Voice

Education

DMA, Moores School of Music, University of Houston
​MM, Vocal Performance, Rice University
BM, Vocal Performance, Rice University

Dr. Randy Lacy

My goal as an Applied Voice teacher, Vocal Pedagogy teacher, and Opera Director is to empower my students to realize their own potential as communicators, musicians, and singers.  By teaching them to discover and develop their own strengths, I help them share their natural gifts as performers, teachers, directors, or music therapists. 

Vocally, I teach a technique that is flexible and free of undue tension, with an emphasis upon naturalness of sound production.  Using a mixture of scientific terminology and metaphor, I aim to enhance my students’ self-awareness.  Most recently, I have used two contrasting works as required textbooks: Your Voice: An Inside View by Scott McCoy and The Naked Voice by W. Stephen Smith. 

I have taught English, French, German, and Italian Diction, and I have done some peripheral studies of Czech, Latin, Russian, and Spanish and diction, as well. I expect my students to learn the tools needed to sing in their native tongue and foreign languages, such as, use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, and finding and using resources for musical/theatrical interpretation, foreign language translation, phonetic transcription, etc.  

On stage, I teach my students to move expressively and act in an organic manner that conveys truth of intention to the audience.  The inspiration for truthfulness on stage should come directly from the text and the music. I often ask students to investigate the opposing emotions or actions that seem to be indicated by the original text, helping them to flesh out the underlying meanings of words or tensions within a character.

Musically, I expect my students to be both accurate and artistically expressive:  blending the right and left brain activity into one integrated and artful product, to honor both the composer’s written intentions and artistic goals.  The latter is especially important to me, as I believe singing is fundamentally about communication.  I also require them to do historical research about the composers and poets whose music they learn, and the context in which the works were written.  

In more academic pursuits, such as Vocal Pedagogy, Lyric Diction, Song History & Literature, or Cantata & Oratorio Literature, I give my students as much current and valuable information as possible, but I also seek to empower and inspire them to want to pursue such topics further on their own, and instigate their own continuing research.

The advent of amplifiers and microphones over 100 years ago has allowed for the evolution of different styles of singing such as music theatre, jazz, swing, rock & roll, rap, country, commercial music, and a host of others. In the light of so much diversity and demand for vocalism which no longer fits into the “legit” style, I strive to keep abreast of current scientific research and new practices which will allow singers to pursue their desired course with the healthiest and easiest technique possible. I have honed my ability to listen carefully, not only to a student’s vocalism, but also to his or her hopes and dreams; thereby allowing myself to flex and remain open to new ideas and styles.

It is one of my principal goals to make my teaching about my students, and not about myself. I regard singing as an organic process, which must be healthy and efficient, but also uniquely individual to each person.
The Dallas School of Music
Best music education in North Texas by CBS DFW, D Magazine and Dallas Child Magazine