In Conversation With… Dr Tracy Bourne
Friday 24th July 2026, 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM (London Time)
As part of the Musical Theatre Research Alliance and Voice Study Centre, Strand 1: Vocal Health and Sustainability in Musical Theatre launches with a unique interview series: “In Conversation With.”
Three leading practitioners from across the musical theatre industry will each take part in an individual online interview, responding to the same core questions around vocal health, sustainability, and current professional practice. By exploring shared themes through multiple professional lenses, the series aims to capture a rich range of perspectives, experiences, and approaches, generating valuable qualitative data that can help shape future research, training, and industry practice.
Designed to be inclusive and collaborative, the sessions will also be open to observers, with opportunities for audience-submitted questions in a final discussion segment. Each conversation will run approximately 30–45 minutes, with questions shared in advance while allowing space for wider dialogue and emerging topics.
Free and open to all, this final live online discussion in Strand 1 of our interview series features Victorian College of the Arts Associate Lecturer Dr Tracy Bourne.
Tracy teaches singing technique in the Bachelor of Fine Arts (Music Theatre) program at the University of Melbourne, with a strong focus on vocal sustainability for emerging and professional performers. Drawing on her PhD research in voice science and pedagogy, Tracy specialises in music theatre vocal techniques including belt, legit and mix across male and female singers.
This conversation will explore vocal health and sustainability in musical theatre through the lens of Tracy's research, teaching, and extensive experience working with emerging and professional performers.
Essential viewing for performers, teachers, students, and anyone interested in the future of healthy and sustainable musical theatre practice.
This series is part of the Musical Theatre Research Alliance (MTRA).
Events are free to attend publicly. MTRA members also have opportunities to participate in aspects of the research process and future research conversations.
Dr Tracy Bourne
Tracy Bourne is a singer, teacher, researcher, and Associate Lecturer in Music Theatre (voice) at the Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne, Australia. She was previously Lecturer in Singing at the University of Ballarat (now Federation University) and has maintained a private teaching studio for over 30 years. In 2016, she completed a PhD by publication through Sydney University on the Perceptual, Physiological and Acoustic Characteristics of Male and Female Music Theatre Singers.
Sorry, this is an archived short course...
We have plenty of upcoming short courses coming soon. See details of some of them below or look at the full list of short courses.
Monday 19th October 2026
2:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Tuesday 20th October 2026
2:00 PM - 4:00 PM
(London Time)
Introduction to Vocal Acoustics for Spoken and Sung Voice
Gökçe Kutsal
This course is designed to break down the fundamentals of acoustics for both spoken and sung voice in a beginner-friendly, accessible way — so you can easily understand and apply these concepts to your teaching or research.
Tuesday 20th October 2026
5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
(London Time)
Practical Magic*: The Art & Science of Balancing Voices with SOVTs and VFEs
Melanie Tapson
Through live demonstrations, group practice, and peer coaching, you’ll learn how to teach SOVTs and VFEs with clarity and precision, integrate their principles to support vocal health, recovery, and stylistic flexibility and troubleshoot challenges and adapt exercises for individualized results.
Tuesday 27th October 2026
5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
(London Time)
Pop Pedagogy - an Overview
Kim Chandler
Some successful pop stars are celebrating career lengths of over sixty years, having been around since the 1950s when pop music emerged and diversified from jazz, so pop singing has been in existence sufficiently long now that, for teaching purposes, we can observe and analyse what type of approach serves it best.