Introducing our 2019 Master Class Clinicians:
Mary Saunders Barton and Norman Spivey
Mary Saunders Barton is a Penn State Professor Emeritus, currently residing in NY where she maintains a musical theatre voice studio for professional performers. Mary received a Master’s degree in French language and literature from Middlebury College and the Sorbonne, Paris. While in Paris, she studied French art song with the great baritone, Pierre Bernac. She is an unapologetic Francophile. Her own performing career spanned twenty years and included Broadway, off Broadway, regional, film and television credits. Her one-woman show “Stop-Time” played to sell-out houses in New York City.
While at Penn State, she served as head of voice instruction for the BFA in musical theatre and created an MFA in musical theatre voice pedagogy to meet the growing demand for voice teachers who specialize in vernacular techniques. In this and recent seasons graduates of the BFA program have been seen on Broadway in Wicked, Mamma Mia, Lion King, Pippin, The Book of Mormon, Newsies, Kinky Boots, Bandstand, A Bronx Tale, Beautiful, and Ain’t Too Proud, among others, in addition to many national tours and regional productions. Graduates of the MFA Program have gone on to teaching positions at universities in Massachusetts, Nevada, Virginia and the Netherlands and are contributing to the profession in performance, writing and research.
Mary is frequently invited to present master classes and workshops for singers and teachers of singing at universities and voice conferences in the U.S. and abroad. She has been a featured presenter for the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS), the National Opera Association (NOA), the Voice Foundation Symposium, the New York Singing Teachers Association (NYSTA) and the Musical Theater Educators Alliance (MTEA) She was the keynote musical theatre speaker at the 2013 International Congress of Voice Teachers (ICVT) in Brisbane, Australia. She has served twice as a master teacher for the NATS Intern Program.
Mary has co-authored a book, “Cross-Training in the Voice Studio: A Balancing Act” with colleague Norman Spivey. She has written chapters for the NATS publication “So You Want to Sing CCM” edited by Matthew Hoch and for the second edition of “A Spectrum of Voices” by Elizabeth Blades. Mary has produced two video tutorials, Bel Canto/Can Belto: Teaching Women to Sing Musical Theatre and What About the Boys?
Mary is the 2018 recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the New Contemporary Commercial Vocal Pedagogy Institute at Shenandoah University.
She is chair of The American Academy of Teachers of Singing.
While at Penn State, she served as head of voice instruction for the BFA in musical theatre and created an MFA in musical theatre voice pedagogy to meet the growing demand for voice teachers who specialize in vernacular techniques. In this and recent seasons graduates of the BFA program have been seen on Broadway in Wicked, Mamma Mia, Lion King, Pippin, The Book of Mormon, Newsies, Kinky Boots, Bandstand, A Bronx Tale, Beautiful, and Ain’t Too Proud, among others, in addition to many national tours and regional productions. Graduates of the MFA Program have gone on to teaching positions at universities in Massachusetts, Nevada, Virginia and the Netherlands and are contributing to the profession in performance, writing and research.
Mary is frequently invited to present master classes and workshops for singers and teachers of singing at universities and voice conferences in the U.S. and abroad. She has been a featured presenter for the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS), the National Opera Association (NOA), the Voice Foundation Symposium, the New York Singing Teachers Association (NYSTA) and the Musical Theater Educators Alliance (MTEA) She was the keynote musical theatre speaker at the 2013 International Congress of Voice Teachers (ICVT) in Brisbane, Australia. She has served twice as a master teacher for the NATS Intern Program.
Mary has co-authored a book, “Cross-Training in the Voice Studio: A Balancing Act” with colleague Norman Spivey. She has written chapters for the NATS publication “So You Want to Sing CCM” edited by Matthew Hoch and for the second edition of “A Spectrum of Voices” by Elizabeth Blades. Mary has produced two video tutorials, Bel Canto/Can Belto: Teaching Women to Sing Musical Theatre and What About the Boys?
Mary is the 2018 recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the New Contemporary Commercial Vocal Pedagogy Institute at Shenandoah University.
She is chair of The American Academy of Teachers of Singing.
Norman Spivey joined the School of Music faculty in 1992, and teaches singing and courses in voice pedagogy. In 2012, he was awarded the College of Arts and Architecture Faculty Award for Outstanding Teaching. With Penn State musical theatre voice colleagues, he launched the MFA in Voice Pedagogy for Musical Theatre degree in fall 2011, the first of its kind. He also participates in the workshop Bel Canto/Can Belto: Learning to teach and sing for musical theatre.
An active member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS), he has served as president of the Allegheny Mountain Chapter, governor of the Pennsylvania District, governor of the Eastern Region, national vice-president for NATS Workshops, and as a member of the board of the NATS Foundation. He was selected as a Master Teacher for the 2010 NATS intern program, and his writings have appeared in the NATS Journal of Singing. As immediate past-president of NATS, he serves as director of the NATS Intern Program.
Spivey received the Bachelor of Music degree from Southeastern Louisiana University, the Master of Music from the University of North Texas, and the Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Michigan. A Fulbright grant to Paris, where he worked with renowned baritones Gabriel Bacquier and Gérard Souzay, led to concert and opera engagements throughout France as well as a tour of France and Canada as Papageno in Mozart’s The Magic Flute. While in France, he was awarded the Harriet Hale Woolley Award as artist-in-residence at the Fondation des Etats-Unis. He has sung Schubert’s Winterreise at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, and performed the American premiere of Poulenc’s rediscovered Quatre Poèmes de Max Jacob. His most recent performance project, Écoute: pieces of Reynaldo Hahn, was an original one-man show on the life and music of the French composer that toured to nearly forty venues around the country.
He has received fellowships from the Aspen Music Festival and the Institute for Advanced Vocal Studies in Paris, and is the recipient of the prestigious Van L. Lawrence Fellowship awarded jointly by The Voice Foundation and NATS. In 2011, Spivey was inducted into the distinguished American Academy of Teachers of Singing.
An active member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS), he has served as president of the Allegheny Mountain Chapter, governor of the Pennsylvania District, governor of the Eastern Region, national vice-president for NATS Workshops, and as a member of the board of the NATS Foundation. He was selected as a Master Teacher for the 2010 NATS intern program, and his writings have appeared in the NATS Journal of Singing. As immediate past-president of NATS, he serves as director of the NATS Intern Program.
Spivey received the Bachelor of Music degree from Southeastern Louisiana University, the Master of Music from the University of North Texas, and the Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Michigan. A Fulbright grant to Paris, where he worked with renowned baritones Gabriel Bacquier and Gérard Souzay, led to concert and opera engagements throughout France as well as a tour of France and Canada as Papageno in Mozart’s The Magic Flute. While in France, he was awarded the Harriet Hale Woolley Award as artist-in-residence at the Fondation des Etats-Unis. He has sung Schubert’s Winterreise at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, and performed the American premiere of Poulenc’s rediscovered Quatre Poèmes de Max Jacob. His most recent performance project, Écoute: pieces of Reynaldo Hahn, was an original one-man show on the life and music of the French composer that toured to nearly forty venues around the country.
He has received fellowships from the Aspen Music Festival and the Institute for Advanced Vocal Studies in Paris, and is the recipient of the prestigious Van L. Lawrence Fellowship awarded jointly by The Voice Foundation and NATS. In 2011, Spivey was inducted into the distinguished American Academy of Teachers of Singing.
