Brayton Arvin

My job as a vocologist and coach is to provide my students and clients with a precise diagnosis and a methodical prognosis to any voice related issues they might have.

There are a number of reasons someone may wish to take voice lessons. Whatever the specific reason, striving to achieve one’s artistic truth is the goal. My holistic approach as a teacher allows each student to find his/her own voice as a creative artist. I believe my role as an educator is not to relay information in a detached context, what I call teaching “at” a student, but to lead that student in a discussion to illicit the proper physical, mental, and musical adjustments. It is my goal to facilitate a safe environment for students to take risks, make mistakes, listen critically, and articulate his/her thoughts. We work towards freedom of expression and letting go of fear. Fear is the single greatest enemy of any artist: If you're afraid of how your music will go, you won't be making art. 

My passion is to help people unlock their artistic potential, so that they can create the art they want in the way they want.

A healthy mind, body, and spirit all work together to make a balanced and whole artist: The development of critical thinking, creative, and communicative skills is essential to any student with whom I am teaching. The goal is more than a momentary technical adjustment, but rather to provide the student with the methodical means for success. My goal is to develop a student's mind and curiosity and make him or her a more flexible, knowledgeable, and self-aware artist. Making music or art requires optimizing body and motor skills which requires proper alignment and understanding of sensory perception. Singing is a full-bodied experience, and only through the training of certain physiological functions, anatomical movements, and the releasing of unnecessary bodily tensions can a singer ever truly find the full range of their expression as an artist.  To make music alive also requires a communicative spirit capable of touching us emotionally. My goal is provide my students and clients with the technical tools to communicate as effectively, healthily, and clearly they they desire. 

I am currently a member of NATS, a former President and Vice-President of the Indiana University chapter of NATS,  where I coordinated the New Voice Educators Symposium in 2016. I have presented academic research papers on "The Songs of Ernst Bacon," "Causes and Solutions for Intonation Faults in the Voice Studio," and "The Goals of Opera Workshop."

I have maintained an independent studio for a number of years. My students are successful professional musicians, music educators, arts administrators, as well as doctors, lawyers, and financial managers. My students have been accepted to music degree programs such as Indiana University, Bloomington, Roosevelt University-Chicago College of Performing Arts, University of North Carolina School of the Arts (Winston-Salem), Ball State University, DePauw University, and Indiana State University.

I have been recognized for my exemplary management and administrative skills. While on the management team at Opus 3 Artists, I co-managed a number of internationally renowned performing artists and advance hundreds of events around the world each year. I had the pleasure to service a renowned list of international artists such as singers Nicholas Phan, Christian Van Horn, Samuel Ramey, Jonathan Johnson, Kate Lindsey, Michael Chioldi, Patricia Racette, Stephanie Blythe, Arthur Woodley, Lisette Oropesa, Brian Jagde, Christine Goerke, Ian Bostridge, Michelle DeYoung, Taylor Stayton, Lucas Meachem, Michael Todd Simpson, John Relyea, Andriana Chuchman, Tamara Mumford, Colin Ainsworth, William Burden, Wendy Bryn Harmer, Alan Held, and Anthony Roth Costanzo; directors Francesca Zambello and James Darrah; conductors Evan Rogister and Eric Jacobsen; cellist Yo-Yo Ma; jazz pianist Baptiste Trotignon; violinists Gil Shaham and Cho-Liang (Jimmy) Lin; Galician bagpiper Cristina Pato; Silkroad Ensemble; string quartet Brooklyn Rider; and the orchestra The Knights. 

I have collaborated with a vast network of artistic administrations and staffs of presenters throughout the world such as Carnegie Hall, The Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Opera Philadelphia, Washington National Opera and the Kennedy Center, Glimmerglass Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Omaha Opera, Dallas Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Seattle Opera, Portland Opera, Atlanta Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Palm Beach Opera, Pittsburgh Opera, Minnesota Opera, Chicago Opera Theater, Michigan Opera Theater, Dutch National Opera, Opera de Lyon, Edinburgh International Festival, Gran Teatre del Liceu, Teatro Muncipal de Santiago, Canadian Opera Company, Opera de Montréal, Opéra National de Paris, New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony, National Symphony Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, Dallas Symphony, Houston Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Shanghai Symphony, Beijing Symphony, Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra, BBC Proms, Orchestra of St. Lukes, Aspen Music Festival, Tanglewood Music Festival, Ravinia Music Festival and Steans Institute, Chautauqua Festival and Institution, Oregon Bach Festival, Princeton University Concerts and McCarter Theater, Stanford (University) Live, University of California (Santa Barbara), CalPeformances, McCallum Center (Palm Desert, CA), Youth Music Culture Guangdong, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the Morgan Library, Park Ave Armory, the Juilliard School, and Dartmouth College.

I am a lyric baritone and have performed dozens of roles on the operatic and musical theatre stage as well as a featured soloist in orchestral concerts and recitals across the United States As a concert performer, I have been a featured soloist in Handel’s Messiah, Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, Bach's Ich habe genug and Christmas Oratorio, Beethoven’s Mass in C Major, Duruflé’s Messe cum Jubilo, Haydn’s Missa in Anguistiis (Nelson Mass), and John Stainer's Crucifixion. I have presented art song recitals around the United States with a wide variety of programmed repertoire. I am also a champion of new music and have collaborated with dozens of composers to sing the premiere performances for dozens of song cycles, vocal soloist-orchestral works, and chamber music.

On the theatrical stage, I have performed with Indianapolis Opera, Cedar Rapids Opera, Utah Festival Opera & Musical Theatre, Charlottesville Opera, and New Voices Opera. Some favorite roles include Guglielmo (Così fan tutte), Count Almaviva (Le Nozze di Figaro), Le Balli (Werther), Baron Zeta (The Merry Widow), Maximilian (Candide), David (L’amico Fritz), Harlequin (Ariadne auf Naxos), Amon Priest (Akhnaten) and Jack Scott in the world premiere of The King in Yellow. Equally at home in musical theatre, I have also performed the roles of Andrew Carnes (Oklahoma!), Issachar (Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat), Scarecrow (The Wizard of Oz), and Sam Houston in the workshop performance of the musical Alamo.

I am currently a candidate for the Doctor of Music degree at Indiana University, Bloomington - Jacobs School of Music, where I previously earned my Master of Music. My primary voice instructors have included renowned singers and pedagogues such as Heidi Grant Murphy, Dr. Robert Harrison, and Carol Vaness. I have studied vocology and pedagogy with Dr. Brian Gill, Dr. Brian Horne, and Dr. Meryl Mantione.