Wednesday 24 June - Friday 26 June 2026
The Theatrical Voice Research Centre Conference
Guildford
Surrey
About us
The Theatrical Voice Research Centre is a network of researchers, practitioners and cultural organisations working around the human voice from multiple socio-cultural perspectives and across different genres. The Centre currently connects over 100 members across the globe and shares resources and projects on the singing and spoken voice in both live and mediated settings.
Conference Programme
24 June
10.00 – 11.30 Voice and Intermediality
Andrea Smith (University of Suffolk), ‘Theatrical voice beyond the footlights: broadcasting the stage on radio’
Pim Verhulst (University of Reading), ‘Intermedial Voices in the Plays of Harold Pinter and Caryl Churchill’
Richard Elliott (Newcastle University), ‘Nonhuman songholders and singing machines’
11.30 - 12.00 Coffee break
12.00 – 13.00 Vocal Pedagogy: Contemporary Perspectives
Mark Hamilton (Regent’s University London), ‘Radical Quietude: Breath, Vibration and
Integration in Nadine George Voice Work’
Melinda Szuts (Trinity College Dublin), ‘Interpreting Text and Music with the Bodymind: The Choreographic Approach’
13.00 – 14.30 Lunch
14.30 – 16.20 Embodying the Character
Anders Muskens (University of Tübingen) and Laila Cathleen Neuman (Conservatory of Amsterdam) ‘Virtue in Distress: Cleopatra as a Sentimental Heroine in Melodrama of the Mannheim School’
Magnus Tessing Schneider (University of Gothenburg), ‘Doubling and vocal differentiation in Cavalli’s La Didone (1641)’
Jed Wentz (Leiden University), ‘A Voice from the Closet: performing Byron’s Manfred in theatrical mode’
16.20 – 16.50 Coffee break
16.50 – 18.20 Voice and Meaning
James Critchley (University of Cambridge), ‘Screaming with Peter Shaffer’
Gianluca Bocchino (Università degli Studi di Cassino), ‘The Voice as Performative Excess’
Asli Kaymak (Erzincan University), ‘Three-Bullet Opera: Theatre of Criminal Authority’
25 June
9.30 – 10.30 Voicing the Diva
Malo Maleszka (Lyon 2 University), ‘Paper Voices: collecting and analysing female opera singers’ writings’
Ivan Ćurković (University of Zagreb), ‘A Star Was Born in Nuremberg? Dunja Vejzović and Her Career in the Period 1971-1977’
10.30 – 11.00 Coffee break
11.00 – 12.00 Vocal Pedagogy: Historical and ‘Continuous’ Perspectives
Rebecca Troy (Independent Researcher), ‘Considering the Vocal Treatises of Late-Operatic Castrati’
Francesco Venturi (Kingston University London), ‘The Transformability of Voices.
Lessons on vocal learning from Italian opera singing’
12.00 – 12.15 Short break
12.15 – 13.15 Keynote
Roger Freitas (Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester), ‘Barbara Strozzi: the Allure of an Unsung Voice’
13.15 – 14.30 Lunch
14.30 – 16.00 Vocal Authority
Vanessa Romao (University of Toronto), ‘Vocal Performance and Authorial Politics in Philomel (1964) and Thema (Omaggio a Joyce) (1958/9)’
Russell Burdekin (Independent Researcher), ‘Tempo and Tradition: Rethinking the Final
Cabaletta in Maria Stuarda’
Ana Wegner (Universidade de São Paulo/FAPESP) and Cesar Lignelli (Universidade de Brasília), ‘Voice studies in the global south: editorial challenges of Revista Voz e Cena (Brazil)’
16.00 – 16.30 Coffee break
16.30 – 18.30 (Between) Singing and the Spoken Voice
Jacques Dupuis (Purdue University Fort Wayne), ‘Sophie Schröder in Prague: Forging
Artistic Identities through Vocal Modalities’
Fatima Volkoviskii Barajas (Independent Researcher), ‘Vocality in Transit: Recording Practices and the Formation of Musical Genre in Early Spanish Zarzuela’
Leonardo Mancini (University of Turin), ‘The young Ernest Legouvé and the origins of his
ideas on declamation’
Hippolyte Broud (University of Exeter), ‘The Afterlife of a Voice: Sarah Bernhardt through
Mary Marquet’
26 June
10.00 – 11.10 Lessons on Embodiment
Laurence Corbel (University of Rennes 2), ‘What voice does to thought’
Karine Leblanc Sarrade (Université Paris 8), ‘Gestural Polyphony: Sancari as Artistic Exegesis in Odissi Narrative Repertoire’
11.10 – 11.40 Coffee break
11.40 – 12.40 The Operatic Voice: Class and Gender
Annelies Andries (Utrecht University), ‘Parbleu… Sapperment…: Voice, Dialect, and
Class in Theatrical Translation’
Matthew Franke (Howard University), ‘Turiddu, Des Grieux, and men’s emotions in late
nineteenth-century opera’
12.40 – 14.10 Lunch
14.10 – 15.10 Vocal Pedagogy and Emotions
Louisa Morgan (University of Surrey), ‘Affective Athleticism in the Vocal Athlete: Performing Emotional Roles’
Karen Quigley (University of York), ‘Voices Before Singing: Theatre Pathways into Vocal Confidence’
15.10 - 15.40 Coffee break
15.40 – 16.40 Voice and Popular Musical Theatre
Ben Macpherson (University of Portsmouth), ‘Voicing time and place: a cappella as oblique vocality in musical theatre’
Faye Rigopoulou (Independent Researcher), ‘The Ageing Female Voice as Scapegoat in Musical Theatre Dramaturgies’
16.40 – 17.00 Closing Remarks
17.00 Drinks Reception
Programme committee
- Richard Elliott, Newcastle University
- Barbara Gentili, University of Surrey
- Céline Frigau Manning, Université Lyon 3
- Clair Rowden, University of Glasgow
- Jed Wentz, Leiden University
Visitor information
Guildford School of Acting, Founders Studio