Kristen Murdaugh, mezzo-soprano, is a voice researcher, teacher, and performer. Her recent credits include the role of Estelle in John Musto’s Later the Same Evening as well as the contralto solos in the world premiere of Christopher LaRosa’s oratorio Joshua. Kristen is also an active chamber music artist singing with Servire Chorus. She is currently completing her PhD in Voice Science at the mdw, while continuing to sing and teach voice privately. She holds a Master of Music Degree in Vocal Pedagogy from the New England Conservatory of Music and a Bachelor of Music degree in Vocal Performance and German studies from Furman University. Her recent papers, lectures, and conference presentations include: Correlating Perceptual and Spectral Aspects of Chiaroscuro in Singing; In-Person or Virtual: Assessing the Impact of COVID-19 on the Teaching Habits of Voice Pedagogues; That’s What He Said: Gender Bias in the Fundamental Models of Sound Perception; and in 2017, she presented a TEDx Talk titled, Talking about Talking: The Science of the Voice.

Chiaroscuro in Singing: Illuminating Obscurity through Perceptual and Physiological Correlations

Chiaroscuro (the balance of bright and dark timbre in a sung tone) has been a prevalent term in the field of singing voice pedagogy for nearly four centuries, and yet to date, no empirical studies have been conducted to further understand the perceptual, spectral, physical, and physiological components of not just chiaroscuro as a Gestalt principle, but also chiaro and scuro individually. To fill this gap, a multipart study with perceptual listening tests and in-vivo voice production experiments is being conducted. The study aims to more thoroughly understand a) the various spectral and acoustic features which impact the perception of chiaro, scuro, and chiaroscuro, and how they do so, and b) the physiological/muscular maneuvers singers may alter in order to strengthen or weaken the percept of chiaroscuro in their voices, adding crucial – and currently missing – information to the emerging field of evidence-based voice pedagogy.