TROY – Before she began her career in higher education, Catherine Allard spent more than a decade as a professional musician, touring the country with opera companies. This spring, Dr. Allard, a professor in the John M. Long School of Music at Troy University, will take the tour of a lifetime, spending five months in the People’s Republic of China.

Dr. Allard left this week for her Asian adventure, which will include visits to Yunnan University in southwestern China and Suzhou University in northeastern China. She will study the Chinese approach to teaching voice. She will return to Troy in July.

Dr. Allard said she was inspired to visit China after working with a student from Suzhou at Troy University. More than 260 students from China are enrolled on the Troy Campus, making Chinese students the largest international contingent at TROY.

“I like listening to music and learning about different kinds of music and this trip is an extension of that,” Dr. Allard said. “There are a lot of similarities between east and west as far as scales, melody and rhythm go but the singing styles are really different.”

The primary difference, Dr. Allard said, is that, in the west, vocal teachers want their students to develop their own personal styles “within the context of healthy technique.” Chinese vocal teachers, on the other hand, have an ideal sound in mind.

“The idea is to imitate the sound of the master teacher rather than finding your own unique sound,” she said. “I found that really interesting and thought it would be a great project to see if I could recognize some sort of pattern in the teaching.”

Dr. Allard has studied Mandarin Chinese language for about six months to prepare for her visit. She will also take recording equipment to capture the techniques of Chinese vocalists.

“This is a real adventure in a world that's fairly new to westerners,” Dr. Allard said. “We have so many Chinese students on our campus, and it would be great to get an exchange where we can take some of ours over there, especially to perform.  That's one of the things I hope to do, as well as make some friends.”

--end--

Note: a biography of Dr. Allard is available on the Troy University website at http://music.troy.edu/faculty_staff/allard.html