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The American baritone and music pedagogue, Sean McCarther, obtained his Bachelor of Music degree at Baylor University, where he studied with Jack Coldiron (2006); and his Master of Music degree with an emphasis in speech pathology at Indiana University (2006-2011). In May of 2012 he received his doctorate in Vocal Performance and Pedagogy with minors in music theory and movement/postural analysis at Indiana University. He studied voice with Dr. Robert Harrison and pedagogy with the late Paul Kiesgen.
Sean McCarther has performed leading roles in opera, musical theatre, and staged plays with JCA Management, The Lee Norvelle Theater and Drama Center, the Bloomington Early Music Festival, Bloomington Playwrights Project, and IU Opera Theatre. He is a strong proponent of new music and has appeared in several premieres including Gabriella Ortiz’s Unicamente la Verdad! (The Composer) and Don Freund’s Romeo and Juliet (Romeo). He premiered the chamber cycle Archy Speaks by composer Gabriel Lubell as part of the Ball State New Music Festival.
In addition to staged work, Sean McCarther is an avid recitalist and chorister. In April of 2013 he sang the American premiere of Paul Mealor’s Crucifixus in Princeton and New York. He is a member of the semi-professional chorus Vox Reflexa and performed with them and Ensemble Lipzodes in Quito, Ecuador as part of the Festival International de Musica Sacra. In 2010, McCarther and his pianist Joseph Noelliste toured their sacred music recital "O Sacrum Convivium" across Texas and Indiana in Dallas, Plano, Houston, Waco, Bloomington, South Bend, and Indianapolis.
Sean McCarther has served as Associate Instructor at Indiana University in Bloomington (August 2007-May 2011); and Adjunct Professor of Voice at Vincennes University in Indiana (August 2010-May 2012). Since August 2012, he serves as Assistant/ Associate Professor of Voice at Westminster Choir College of Rider University where he teaches studio voice and undergraduate voice science.
An advocate for physical theater and mobile singers, Sean McCarther has created a movement-based performance pedagogy called "Body, Mind, and Voice Performance Training" (BMV Training). The training draws upon a multitude of movement disciplines to create a multifaceted movement pedagogy that frees the body from unnecessary tension, allows both effortless movement and easy, organic phonation, and helps the student learn to actively engage their environment, their scene partners, and the audience with the highest potential expression. He has presented BMV workshops at Westminster Choir College, the University of Texas and Vincennes University. Recently, he has served on the faculty of the CoOPERAtive program as a movement instructor. McCarther is the apprentice of Adam and Melissa Noble, co-founders of the Dynamic Presence Project, whose mission is the revitalization and proliferation of movement theatre and physical storytelling. Much of the BMV training is based on his work with them and their Dynamic Presence Training.
Sean McCarther has presented scholarly research at the Indiana Music Teachers Association, the Beall Poetry Festival (Baylor University), the New Voice Educators Symposium (Indiana University), and the Alleluia Conference (Baylor University). His research interests include diagnosis and correction of vocal faults, movement for the stage, motor learning, cognition and creativity, and the acquisition of excellence. He is a certified STOTT Pilates instructor and has been trained by the Society of American Fight Directors in knife and broadsword combat for the stage.
Sean McCarther, his wife Alicia, their son Ian, and their pointer/hound mix Barkley currently live in Ewing, near Princeton, New Jersey. |
