Board of Directors
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| President: Amelia Rollings Bigler Amelia Rollings Bigler, PhD, MM, currently serves as Associate Professor of Music (Voice and Voice Pedagogy) at Coastal Carolina University. Dr. Rollings Bigler earned a PhD in Voice Pedagogy from The University of Kansas and a MM in Voice Performance and Pedagogy from The Pennsylvania State University. Dr. Rollings Bigler was the winner of the 2018 Van L. Lawrence Fellowship and the first recipient of the Clifton Ware Group-Voice Pedagogy Award in 2022. In 2023, she established the Center for Group-Voice Pedagogy and Research and launched the annual Summer Group-Voice Pedagogy Intensive at CCU. Her primary research interests include musical theatre and contemporary commercial music (CCM) voice pedagogy, small and large group voice teaching, historical voice teacher education and credentialing, and the effects of shoe heel heights, head position, jaw opening and other aspects of body alignment on acoustic and perceptual measures of singing efficiency. Publications have appeared in the Journal of Voice, the Journal of Singing, and Voice and Speech Review. ameliarollingsbigler.com |
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 | President-Elect: Ana Flavia Zuim Dr. Zuim is a leading voice scientist whose groundbreaking work in dosimetry has garnered recognition from CBS and earned her the prestigious Van L. Lawrence Fellowship and NYU Steinhardt Fellowship. With over 70 musical theater productions to her credit, she has excelled as a musical director and pianist, receiving numerous awards for her contributions. Her research in voice science has had significant implications for the field, reflecting her deep passion for sound and the human voice. This expertise has also made her a sought-after expert witness in forensic voice analysis. Dr. Zuim has shared her knowledge globally, conducting seminars and workshops in countries such as Japan, Taiwan, Brazil, Turkey, Greece, Canada, Australia, Thailand, Italy, and Scotland. From 2016 to 2022, Dr. Zuim served as the Director of Vocal Performance at NYU Steinhardt, where she was promoted to Associate Music Professor in 2022. Prior to NYU, she was the Director of Contemporary Voice at the Frost School of Music and held a secondary appointment as a Lecturer in Otolaryngology at the Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami. Her distinguished career also includes notable credits as a musical director and conductor for iconic productions like Hamilton(rehearsal pianist/vocal coach) and Billy Elliot (musical director/pianist), among others. |
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| Vice President: Marci Rosenberg Marci is a singer, speech pathologist/clinical singing voice specialist and co-author of The Vocal Athlete and its companion workbook, currently in its 3rd edition. An active performer in her earlier years, Marci completed her degree in vocal performance at Peabody Conservatory before entering the field of Speech Language Pathology. Specializing in the rehabilitation of injured voices, Marci has worked clinically for over 20 years at The University of Michigan Vocal Health Center, which was recently ranked nationally in the top 1% for patient care. Additionally, she serves as the on-site vocal health consultant to the Department of Musical Theatre at the University of Michigan. Marci teaches workshops and lectures nationally and internationally. She is a featured author in several voice pedagogy books and collaborates on numerous research publications. She is guest faculty at The CCM Summer Pedagogy Institute at Shenandoah. Among the first cohort to receive the PAVA-RV distinction, Marci serves on the PAVA-RV committee and co-chairs the PAVA Standing Symposium Executive Committee. She was recently elected as Vice President. Marci was recently a featured voice expert on the award-winning Canadian science documentary program The Nature of Things - A User’s Guide to the Voice released in 2024. In addition to her clinical practice, Marci maintains an active private voice studio and consulting practice. Her varied clients include performers, executives, and teachers spanning the Boardroom, Broadway stage, Metropolitan Opera, and everything in between. marci-rosenberg.com |
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| Treasurer: Theodora Nestorova Bulgarian-British-American soprano, researcher, and teacher Theodora Ivanova Nestorova is a Ph.D. candidate in Interdisciplinary Studies/Applied Performance Sciences at McGill University’s Schulich School of Music. As a voice scientist and educator, Theodora's vibrato research work has been published in the Journal of Voice and been awarded best paper, poster, and presentation at international conferences such as National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) and Pan American Vocology Association (PAVA). An active, versatile vocalist, Theodora is the first-place winner of the American Prize in Vocal Performance and regularly performs across genres as one-half of the experimental soprano-cello duo, Pizzicanto. Theodora holds an M.B.A. in Arts Entrepreneurship (Global Leaders Institute for Arts Innovation), a M.M. in Vocal Pedagogy/Music-in-Education (NEC), and a B.M. in Voice Performance/Musicology (Oberlin). A Fulbright Scholar to Austria, Theodora was a Grant Recipient at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. |
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| Membership Director: Rachel Day Rachel is currently employed at Northwest Missouri State University as Assistant Professor of Music (Voice). She began teaching private voice and piano lessons in 1993 and became a member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) in 1996. She has a BA in Music from Smith College and two Master of Music degrees (Voice Performance and Voice Pedagogy) and a DMA from Arizona State University. Her doctoral document is titled, “Vocal Pedagogy at the End of the Twentieth Century: Revealing the Hidden Instrument.” She joined PAVA in 2016 and, after serving on the symposia committees for Toronto and Chile, I currently serve as Membership Director for the organization. In 2012, she received Honorable Mention for the Van Lawrence Fellowship in Vocal Pedagogy Research and completed Wicklund Singing Voice Specialist (SVS) Certification. She completed the Summer Vocology Institute with Dr. Ingo Titze in summer 2021. A 2017 CoreSinging® (A Joyful Approach to Singing and Voice Pedagogy) certified teacher, she received Bones for Life® teacher certification in November 2021, a program of somatic awareness developed by Ruthy Alon and inspired by Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais. Her specific interest in Feldenkrais® and singing began after her experiences with muscle tension dysphonia in spring 2019. |
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| Communications Director: Beth Falcone Beth Falcone is a New York based composer/lyricist, pianist, conductor and singing voice teacher. Her musical, Wanda’s World, was produced off-Broadway at the 45th St. Theater (Amas, in association with Terry Schnuck) received two Lortel Award nominations, including best musical, a Drama Desk Award nomination for best book, and she is a Kleban prize winner for Most Promising Lyricist. The show was released on Broadway Records in December of 2019 with album producer Michal J. Moritz, Jr. and has been licensed by Theatrical Rights Worldwide. For more information, visit: WANDASWORLDMUSICAL.com. Her work has been featured in Broadway Bound (Merkin Hall), Lincoln Center Library’s New Composers’ series, the BMI Showcase, Between the Lines radio show, and her music has been published at ContemporaryMusicalTheatre.com. Beth is a Dramatists’s Guild Fellow, a proud member of MAESTRA, BMI, NYSTA, PAVA (Pan American Vocology Association), VoiceCare Network, Voice Foundation and has a private studio in Manhattan. Her pitch matching method is the subject of a research study in collaboration with New York Medical College, and she is currently writing a book: ”Life’s a Pitch and Then you Sping!” For more information on Beth’s latest activities, visit: BethFalcone.com. |
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 | Central Governor: Ian Howell Dr. Ian Howell is the founder and chief educator at the Embodied Music Lab. He has held classroom and studio teaching appointments at the New England Conservatory of Music, the Cleveland Institute of Music, Yale College, Swarthmore, and Rutgers. He has sung in most major concert halls across America, Europe, Canada, and Japan as a soloist and with numerous professional ensembles. He has presented original research on performing arts biodynamics at the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS), the Pan American Vocology Association (PAVA), the Voice Foundation, the Audio Engineering Society, and the Society for Music Perception and Cognition, and has peer reviewed for Oxford University Press, the International Physiology & Acoustics of Singing Conference (PAS7+), Musicae Scientiae, and PAVA. He has been an invited guest speaker and clinician for the NATS Chat series, the New York Singing Teacher’s Association, Opera Programs Berlin, Peabody Lunch and Learn, Mannes, CU Boulder, New York University, Boston Conservatory, and the San Francisco Conservatory. He is published in the Journal of Voice, the Journal of Singing, Classical Singer, and VOICEPrints. He has won professional recognitions ranging from a Grammy Award and a Grammy Award Nomination for his recordings with Chanticleer to a special commendation by the American Academy of Teachers of Singing for his, “work with low-latency platforms and associated technology, and broad dissemination of instruction in its use,” during the Covid 19 pandemic. He won the Van L. Lawrence Fellowship in 2022 and was elected to the American Academy of Teachers of Singing in 2023. His research interests include the intersection of human perception and the singing voice with a special focus on the role of auditory transduction. He now reaches a worldwide audience of clients and students via high-quality, low-latency online collaboration tools. He holds degrees in music from Capital University, Yale University, and the New England Conservatory of Music. Ian Howell lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan with his wife and their two children. There is talk of getting a cat. |
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| Eastern Governor: Ed Reisert Edward Reisert taught music in the public schools for over thirty years, retiring in 2023 from the Bedford, New York Central School District. He earned his Bachelor of Music degree from The Boston Conservatory and his master’s degree from the State University of New York at Oswego. Edward’s choirs have performed at Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, and his students have performed in state, national, and international choral ensembles. He is a frequent guest conductor for county and regional music festivals in New York and Connecticut and is an active member of the American Choral Directors Association, the National Association of Teachers of Singing, and the New York State School Music Association.Most recently, Edward served as Adjunct Associate Professor of Contemporary Commercial Music (CCM) during the fall semester at Shenandoah Conservatory in Virginia. Since 2009, he has served on the faculty of the Contemporary Commercial Music Vocal Pedagogy Institute, also at Shenandoah Conservatory. An active PAVA member, he currently serves as the chairperson of the PAVA-RV Committee and was recently elected to serve as the Eastern Regional Governor. Edward earned the distinction of PAVA-Recognized Vocologist in 2022. |
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| Western Governor: Lynn Maxfield Lynn Maxfield,
PhD, is Director of the Utah Center for Vocology and assistant
professor (lecturer) at the University of Utah’s School of Music. He
also serves as the contracted voice Coach at the Utah of Utah Voice
Disorders Center and is the Associate Editor of the Mindful Voice column
of the NATS Journal of Singing.
He holds a PhD in Voice Pedagogy and an MA in Voice Performance, both
from the University of Iowa. Prior to joining the University of Utah,
he taught voice and voice pedagogy at Eastern Connecticut State
University, Monmouth College, and Knox College, as well as music theory
and ear training at Carl Sandburg College. |
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 | Canadian Governor: Emma Laishram I am a graduate student of speech-language pathology with 10+years of professional experience and classical conservatory training as an actor/singer from Dalhousie University and The National Theatre School of Canada. I have performed on stages, in studios and film/television across Canada and internationally. In 2019 I released my own EP of original folk music, Beyond Borders, while freelancing as an acting/voice coach, and Music Together teacher. I assistant produced the inaugural season of the South Asian Monsoon Festival of Performing Arts (Vancouver) and assistant-produced the virtual voice symposium, The Power of Voice, hosted by Melanie Tapson Voice Care (2021 & 2022). This symposium included guest speakers from the field of voice (ENTs, SLPs, professional singers, voice users, coaches and vocologists). In 2022 I began a MHSc at the University of Toronto, where I am currently studying clinical practice, conducting peer-reviewed research in the Voice and Resonance Lab. |
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| Latin America Governor: Carlos Manzano Phoniatrician, MD (Specialist in voice, speech and swallowing disorders). GRADUATED FROM THE NATIONAL REHABILITATION INSTITUTE endorsed by the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). HIGH SPECIALTY COURSE IN PEDIATRIC FONIATRICS GRADUATED FROM THE CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL OF MEXICO endorsed by the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). Master of Medical Sciences endorsed by UNAM. Graduated from the Summer Vocology Intensive (SVI) at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City with Dr. Ingo Titze. President The Voice Foundation – Mexico Chapter. Member of the Panamerican Vocology Association (PAVA). Phoniatrician AT MÉDICA SUR HOSPITAL AND CENTRO MÉDICO ABC HOSPITAL in Mexico City. |
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