Finding a Natural Harmony
An otolaryngologist and a speech pathologist from the Miller School team up with the Frost School of Music to foster healthy voices.
The voice is the original human instrument. Perhaps the purest vehicle for individual expression, each voice has unique qualities of pitch, timber and tone.
Like any instrument, though, the voice is subject to malfunction from improper use or normal wear and tear.
The need to support and sometimes repair the voice fosters natural collaborations between medicine and vocal performance. The University of Miami is the site of one such partnership, led by collaborators in the Miller School of Medicine and the Frost School of Music. And it grew from similar pairings on a smaller scale.
Music and Medicine as Natural Partners
David Rosow, M.D., professor of otolaryngology and director of the Division of Laryngology and Voice, discovered the connection between music and laryngology by accident.
A classically trained violinist, Dr. Rosow had played in the Boston Philharmonic all through undergraduate and medical school. While he loved music, he also knew that he wanted to help people through medicine. A rotation with a laryngologist clarified the connection.
“He invited me into his office to see some patients. And there was a piano and singers doing warm-ups. And I was like, ‘What is this?’ It was crazy to find something that fused my love of music and my love of medicine,” Dr. Rosow said.
Similarly, Adam Lloyd, S.L.P., a clinical assistant professor in the Division of Speech Pathology, found speech pathology when he lost his voice. Growing up, Dr. Lloyd wanted to be an opera singer. He majored in vocal performance as an undergraduate and went to graduate school intent on a degree in opera performance.
Along the way, Dr. Lloyd began experiencing voice issues. When he visited medical professionals to help address the problem, a new, unexpected career path opened up.
“I was like, wow. I work with performers from a voice teacher’s perspective, teaching people with normal voices how to make them even better. And you guys are working with people in the health care setting, taking care of voices when they get sick and helping rehabilitate their voices,” he said.
Dr. Lloyd decided to go back to school for speech pathology and came to UM in 2015. Since then, he and Dr. Rosow, along with a team of clinicians and staff, have worked collaboratively with each other and with the Frost School of Music.
Training and Care for ‘Vocal Athletes‘
Drs. Rosow and Lloyd both have secondary appointments in the Frost School. Their main collaborator there is Frank Ragsdale, D.M.A., associate professor of vocal performance and dean of administration.
“Frank and the talented, dedicated music faculty are really what makes our cross-departmental programs and collaboration successful,” Dr. Lloyd said.
As a professor of clinical vocal performance, Dr. Rosow gives instruction in vocal anatomy and physiology. Dr. Lloyd teaches courses on vocal pedagogy and voice disorders that focus on helping students identify what can go wrong with the voice and how to train the voice to stay healthy or recover from injury.
“I think singers need that knowledge, the same way I think it’s important for an athlete to know their own anatomy,” Dr. Rosow said. “We teach them some physical therapy tricks for how to warm up properly, how to cool down, how to avoid injury, things to look out for. There’s a reason we call singers ‘vocal athletes.’ We are part of the team that helps treat them when they’re injured, but we also want to help prevent them from having those injuries in the first place.”
Drs. Lloyd and Rosow also work collaboratively on several research projects, including a 10-year-and-counting longitudinal study on the vocal health of undergraduate singers and theater arts majors from freshman to senior year.
“Part of our mission in the study is to understand the prevalence of voice disorders as students come in to do their training,” Dr. Lloyd said. “We follow singers over the course of their undergraduate experience to see if they’re developing pathologies, and if they can overcome those with knowledge, experience and training. We’re also dissecting what causes people to develop voice problems, particularly professional singers.”
For instance, the study has found that compared to classical singers, singers of musical theater and contemporary styles are at greater risk for developing vocal pathologies. Drs. Rosow and Lloyd are currently investigating why this might be.
Some of the team’s other projects include studying the effects of Qigong on singing, the effects of mindfulness training in singers, led by affiliate UM faculty member Julia Gerhard, S.L.P., D.M.A., and the effects on the singing voice of strengthening the respiratory muscles.
Tags: Division of Speech Pathology, Dr. Adam Lloyd, Dr. David Rosow, Frost School of Music, otolaryngology, speech pathology, USNWR ENT