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When Dr. Robert Bastian was studying medicine, he was taught to “never operate on singers.” But in his early years of practice, he began to question this prevailing dictum. Now highly revered for his 25-year career treating singers, Dr. Bastian discusses how attitudes about surgery have evolved, when he feels surgery is necessary and what the positive and negative effects are, what he considers the major vocal myths, and why voice teachers need to be well educated when it comes to surgery and vocal health.

Founded in 1986 by Metropolitan Opera’s Joan Dornemann, IVAI continues to train and inspire the next generation of singers. Read what changes are in store for this longtime program as it revamps its locations while staying focused on its primary goal: giving singers what they need to succeed.

Choosing a summer program can be overwhelming. With so many programs and limited funds, how do you know how and where to spend your money? Thoroughly assessing your own skills and the offerings of prospective programs is key. Find out how to break it all down here.

Sometimes getting the education you need requires thinking outside the American college experience box. Read about how one singer traveled abroad to get the language skills she needed by combining an Italian university experience and a summer program.

The year 2015 marks two remarkable milestones for the legendary Sherrill Milnes. This month the baritone celebrates his 80th birthday, and in December it will be 50 years since he made his Metropolitan Opera debut. Since then, he has sung nearly all of the major baritone roles on stages the world over. Always committed to teaching and education, he continues to draw on his vast experience to fill a void for the next generation of singers through his VOICExperience Foundation. Read about Milnes’ life and career, what he considers the “golden age,” and his newest endeavor: the Savannah VOICE Festival.

After a recent petition decrying YAP audition fees made the rounds on social media, Cindy Sadler decided to enter the discussion to better understand the issue from both the singer and administrator viewpoints. Hear from both sides of the table in this first in a series of articles further examining the sticky issue of audition fees.

When you have two toddler-aged children at home, if the house gets very quiet for very long, you usually know mischief is afoot. Recently, after a moment of such silence,

By Alex Stoddard   Do you want to be happy? Of course you do you, that’s a silly question. A better question is what’s your secret or key to being

By Angela Myles Beeching   Yep, it’s that time of year again: the season of overspending and overeating–a frenzy of shopping, travel, relatives, frantic work deadlines, played out against a

By Carol Kirkpatrick, author of ARIA READY, The Business of Singing   What criteria might you use to determine if it’s time to change career directions? This is only occasionally

By Angela Peterson Winter   Almost every singer I know has a packed schedule in December: choir concerts, church gigs, Messiah performances, parties . . . not to mention personal

By Mark Stoddard, author of Marketing Singers, a business and marketing guidebook written specifically for singers. I received a letter from singer and blogger Kristen Seikaly with some great questions