Who needed help: Vocal Studio
Librarian problem solver: Morgan Davis, Music & Arts Librarian and Jean Sibley, Electronic Resources and Serials Librarian
Problem: Once it became clear that 100% of teaching would be moved online, Prof. Phaedra McNorton (Faculty in Music and Theatre Dept) reached out to me to inquire about acquiring a resource that would enable her to continue teaching voice lessons to her students despite the inability to meet face-to-face.
Solution: We settled on a resource called "Virtually Vocal". This resource provides art song accompaniment with excellent audio quality as well as an impressive range of key variety to accommodate students of varying vocal ranges. It also allows the instructor to request to have a recording made so that the student and the instructor can analyze the student's performance and progress. The resource also lets registered participants create individual accounts to track and store progress, as well as provides a library of vocal exercises for students to access outside of their scheduled lessons. I reached out to our acquisitions team and resident rock star Jean Sibley had us set up in very short order. Check out this excerpt from a recent virtual lesson of a W&M vocal student from Prof. McNorton's studio workshopping "Allerseelen" (All Souls Day) an art song for voice and piano by Richard Strauss.
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Response: Prof. McNorton's studio is really enjoying being able to "virtually" recreate the environment of private lessons thanks to Virtually Vocal!