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Singing, Teaching, and the Larger Questions

Over the past twenty years, I’ve been collecting ideas about singing and teaching—not just about how to sing, but about how singing and...

Studio Philosophy

drakedantzler

Sep 5, 2025

Dear Theo: Reimagining the Art Song Recital

I'm very excited about my upcoming recital with pianist Victoria Shively on October 22. This project, which we're calling Dear Theo, gives us an opportunity to explore and recontextualize the art song recital. Rethinking the traditional recital format has been an important part of our work together, and we're delighted to continue that exploration. There are three central ideas behind this project that I'd like to share: experimenting with recital formats, creating a multi-ge

drakedantzler

Oct 14

Teaching in a Deterministic Universe, Part 2: The Student's Responsibility

Welcome to the second installment of a series on teaching voice lessons in a deterministic worldview. Introduction and Reminders To set the stage, we are continuing to consider what it means if the universe is deterministic. For me, that also means the universe is incompatible with free will. I will use the two terms interchangeably in my writing. It is worth noting there are philosophers who don’t automatically link those two concepts together, though that is the most common

Studio Philosophy

drakedantzler

Feb 9

Reflections on AI, Alcina, and the Artistic Process

Who I Am, and Why I Did This I am a professor and director of opera at a state university, a position I have held for more than fifteen years. I create art on a limited budget, from a deeply student-centered point of view, and I frequently adapt or modernize works in order to promote engagement and learning. I operate in a high–resource-demand art form within a chronically scarce-resource environment. I approached Alcina in a spirit of curiosity about what AI might bring to o

CTRL+ALT+Recit

drakedantzler

Feb 5

Technique in a Deterministic Universe

Last week I wrote an introductory post outlining some of the forces at play in singing and teaching. In this series, I want to go much deeper and examine what it means to teach and to learn singing in a deterministic universe. This first post focuses on what technique actually is under a deterministic framework. Later posts will examine: the singer’s responsibility, the teacher’s responsibility, and finally, practical teaching strategies that follow from this view. My hope i

Studio Philosophy

drakedantzler

Sep 8, 2025