Vocal Performance (BM)

Prepare for an exciting career as a performer in the genre of your choice as a Vocal Performance major at Webster University. As a student, you will enjoy a curriculum combining applied lessons, ensemble performance, and a weekly master class in vocal technique and performance style. Throughout your studies, you will benefit from more than 100 years of collected wisdom, guidance, and experience from our artist/teachers. They will help you hone your skills through vocal diction practicums and class instruction in musicianship, music theory and history. Course work in vocal pedagogy, art song literature, and opera literature allows you to challenge yourself and grow as an artist. The repertoire emphasizes art songs, chamber music, opera and oratorio, enhanced by learning lyric diction in Italian, French, German and English.

As a voice major or choral music education major, you will gain real-world experience in area performance ensembles. Our students sing with Bach Society of St. Louis, several of the top church choirs in the region, Union Avenue Opera, Winter Opera St. Louis, and the St. Louis Symphony Chorus. Many have appeared as soloists.

Why choose Webster University for your bachelor's in vocal performance?

The bachelor of music in performance is a pre-professional degree designed to prepare students who wish to pursue a future in the professional music world as a performing artist or studio teacher. The voice emphasis is designed for the student who wishes to pursue a career as a professional performer or pedagogue. Extensive applied instruction and classes on technique, pedagogy, repertoire in various languages and performance styles, as well as ensemble experience, constitute the core of the curriculum.

At Webster, experience several special study opportunities such as:

• World-renowned soprano Christine Brewer, an international performing artist, is Visiting Professor of Voice at Webster University. She conducts an annual series of lectures and masterclasses at the Webster Groves campus.
• Voice students benefit from the presence on campus of Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, and from Webster's strong relationships with local arts organizations, including the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and Union Avenue Opera.
• Staff accompanists provide weekly support at lessons and masterclasses, and weekly coaching sessions. Webster is among a handful of schools that offers this extra support and instruction as part of your tuition.
• Student musicians usually attend the Vienna campus in the junior year spring semester, where Webster has had a campus since 1981, and study voice with a Viennese artist and hone their skills in the city home to legendary composers Beethoven, Mozart and Strauss.

Plan Your Webster Education

The Bachelor of Music in Performance with an emphasis in Voice four-year plan (PDF) helps you visualize the courses you'll take each year of your education journey at Webster University.

Career Outlook and Alumni Success

Recent graduates of the vocal performance program have gone on to further study at prestigious graduate programs, such as Boston University, Northwestern, Rice, New England Conservatory, Indiana, and North Texas universities. Jennifer Johnson Cano, a Webster alumna, is an internationally acclaimed mezzo-soprano; Samantha Schmid, also a Webster graduate, won the American Prize for Women in Art Song.

Get Started on Your Program

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