Partnerships
AOTOS is proud to be associated with a number of leading voices across our industry in order to best serve our community.
NYC Fellowship
We are very proud to partner with the National Youth Choir, recognising the huge importance of keeping a constant conversation going between choral conductors, composers and the singing teaching community.
We offer a mentoring programme in which volunteer members of AOTOS offer to informally mentor members of the NYC Emerging Professional Artists’ programme. We also work closely with the Fellows and Young Composers at NYC by offering a training day early in their programme, in which we encourage a discussion around leading choirs and writing for choirs from the perspective of the singing teacher.
We shine a light on the language we might use when working with choirs as well as other areas of interest, such as effective warm-ups, considerations about specific exercises for specific tasks, vocal health and writing for voice. We offer the Fellows membership of AOTOS during their programme’s year, and love having them at our conferences, where their contributions are often made by singing in masterclasses, joining discussion panels (such as the Brave Space discussion at our Summer Conference in 2022) or simply attending and making their contributions in wider discussions. NYC in turn, bring their expertise, with members of their staff joining us to speak at our conferences and online events.
History
Our partnership with NYC was set up originally in 2018 by Nicola-Jane Kemp. This programme was brought into being to enable the young singers of the Fellowship programme at NYC to make contact with members of our organisation and enter into an informal mentoring relationship. In 2021, as the NYC Fellowship programme evolved, so did our partnership, and we enjoyed adding to the mentoring scheme and bringing not only the four new Fellowship singers into our partnership programme, but also the four composers who make up the Young Composers’ Scheme. Recently re-developed, the Emerging Professional Artists’ programme offers enhanced opportunities to develop ambitious and creative young musicians who want to become part of the professional choral network.
Ruth Evans, the Executive Producer of the National Youth Choir had this to say about the mentoring programme:
‘The partnership between AOTOS and National Youth Choir is one that brings great potential to the choral landscape of our nation. Developing musicians that understand and nurture their own voice, and the voices of others, is a vital part of vocal leadership across music education, performance and conducting. We are very grateful to the AOTOS team/mentors for their expertise and support across our National Youth Choir Emerging Professional Artists programme and beyond!’
European Voice Teachers Association
The European Voice Teachers Association (EVTA) is the umbrella organisation serving teachers of singing across Europe, publishing regular newsletters and articles, as well as hosting and organising the EUROVOX conference and making contributions at other conferences such as Pan European Voice Conference (PEVOC).
EVTA was founded in 1989 and today represents approximately 4,300 individual members across 20 countries. The various member organisations have individual profiles and vary vastly in size, scope and resources, and AOTOS, as one of the larger organisations, hopes to make a good contribution to EVTA’s activities. The association was reorganised as a registered non-profit organisation in Germany in 2004.
Becoming a member of AOTOS automatically means that you become a member of the European Voice Teachers’ Association, and this entitles you to participate in all EVTA’s activities and receive their publications. It also fosters our international relations, and in these times of such global ease of access to our colleagues in other territories, there is opportunity for a very fertile exchanging of ideas and understanding. The EVTA Council, consisting of representatives of each of the member associations, is the governing body and meets annually in person. More informal meetings are held online during the year to share information about the running of their local member organisations, and this is invaluable to us, bringing fresh new ideas and keeping us in touch. The Executive Committee is responsible for project conception and the administration of the association.
EVTA endeavours to complement and support the work of the national associations by offering projects not possible on a national level, furthering networking and exchange, and forging into new developments in voice pedagogy and research.
