The Fellowship and $2,000 award are intended to provide opportunities for the Fellow to become more thoroughly acquainted with practices, techniques, technology and people involved in laryngology and voice science.
Schloneger has served as a voice instructor at Hesston since 2001, and currently serves as Chair of the Fine Arts Department. He earned a doctorate in vocal pedagogy from the University of Kansas (Lawrence), where his research interests focused on singers’ health. He holds a master of music degree in voice from the University of Cincinnati (Ohio) College-Conservatory of Music, a bachelor’s in music and sociology from Goshen (Ind.) College and an associate of arts from Hesston College. He completed post-graduate studies at the Civica Scuola di Musica di Milano in Milan, Italy, where he was a Rotary Scholar, and has a certificate in French language from the Sorbonne in Paris, France.
As a Van Lawrence Fellow, Schloneger will complete a research project over the next year to be presented at The Voice Foundation’s 2018 Symposium on Care of the Professional Voice and expedited publication in the “Journal of Voice” or “Journal of Singing.”
His project will involve the use of voice dosimetry, newly developed technology designed to assess the vocal load acquired by singers over a period of time. Schloneger describes the technology as “a Fitbit for the voice.” Schloneger wrote: “As a singing voice pedagogue, I want to continue exploring ways in which voice dosimetry can be of direct assistance to singing teachers.” The project will work to quantify the tessituras and vocal load of specific vocal repertoire, and will involve collaborative work with the National Center for Voice and Speech, Michigan State University and Westminster Choir College.
Schloneger, whose research has focused on the relationships between singer voice use and vocal health will also present at The Voice Foundation’s 2017 Symposium on June 4, in Philadelphia, a joint effort on “Vocal Dose, Hearing Dose, and Voice Changes of Karaoke Singer: A Case Study.”
Schloneger is a two-time runner up for the Fellowship in 2013 and 2016.
The Van L. Lawrence Fellowship was created to honor Van L. Lawrence, M.D. for his outstanding contribution to voice, and particularly to recognize the importance of the interdisciplinary education he fostered among laryngologists and singing teachers. It is awarded jointly by The Voice Foundation and National Association of Teachers of Singing Foundation.