our students need to be successful. As individual teachers, we pay attention when theory instructors say that the students are not prepared to begin college level work, or when the choral director has to call extra rehearsals to help singers learn the music to prepare for a concert. Only when we communicate with our colleagues can we then work toward a solution for our young singers by providing them with the tools to learn music more quickly, without tiring their voices by overuse. This may involve better communication with music educators at the primary and secondary levels as well, either individually or through their organizations. Thus we see that interorganizational communication could be vital to the state of the vocal arts. NATS is interested not only in listening to its own members, but in communicating and cooperating with other organizations as well.