Journal of Singing Editorial Board
Christopher Arneson
Christopher Arneson is a professional voice trainer and vocologist who works with singers and actors to build powerful, effective voices. In 2003, he joined the voice faculty at Westminster Choir College of Rider University where he teaches Voice, Voice Pedagogy, Literature for Teaching, and Speech for the Actor. He is director of the Presser Music Center Voice Labratory and co-director of the CoOPERAtive Program, a young artist program for singers, held at Westminster Choir College.
Dr. Arneson has enjoyed success in opera, concert and recital. His operatic repertoire ranged from Baroque to contemporary, with performances of works by Handel and Lully, John Adams and Phillip Glass. His formative training was with the Tri-Cities Opera where he debuted as Silvio in I Pagliacci, at the age of 22. Many of Dr. Arneson's most significant successes occurred in Mozart operas, with acclaimed performances as Don Giovanni, Figaro, Count Almaviva, and Guglielmo. He has appeared with the Opera Orchestra of New York in works of Donizetti and Boildieu, and as Figaro in the Metropolitan Opera Guild's production of The Barber of Seville. He appeared with the New Jersey Symphony singing the Old American Songs of Aaron Copland and in performances of Strauss' Zigeunerbaron with the New York Philharmonic under the direction of Kurt Mazur.
Dr. Arneson is a frequent guest speaker regarding the training and care of the professional voice. He is a faculty member for the New York Singing Teachers Association's (NYSTA) professional development program, where he teaches classes in vocal repertoire and applied pedagogy. Dr. Arneson is chair of the NATS Pedagogy Curriculum Committee and has recently published articles in Journal of Singing; "Teaching Teachers and Performance Anxiety: A 21st Century Perspective."
Dr. Arneson was formerly the co-director of the Voice and Speech department in the MFA program at the renowned Actors Studio of the New School University in New York. In addition, he taught voice and vocal pedagogy at the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Dr. Arneson completed vocology internships at the Grabscheid Voice Center at Mt. Sinai Hospital and the Vox Humana Laboratory at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital, where he continues to collaborate with otolaryngologists and speech-language pathologists in the remediation of voice disorders.
Dr. Arneson holds both Bachelor of Music and Master of Music in Opera degrees from Binghamton University, completed post-graduate studies at Cornell University where he studied with renowned Verdi scholar Roger Parker, and earned his Doctorate from Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University where he studied Seventeenth Century Venetian Opera with Dr. Irene Alm. Dr. Arneson is an editor for Journal of Singing, Unbridled Books and Inside View Press. He is also an editor of the newly revised edition of the Royal Conservatory of Music's Vocal Repertoire Collection, published by Frederick Harris, Ltd, which will be introduced to the US as part of the Carnegie Achievment Program. He is a member of the American Academy of Teachers of Singing, and he was recently designated as Master Teacher for the NATS 2011 Intern Program.
