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General Information about PAS Conference

 

 

4th International PAS

4th International PAS Conference

    The Institute of Music Research (http://imr.utsa.edu) and the Department of Music at The University of Texas at San Antonio (http://music.utsa.edu) will host the 4th International Conference on the Physiology and Acoustics of Singing on January 7-10, 2009.  The 2009 conference will bring together performers, voice educators, voice scientists, medical doctors and behavioral therapy specialists in a unique format of lectures, demonstrations and performances. Information sharing about singing will catalyze discussions about bridging the gaps between voice disciplines.  The conference proceedings will be disseminated through a website which will feature streaming videos of presentations, audio files, links to other related websites, and text versions of presentation abstracts.  All attendees will receive a DVD of the website content.

    The organizers have developed a series of suggested topics for prospective presenters, in order to give focus to the meeting and to elicit a wide variety of presentations.  The topics are:

    • Physiology and Acoustics of Singing
    • Choral Singing and Choral Acoustics
    • Distinctions between Choral and Solo Singing
    • Non-classical singing styles
    .

    Choral singing is of particular significance; a recent study by Choral America found that 28.5 million Americans (approximately 10% of the population) participate in choral music performance on a regular basis (www.chorusamerica.org/chorstudypress.shtml).  Given the number of participants, the voice use habits of choral singers are not only of musical interest but also of public health interest.  The role of the singing teacher/choral director as a disseminator of vocal health information may be explored as well.

    Other topics relating to the physiology and acoustics of singing and the application of scientific information to vocal pedagogy are welcomed.  For example, papers on the following topics would be well received:

    1. Technological aids to research and instruction: how interactions between researchers and singers/teachers of singing are driving the development of more portable and "user-friendly" voice analysis technology.  This may include presentations on methods of integrating technology into the practice/teaching studio to enhance learning and how said technology and methodology has applications for other types of voice training and treatment; this may also include an examination of which quantitative measurements of singing are most effective in tracking progress and establishing norms of behavior;

    2. How technology is being used to enhance both live and recorded performances;

    3. Further explorations into historical trends in singing, the singing development of children, issues facing the aging vocal performer and non-Western styles of singing;

    4. Medical aspects of singing voice research, including surgical and non-surgical intervention strategies for professional voice users, habilitation and rehabilitation of singers, the professional voice care team approach (collaborative relationships between singing teachers, speech pathologists, voice scientists and medical doctors) and how advances in medicine for the specialized professional voice user are helping the general public;

    5. Theory of the singing voice: experimental and theoretical investigations of voice physiology and vocal tract acoustics; this may include the impact of postural/body alignment issues on singing voice physiology and acoustics;

    6. Continuing the dialog between traditional singing teaching and voice science and between vocal pedagogy and speech language pathology.

    The conference organizers are open to the submission of outstanding proposals on singing voice physiology and acoustics which may not exactly fit the topics described above, but which merit presentation at an international meeting of this nature.

    Abstracts must be submitted electronically to the conference coordinator in Microsoft Word or PDF format and should be limited to 500 words.  The deadline for submissions is June 15, 2008.  Notice will be given to all submitting authors by August 1, 2008.

    All inquiries and submissions should be sent to:

    John Nix, Conference Coordinator, PAS 4
    Associate Professor of Voice and Voice Pedagogy
    Music Department
    The University of Texas at San Antonio
    John.Nix@utsa.edu
    office phone: 210-458-5678

 

Evaluation

    A formal evaluation instrument will be distributed to all attendees and presenters following the meeting.  This evaluation includes questions on the format of the conference, the quality and content of the presentations, the impact of the conference on the evaluator’s future work, the quality of the conference website and other dissemination of the conference’s proceedings, and it will solicit input from each respondent on ways to improve future conferences.  All the evaluation responses will be compiled and posted on the conference website.

Attendance

    We anticipate a total attendance of 150.  Targeted groups for the conference marketing plan are voice scientists, singing voice specialists, speech-language pathologists, laryngologists, teachers of singing, choral directors and graduate students in each of the previously mentioned fields.

Location

    The conference will be held on the campus of the University of Texas at San Antonio main campus, 1 UTSA Circle, San Antonio, TX 78023.  Meetings will be held in a modern state-of-the-art lecture hall.  Other informal gatherings over meals will occur in the university’s student center banquet hall; concert events will be held in the Music Department’s recital hall.

UTSA Academic Technology Facilities

    The Center for Distance Learning & Academic Technology (http://dlc.utsa.edu) manages all UTSA Distance Learning activities. The center has the capability to deliver content by a blend of technologies including Interactive Video, Streaming Video, and WebCT.   The University's mission of outreach demands a wide range of video connectivity and services. UTSA has the ability to link distance learning classrooms, conference rooms, studios, and control rooms on both campuses with area high schools, businesses, and universities locally, nationally, and internationally.

    UTSA has a total of 20 state-of-the-art classrooms equipped for videoconferencing courses and meetings.  One of these classrooms on the Main campus will be utilized for the Conference.  The Main campus has a fully equipped television studio and a central control room for monitoring multiple broadcasts and classes.  UTSA’s technology is capable of broadcasting in a point-to-point or a multipoint environment and transmitting multiple courses and conferences simultaneously.   The University’s internal fiber optic network is connected by dedicated T1 circuits to the UTSA Video Hub. The Hub is also configured for ISDN dialup access and IP video over Internet II to connect with educational partners around the world.

    The Center also manages a growing streaming video operation designed to allow recorded lectures to be viewed at any time. Streaming video technology enables UTSA to record up to 20 simultaneous lectures from interactive video classrooms on both campuses, which can be made available over the Internet in Real Media, Windows Media, and QuickTime file formats. A Dell 2550 Power Edge server with 2 terabytes of hard drive storage spaces currently serves streaming video files of every lecture in 103 complete courses on the campus.  The university’s bandwidth and streaming video technology will be used for the Conference.

    In addition to the amenities offered by UTSA, the city of San Antonio also provides attendees with a modern airport, efficient public transportation, a reasonable cost of visiting the area and access to a major university and health sciences center.   To attendees from the U.S, San Antonio is centrally located no more than 3 1/2 hours by plane from any major city on either coast.

Organizers’ experience with hosting major events

    The conference host was conference coordinator for the 3rd International Conference on Vocal Physiology and Biomechanics (ICVPB) in Denver in September, 2002, the 2nd International Conference on the Physiology and Acoustics of  Singing (PAS II: New Directions), also held in Denver in October 2004, and the International Conference on Occupational Voice Research, held in San Antonio at UTSA in October 2007.  PAS 2, which was supported in part by NIH, attracted 117 attendees for three days of meetings.  From 2001-2005, Mr. Nix also was the coordinator of the Summer Vocology Institute (SVI), a two month intensive in voice production, voice instrumentation, voice habilitation and voice performance pedagogy.  This Institute attracted an average of 20 students per year from the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, Austria, Japan and Brazil.  His planning for these conferences and institutes has included recruitment of presenters, faculty, attendees and students; arranging travel and housing; developing web resources; curriculum revisions; scheduling courses and meeting spaces; preparing special events such as master classes and concerts; making timely reports on the success of the programs to their respective sponsors.  The success of these past events demonstrates his commitment and expertise in hosting the highest level of educational and information dissemination meetings.