Kenneth Bozeman, a member of the Lawrence Conservatory of Music faculty since 1977, was appointed the Frank C. Shattuck Professor of Music in 1999. With an instructional specialty in voice and vocal pedagogy, he teaches singers to sing and how to teach singing and also is chair of the conservatory's voice department, which comprises approximately 90 majors and eight faculty members.
With a particular interest in vocal acoustics, he studies the pedagogical application of acoustics to the teaching of singing, utilizing technological aids such as the Sona-graph, an instrument that produces in real time a spectrographic analysis of sung tones. The spectrograph charts frequency on the vertical axis, time on the horizontal, and intensity on the gray (or color) scale; the teacher can play back a phrase a student has just sung and point out visually things that are going well or badly.
However, Bozeman says, "While I use voice science as an aid to pedagogy, I don't believe it should dominate the vocal studio. Pedagogical decisions are still dependent on the teacher's ear and eye and the student's comfort. Furthermore, vocal lessons are about much more than physical technique; they are very much about language, expression, communication, and musical phrasing."
Outside the classroom, Bozeman serves as chair of the editorial board of the Journal of Singing, a publication of the National Association of Teachers of Singing, reviewing articles submitted for publication. In other activities, he is voice trainer for the Appleton Boychoir, faculty advisor to the Lawrence Christian Fellowship, and a member of the board of directors of Appleton's Classical Charter School. From 1998 to 2000 he served on the task force created by the Board of Trustees to study aspects of residential life at Lawrence.
View other faculty profiles from the president's annual report