Theatre professor Steven R. Chicurel, DMA, received a Lifetime Achievement Award from Estill Voice International at the Sixth Estill World Voice Symposium at Harvard University, August 2013.
The Estill Lifetime Achievement Award “recognizes outstanding individuals who have made significant contributions to the field of voice. Recipients of this award have served as role models to others and have devoted their life-long careers to the advancement of voice research, performance and/or voice education. These individuals have inspired others where voice is concerned. They have been leaders in the voice profession and have promoted an ideology where the needs and goals of others are met with an open mind and without aesthetic bias. They have embraced the mission of Estill Voice International—to bring quality voice training into all regions of the world.”
Dr. Chicurel joins other recipients from previous symposia in being awarded this honor, among them, preeminent acoustician and voice scientist Dr. Osamu Fujimura (ret.) (Japan), voice researcher Dr. Svend Prytz (Denmark), and voice pedagogue Helen Tiller (Australia).
The Estill program attracts students to the UCF Theatre Department. “Over the past years, we have received increasing numbers of queries from potential students (or their parents) who are looking for Estill-based Voice Training as the foundation of Musical Theatre voice studies,” says Dr. Chicurel.
“Those requests have come from as far away as the UK and Europe, so there’s also a “draw” for international students. Estill Voice Training is recognized as an effective voice teaching model (in various disciplines) and now, as UCF is an official Estill Educational Affiliate (EEA) and I have been honored with this award , UCF is in the forefront of innovative, dynamic, and meaningful teaching to meet the needs of 21st century performing arts students.”
In presenting the award to Dr. Chicurel, EVI vice president Mary McDonald Klimek noted his association with Jo Estill as a student, co-teacher, and co-researcher from 1988 until Ms. Estill’s passing in 2011, his presentations and master classes in voice on 5 continents, his work to establish the University of Central Florida’s status as one of three Estill Voice Educational Affiliates worldwide, and as the driving force behind the formation of the Josephine Estill Archive.
Theatre UCF is one of just three Educational Affiliates of Estill Voice International™ in the world. Educational Affiliates are institutions that include Estill Voice Training™ in their curriculum and have at least two faculty members who are EVT Representatives (Certified Master Teachers or Certified Course Instructors). At UCF, Chicurel is a Certified Course Instructor with Service Distinction and Testing Privileges, and Assistant Professor Tara Snyder, MFA is a Certified Master Teacher.