Inspiring Minds seeks to broaden awareness and impact of graduate student research, while enhancing transferable skills. Students were challenged to describe their research, scholarship or creative activity in 150 or fewer words to share with our community.
At the Beginning of Phonation: Creation of Vocal Colours through Glottal Configuration and Vocal Tract Filtering
Professional opera singers train for their vocal performances utilizing a specific set of musical and dramatic skills, and vocal coordination, to captivate their audience through the story they present or the character they portray. However, this discipline requires a great deal of stamina and awareness of muscle control. Vocal pedagogues, the teachers who help singers in this endeavour, must understand the vocal mechanism and how it produces sound optimally to ensure singers use their voices in the healthiest way while conveying vivid emotions. My research investigates how the larynx and vocal tract produce and filter vocal qualities and colours so singers can ensure emotionally compelling performances. I will also address how sound is filtered in the vocal tract to produce resonance. Ultimately, I will explore how the glottis (space between the vocal folds) and vocal tract function in relation to each other to create a vast palate of vocal qualities.
Charmaine Iormetti
MMus candidate, Music
Don Wright Faculty of Music
Supervisors
Charmaine Iormetti recently completed her MMus in Literature and Performance (Voice) degree at Western University. In addition to her Master’s course load, Charmaine took the Doctoral (DMA) course in Vocal Pedagogy from 2023-2024 as a “Special Topics” course. She also served as Performance Representative at Western University’s Society of Graduate Students in Music Council. As a performer at Western, Charmaine took on the role of Mrs. Herring in Western Opera’s 2024 production of Albert Herring by Britten. Outside of Western, Charmaine serves as chorister at St. Paul’s Cathedral. She was a featured recitalist in St. Paul’s Music at Midday Series in March 2020 & 2023, October 2023, and May 2024. Other highlights include singing solos for Stratford Concert Choir’s 2019 production of Handel’s Messiah, and solos for Hayden’s Lord Nelson Mass and Schubert’s Mass in C Major for Capilano University’s 2018 Spring Choral Concert in North Vancouver, BC.
Charmaine's research is highlighted in episode 484 of GradCast, the official podcast of the Society of Graduate Students at Western University.
You can connect with Charmaine on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/charmaineiormetti/; on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/charmaineiormettisoprano/; and on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/charmaine-marie-iormetti-4430711b4/.
View Charmaine's work as it appears in the Inspiring Minds Digital Collection: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/inspiringminds/555/.