Loralee Songer, an assistant professor of music at Taylor University in Upland, Indiana, has won the 2021 American Prize in Vocal Performance – Friedrich and Virginia Schorr Memorial Award. The American Prize is a prestigious series of national competitions in the performing arts that recognizes both professional and college/university levels as well as community organizations in a number of areas including composition, piano, voice, chamber music, conducting, and ensemble performance. The Vocal Performance award recognizes and rewards the best performances by classically trained vocalists in America, based on submitted recordings.
Dr. Songer is a mezzo-soprano recitalist, opera and oratorio performer, conductor, and educator. She teaches applied voice, conducting, and other music-related courses at Taylor University.
“Dr. Loralee Songer is an exceptional artist and professor who is committed to the pursuit of excellence as a vocalist and a classroom/studio teacher,” said Thomas G. Jones, interim provost at Taylor University. “It comes as no surprise to Dr. Songer’s colleagues and students that she is a recipient of an award that evaluates, recognizes, and rewards the best performers in the country.”
Dr. Songer is the author of Songs of the Second Viennese School: A Performer’s Guide to Selected Solo Vocal Works (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2016), in which she outlines for singers and voice teachers critical information on selected solo vocal works by three major classical composers active during the first half of the twentieth century: Arnold Schoenberg, Alban Berg, and Anton Webern.
A graduate of Taylor University, Dr. Songer earned a master’s degree and a doctor of arts degree in vocal performance and choral conducting from Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana.