Kinley Award
Carly Wingfield, a DMA student in Vocal Performance and Literature, has been awarded the prestigious Kate Neal Kinley Memorial Fellowship to support her doctoral project entitled “Practical and Pedagogical Applications of Singing in Live and Virtual Performance Environments.”
“Funding from the Fellowship has opened new possibilities for my research into using Virtual Reality (VR) to help voice students prepare for performances in unfamiliar venues, thereby reducing their performance anxiety,” Wingfield said.
Musicians can attest to the experience that the environment in which they perform changes how they perceive their own sound. Research shows that singers subconsciously adjust their vocal production based on feedback from the venue in which they perform. Singers sing differently in a reverberant cathedral versus a recording studio, a large opera theatre, or a small, dry practice room.
Wingfield, Dr. Pasquale Bottalico, Professor Yvonne Redman, and PhD student Charlie Nudelman began research one year ago by investigating if singers’ vocal production and acoustic perception is similar in real versus virtually replicated venues, and the results were positive. They recorded singers’ performances first in three contrasting venues within Smith Memorial Hall and then in VR replications of the same spaces in the lab of the Speech and Hearing Science Building. For the VR conditions, singers wore a VR headset, which displayed a 360-degree image of each of the three venues, and open-backed earphones, which gave the acoustic feedback of those same spaces. After every performance, singers answered surveys about their acoustic perceptions. The team presented their results at The Voice Foundation’s Symposium: Care for the Professional Voice in May.
“The results attest to the viability of VR for singing, opening the door to possible applications of VR to help singers and other musicians prepare for real-life performance.” Redman said.
With funding from the Kinley Fellowship, Wingfield will begin the next phase of research. She will incorporate the use of VR into her weekly voice lessons with students to help them prepare for an end-of-semester recital. The students will be able to practice in a VR replication of the Smith Memorial Room for several weeks leading up to the recital instead of only getting one dress rehearsal in the space. The aim is to see if rehearsal time in a virtually replicated venue can help students acclimate to the venue’s acoustics, enhance their confidence, and alleviate performance anxiety.
Funding from the Fellowship will cover the costs of the VR headset, open-backed headphones, and recording equipment, as well as travel expenses to present her research at future conferences.
“I am grateful for this opportunity and for my faculty mentors who encouraged me to apply,” Wingfield said, adding, “This project would not be possible without their guidance and the support of the School of Music and the College of Fine and Applied Arts. I am enthusiastic about moving forward with the project and sharing the results with others at the University of Illinois and around the world.”
In addition to her DMA studies with Professor Yvonne Rodman, Wingfield is pursuing a cognate in Vocal Health and Science, studying with Professor of Speech and Hearing Science Pasquale Bottalico. Before coming to Illinois, she taught voice for three years as an adjunct instructor at Missouri State University, Evangel University, and College of the Ozarks. She holds a master’s degree in vocal performance from Missouri State (2019) and bachelor’s degrees in vocal performance and vocal/choral music education from Lee University (2016).
About the Kate Neal Kinley Memorial Fellowship
The Kate Neal Kinley Memorial Fellowship, honoring UIUC alumna Kate Neal Kinley’s dedication to the arts, is awarded to promising young graduates of UIUC and other prestigious institutions in the areas of architecture, art, dance, landscape architecture, music, theatre, or urban and regional planning. From a national applicant pool, the fellowship committee selects a group of semi-finalists for an interview round. The final winners are chosen for the character, merit, and suitability of the proposed project, as well as the candidate’s high attainment in academic and related cultural fields, excellence of personality, and seriousness of purpose.