VOICE PERFORMANCE EDUCATION IN NIGERIAN UNIVERSITIES: THE CURRENT STATE

Abstract

This article presents a critical review of the current state of Voice Performance Education in Nigerian Universities, which is a product of Voice pedagogy. Selected universities in Southern Nigeria were used as the primary focus of the paper. This followed a period of critical observation of challenges of professionalism and lack of performances or direction by voice performance graduates of departments of music of Nigerian universities. Voice Performance is an area of specialization students who have majored in voice opt for in their final year. Some Voice Performance programmes of selected universities outside Nigeria are reviewed to obtain an international perspective on Voice Performance Education. The objective is to present the current state of voice performance education in Nigerian universities with a view to presenting solutions to identified challenges. The study adopted a descriptive survey design. It employed a mixed method in the analysis of data. Relevant literature on Voice Performance Education as well as experiences gathered over the years were utilised in data gathering for this article. The paper argues that voice performance education in southern Nigeria can be improved upon if voice performance students are adequately prepared and supervised by voice specialists for their final performance. This will go a long way in producing voice performance graduates who are well grounded in the field of voice performance.