Hoch - A Dictionary for the Modern Singer

Matthew Hoch is assistant professor of voice at Auburn University, where he teaches applied voice, diction, and opera workshop. He earned his BM, summa cum laude , from Ithaca College, with a triple major in vocal performance, music education, and music theory; his MM from the Hartt School, with a double major in vocal performance and music history; and his DMA in vocal performance and literature from the New England Conservatory. A graduate of the Pennsylvania Governors School for the Arts, he holds the diploma in art history from the University of Hartford and has pursued advanced training with Dr. Ingo Titze at the Summer Vocology Institute (SVI) at the National Center for Voice and Speech (NCVS).

From 20062012, Dr. Hoch served as assistant professor of voice at Shorter College, where his voice students won fifty-six awards at chapter and regional National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) auditions. During his time at Shorter, Dr. Hoch also served as coordinator of vocal studies, director of the Guest Artist Series, and founder of both the New Music Series and Musical Theatre Master Class Series. Dr. Hochs students were accepted into top graduate programs and won numerous competitions, including the district Metropolitan Opera National Council auditions, chapter and regional Music Teachers National Association Young Artist Competition auditions, and chapter and regional NATS auditions. Equally at home as a musical theatre pedagogue, his students have been accepted into many professional training and summer stock programs, were top scorers at the Georgia Theatre Conference, and have included fourteen Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival Irene Ryan nominees, including the 2011 Best Musical Theatre Performer in the Southeast Region.

As a vocal pedagogue, Dr. Hoch has been extremely active in the nations two largest organizations for teachers of singing: the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) and the New York Singing Teachers Association (NYSTA). With NATS, he coordinated the NATS CHATS program from 20062011, and has served on the nominating committee as well as two terms as chair of the professional development committee for the national board of directors. With SER-NATS, he has served as registrar and repertoire consultant, as well as on numerous task forces. With GANATS, he has served as registrar, repertoire consultant, and historian, repertoire consultant. In 2010, he adjudicated the final round of the TEXOMA-NATSAA auditions. Hoch is an alumnus of the 2006 NATS Intern Program, where he was apprenticed to national NATS president Dr. Donald Simonson. As a recipient of the 2007 NATS Vocal Pedagogy Award, he studied CCM vocal pedagogy with Jeannette Lo-Verti at Shenandoah Universitys Music Theatre Vocal Pedagogy Institute, where he earned three levels of certification in Somatic Voicework Trainingthe LoVetri Method. He coordinated and hosted the 2009 NATS Intern Program at Shorter College.

With NYSTA, Dr. Hoch currently holds the office of vice president, and he has served as editor-in-chief of VOICE-Prints: The Official Journal of NYSTA since 2008. He is also a member of the Board of Directors, the Professional Development Program Committee, and the Internet Technology Committee. Dr. Hoch completed the five-course core curriculum of NYSTAs Oren Lathrop Brown Professional Development Program and has been awarded the NYSTAs Distinguished Voice Professional certificate. In 2013, he was selected as a master teacher for NYSTAs annual Comparative Pedagogy Weekend.

Dr. Hoch has performed as a Bach soloist with many professional organizations, including the Atlanta Baroque Orchestra (in Bachs cantatas BWV 56 and BWV 173a), and at the Oregon Bach Festival (in Bachs St Matthew Passion ), the Hartford Symphony (in Bachs Magnificat ), and the Vox Consort and New Haven Oratorio Choir (in Bachs St John Passion ). His professional oratorio experience includes more than a dozen other works by J. S. Bach; Handels Messiah ; Haydns Paukenmesse ; Mozarts Coronation Mass ; Mendelssohns Elijah ; Brahmss Ein deutsches Requiem ; Faurs Requiem ; Durufls Requiem ; Puccinis Messa di Gloria ; Vaughan Williamss Five Mystical Songs , Fantasia on Christmas Carols , and Dona nobis pacem ; Dvoks Te Deum ; Bernsteins Chichester Psalms ; Rutters Mass of the Children ; Stainers The Crucifixion ; Saint-Sanss Oratorio de Nol ; and Orffs Carmina Burana . As a chamber musician, Dr. Hoch has performed with the United States Coast Guard Chamber Players, the Balkan String Quartet, and the Blue Mountain Chamber Players.

Operatic credits have included Horace Tabor in The Ballad of Baby Doe , Melchior in Amahl and the Night Visitors , Ben in The Telephone , David in A Hand of Bridge , Falke in Die Fledermaus , Don Alhambra in The Gondoliers , Jupiter in Orphe aux enfers , Fiorello in Il barbiere di Siviglia , Silvio in Un ballo in maschera , Count Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro , and the title roles in Gianni Schicchi and Dido and Aeneas . Dr. Hoch has held summer apprenticeships with Ash Lawn Opera and the College Light Opera Company on Cape Cod. From 20032005, he was the baritone soloist at historic Trinity Church on Copley Square in Boston. At Ithaca College and the Hartt School, he was a winner of both schools prestigious concerto competitions.

A champion of art song and recital singing, Dr. Hoch recently performed Wolfs Italienisches Liederbuch at Spivey Hall. Other repertoire includes major cycles and sets by Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, Strauss, Beethoven, Faur, Debussy, Ravel, Poulenc, Leguerney, Vaughan Williams, Finzi, Britten, Copland, Barber, and de Falla. Also interested in new music, Dr. Hoch can be heard as a soloist on the Navona recording of Kile Smiths Vespers , with the Piffaro Renaissance Band and the Crossing. Through the Weill Music Institute at Carnegie Hall, he studied twentieth-century vocal techniques in New York City with Meredith Monk, a workshop that resulted in his solo and conducting debuts in Carnegies Zankel Hall. As a soloist, he has sung world premieres by Robert Kyr, Daniel Asia, Jocelyn Hagen, Norman Mathews, Denis von Paris, and Sorrel Hayes. His voice teachers have included Larry Weller, Mark St Laurent, Joanna Levy, Mitchell Piper, Susan Clickner, Carol McA-mis, Randie Blooding, and Donald Nally.

As a professional chorister, Dr. Hoch has performed and recorded with some of the premiere choral ensembles in the United States, including the Santa Fe Desert Chorale, Conspirare, the Minnesota Chorale, the Handel and Haydn Society, the Woodland Scholars, the Vox Consort, CONCORA, the Cayuga Vocal Ensemble, the Alchemy Project, the Crossing, and the Festival dei due Mondi in Spoleto, Italy. In Spoleto, he recorded Gian Carlo Menottis The Saint of Bleecker Street and Cantatas under the direction of Gian Carol Menotti, Richard Hickox, and Donald Nally; both recordings are available on the Chandos label. He has been a regular participant in the Carnegie Hall Choral Workshops, where he has sung under the batons of Peter Schreier, Charles Dutoit, Robert Spano, and Helmuth Rilling. From 20052012, Dr. Hoch sang as a tenured member of the Oregon Bach Festival Chorus under the direction of Maestro Rilling. With this Grammy Award-winning group, he recorded the complete cycle of Haydns late masses for Hnssler Classics and sang the world premieres of Felix Mendelssohns Der Onkel von Boston (2005) and Sven-David Sandstrms Messiah (2009). In 2012, he served as the bass section leader for the OBF Youth Choral Academy under the direction of Anton Armstrong.

As a scholar, Dr. Hoch has researched, written, presented, and published on a variety of topics, including Richard Strauss, French art song, classical and popular singers, choral literature, and the female belt voice. He has been selected as a presenter at many conferences and symposia, including ICVT (international), IHS (international), HICAH (international), NCVS (national), SETC (national), CMS (national), NOA (national), AMS (mega-regional), GMEA (state), GMTA (state), CMENC (state), the International Conference on the Arts in Society (Kassel, Germany), and the New Vocal Educators Symposium (Bloomington, Indiana). His articles have appeared in The Journal of Singing , The Opera Journal , VOICEPrints: The Official Journal of NYSTA , the Journal of the Association of Anglican Musicians , and the Triangle of Mu Phi Epsilon . He is a two-time recipient of the Mu Phi Epsilon Musicological Research Award and was awarded the 2010 Bettylou Scandling Hubin Grant for World Music/Multicultural Studies by the Mu Phi Epsilon Foundation. His critical editions of the late songs of Richard Strauss are published by Classical Vocal Reprints.