▼ The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship of a performer’s visual communication (e.g., nonverbal communication, attractiveness, and facial expressions) to evaluators’ judgments of music performance quality. A secondary purpose was to investigate whether characteristics of the evaluators (e.g., expert vs. novice) would influence judgments of performance quality. The music evaluators consisted of music experts and novices drawn from college age students (163 undergraduates and 16 graduates) enrolled in music classes during Fall 2005. Experts were music students (N = 80) majoring in music performance and music education; novices were non-music students (N = 99) majoring in early childhood education. Experts judged technical proficiency to be higher under the casual condition when compared to the formal condition; novices judged technical proficiency to be lower under the casual condition when compared to the formal condition. Novices judged musical understanding more highly than expert judges, regardless of performance condition. The level of music experience of the judges may have affected their evaluations of the formal performance condition and may have created an expectation for higher accuracy in technical proficiency and musical understanding. From this finding, I concluded that music expert judges do take physical attractiveness, performing by memory, and nonverbal and verbal communication into consideration when evaluating performance quality and these are accompanied by higher expectations. Advisors/Committee Members: Gromko, Joyce.

▼ The purpose of this study was to identify the advantages and disadvantages of single gender vocal ensembles at the middle school level by examining one exemplary middle school choral program through qualitative case study methods including interview, observation, and survey. The setting of this study was a middle school with an established and exemplary choral music program in which all choral ensembles are separated by gender. The director of the boys' choir has 11 years of public school teaching experience. The girls' choir director has one year of public school teaching experience. Student participants were those voluntarily enrolled in seventh and eighth grade choir. Data were gathered by means of (a) students' written responses to open-ended questions, (b) interviews with the teachers of the gender separate choirs, (c) a school administrator's written responses to questions, and (d) classroom observations and field notes. Both the boys' and girls' choir teachers and the administrator agreed that single gender choral ensembles are beneficial at the middle school level because of the developmental appropriateness, positive social interactions, decreased behavioral problems, and increased participation. Both male and female students enjoyed participating in these ensembles because of the non-threatening classroom environment, accessibility of music regarding vocal range, and repertoire selection. However, the majority of female students preferred participating in a mixed gender choral ensemble citing social reasons and overall mixed choral sound for their preference. Future research possibilities may include the implications of same or opposite gender teachers instructing each gender separate choir. Also of potential interest are studies comparing gender separate and mixed gender ensembles in the same school under the instruction of the same teacher. Finally, further investigation of different instructional approaches and their effectiveness in guiding male and female students through the voice change process is needed. Advisors/Committee Members: Stegman, Sandra Frey.

▼ The purpose of this study was to determine college choir directors' and studio voice instructors' techniques for classifying female voices. Three groups of respondents completed an online survey: college faculty members who were (a) choir directors only, (b) voice instructors only, and (c) both a choir director and a voice instructor. The survey was comprised of four sections. The first three sections consisted of closed ended questions and the fourth section consisted of two open ended questions. One hundred and thirty-four of the 496 e-mail recipients returned the survey for a response rate of 27%. The state with the highest response rate was Ohio (52.7%), followed by Michigan (28.7%), and Indiana (18.6%). The respondent group with the highest response rate was voice instructors only (51.9%), followed by respondents who were both a choir director and a voice instructor (24.81%), and choir directors only (23.26%). The results showed that associate professor was the most common academic rank. The top ranked aspects that respondents consider when classifying female voices are, in descending order: tessitura, vocal timbre, range, vocal health, quality of extreme ranges, voice studio classification, needs of ensemble, former classification, and a student's voice classification preference. Many (36.92%) choir directors reclassify their female choir students every year, and one fourth (24.73%) of voice instructors reclassify their students every semester. More than one third (37.74%) of choir directors indicated that they moved the reclassified females at the beginning of the next semester. There were 85.71% of voice instructors who immediately recommended new repertoire to their students. Implications for music education included listening to tessitura as the top aspect to consider when classifying a female's voice and noting immaturity of the voices in the classification process so that the choir director or voice instructor can be aware of the possible need to reclassify the voice as it develops. Suggestions for further research included conducting a case study of several females who are being reclassified in order to closely examine the process of reclassification and writing a handbook for pre-service and novice secondary school choir directors and novice voice instructors that presents classification techniques that can be used by both types of educators. Advisors/Committee Members: Kantorski, Vincent.