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Deirdre Welborn Francis is active as a voice teacher, performer, and choral conductor. She is an Associate Professor of Music at Anderson University where she teaches voice, including music theater majors, vocal pedagogy, and vocal diction and conducts the Contemporary Vocal Lab. Ms. Francis’ voice students from both her collegiate and private studios have earned honors at the state and regional level at the National Association of Teachers of Singing annual auditions in classical and music theater categories. She has served as Musical Director and Vocal Coach for AU Playhouse Productions of Annie, Get Your Gun, Little Women, Fiddler on the Roof and Thoroughly Modern Millie. Ms. Francis received the Associate of Fine Arts degree in Music from then Anderson College, the Bachelor of Music Education degree from Furman University, and the Master of Music degree from Westminster Choir College of Rider University. While at Westminster, she was a member of the world-renowned Westminster Choir. She is certified in Somatic Voicework® with Jeanette LoVetri through the Shenandoah University Contemporary Commercial Singing Vocal Pedagogy Institute. As a soprano, she is equally at home on the operatic/oratorio, recital, and musical theater stage. After several years of studying Body Mapping and seeing results in her own performing and in her students performing, she is training to be a certified Andover Educator. The mission of Andover Educators is to put music training on a secure somatic foundation so that all musicians, amateur and professional alike, may play and sing free of pain and injury and with increasing enjoyment and skill. As a former Daniel Endowed Chair of Music, Ms. Francis established a Voice Lab at AU. Through the Voice Lab students receive acoustical feedback through Voce Vista and the Electroglottograph for voice building and also speech habilitation through Visipitch. Ms. Francis is a Singing Voice Specialist (SVS) Clinical Fellow with Dr, Karen Wicklund at the Chicago Center for Professional Voice, training to work with injured singers. The Voice Lab is an important part of that work. In addition to her full-time teaching duties at AU, Ms. Francis conducts the Greater Anderson Musical Arts Consortium (GAMAC) Girl Choir, an auditioned community choir for girls in grades 3-8. The GAMAC Girl Choir was invited to perform at the Youth Music Festival at the 2009 Piccolo Spoleto Festival in Charleston, SC. Ms. Francis is very active as a choral clinician, honor choir conductor and choral adjudicator. She is an active member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing, having served as Vice-President and President of the SC Chapter.
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Deirdre Welborn Francis |
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Web pages updated: June 2011 |
