Emerging from the Chrysalis: A Professional Singer Transitions from Female to Male

Statistics are hard to come by, but recent studies suggest that between .3-.6% of the US population identifies as transgender. I was unable to find a breakdown between F-M and M-F, and there are no statistics on what percentage of this group are singers — let alone professional singers. Therefore, research into this miniscule group cannot build on previous studies, and few conclusions can be drawn. Each singer is sui generis, varying as they do in terms of age, age at transition, length and type of transition (i.e. gel vs injection, dosage, etc.), type of voice, etc etc.

In early 2014, I began implementing a single-subject research project on how a professional mezzo soprano's voice responded to THT (Testosterone Hormone Therapy) during transition from female to male. The project was designed by my colleague, Aaron Ziegler, a Speech Language Pathologist at Oregon Health and Science University in Portland, OR., and the subject of the research was Elliot Franks. When Elliot began THT, he was 50 years old and had been performing professionally for three decades. We worked together regularly for more than three years, at first every two weeks, then less frequently. Elliot performed the same activities at each session, all of which were recorded and sent to Aaron for data crunching. These activities included measuring the duration of different pitches on /a/ and /i/, his performable range, physiologic range, and more. At each session, we recorded Elliot singing Handel's Ombra mai fu, (see links to audio clips, below) first in the original key of F Major, then in additional keys, as the range of his voice descended. I reserved the final 20 minutes of each session for technical work similar to other singing students, namely, breath management, vowel equalization, range extension, etc. (Scroll down for audio and video clips)

Each time a student walks into my studio, I meet them where they and their voice are at that moment; even if I've been working with a given singer for some time, their voice will present differently depending on a multitude of circumstances, including health, stress level, and repertoire. The difference in working with Elliot is that the variation in how he presented was so enormous; at each session, I truly had no idea what voice would enter the room. The only analogous situation was work I've done with adolescent boys as their voice transitions from a treble to an adult male voice. But that analogy only goes so far: as cisgender boys go through puberty, their larynx grows considerably, whereas testosterone administered to an adult female will affect the thickness of the vocal folds, but not the larynx itself. Moreover, a pre-pubescent boy knows that his voice will change, and lives in a world where that is the norm and the expected outcome. An adult singer, by contrast, has had years—if not decades—of experience with their original voice and no norms to compare to as the testosterone kicks in.
Elliot pre-transition had a more than three octave range that was virtually seamless; in other words, he had no issues with the passaggi, that is, the register transitions that plague so many singers. But, within about six months of beginning hormone therapy, his upper range had become weak and falsetto-like, and he began to encounter difficulty in transitioning between the registers. By June, 2016, Elliot had lost his high range entirely, and was experiencing even more difficulty with his voice, as it cracked and hiccuped out of his control. Although I prefer to use the Italian term, passaggio to that of register break, in Elliot's case, these were, indeed, breaks—if not chasms. By this time, Elliot's usable range had shrunk to about a P5 between F3 and C4. Anything above would crack into a very weak falsetto, and he had not yet gained any range at the bottom. At each session, we worked on strengthening his voice within this limited range and gradually extending it above and below. 

During my work with Elliot, Aaron and I presented the interim results at a number of voice conferences, including the Pacific Voice Conference in 2015 and the Voice Foundation Conference in 2017. For me, however, by far the most notable presentation was the recent Master Class I gave together with Elliot at the Trans and Singing Symposium in San Francisco in front of an audience of Trans, Non-binary, and Intersex singers.

September, 2018, heralded the inauguration of New Voices Bay Area TIGQ Chorus, a mixed voice chorus for all Trans, Intersex, Non-binary, and Gender Queer people who love to sing. Led by Reuben Zellman, (click here for bio)the chorus provides a safe space for many people who have been hesitant to join established choirs, which tend to adhere to such gendered stereotypes as soprano/alto = female and tenor/bass = male and often specify concert clothing according to this female/male binary. For singers currently engaged in hormonal transition, this genderization of voice parts can be particularly fraught. Thanks to NVBA these singers are at last able to form a critical mass, rather than being the lone Trans or non-binary voice in the room.

Some of the members of NVBA have been singing for years, or even decades, others are new to singing. All were provided the opportunity to explore the full extent of their voice, whereby many questions arose, including what to expect during hormonal transition. The seeds of the symposium were planted as an idea of how best to support the NVBA chorus members' vocal needs, and grew through discussions between Reuben and Jonathan Smucker, Chair of the Voice Department at the Community Music Center in San Francisco. These conversations between Reuben and Jonathan bore fruit on February 23, 2019, as Trans and Singing: A Symposium for Voice Teachers and Singers of all Genders. The conference was hosted by Community Music Center Voice Department and New Voices Bay Area: TIGQ Chorus, and sponsored in part by a Community Music Center Partnership Grant. It consisted of an afternoon and evening of presentations, master classes, and panel discussions, capped off by an open rehearsal and performance by NVBA. (click here for event details)
Jonathan and Reuben had expected perhaps 35 people to register for the Symposium, but they had to cap registration at 100 due to space constraints. There was so much buzz about the conference that Joshua Kosman, chief Music Reviewer for the SF Chronicle, published a piece on it the day before. DoesVoiceHaveAGender?

I've attended and presented at many voice conferences over the years, but I've never been moved emotionally like I was at this Symposium. Aside from a few cis-gender voice pedagogues like myself, the entire audience (and most of the presenters) were TIGQ singers, who were hungry for support, accurate information, and validation. I was deeply moved by the hour-long panel discussion given by six Trans singers of varying voice type, gender, age, and musical genre. As William Sauerland, one of the presenters stated: "Trans singers are not a monolith."

Master Classes are an odd hybrid: to be successful, the teacher must provide helpful advice to the singer on the stage, but do so in a way that is educational for the audience as well. Too much time spent on, for instance, one exercise, may be useful to the singer but prove very boring for the audience. I therefore chose to give my Master Class with Elliot, rather than with a singer I'd never met, in order to present his transitional journey. Thanks to our data collection dating from early 2014, the audience was able to listen to clips of Elliot pre-transition, at various stages of transition, and to a live performance by Elliot of a Schumann song. In the space of a half hour, the audience followed Elliot's journey from mezzo soprano to baritone.

First, we played a pre-transition audio clip of Behold and See from Handel's Messiah, [audio] followed by three audio clips of Ombra mai fu, from March, 2014, [audio] November, 2014, [audio] and June, 2016.[audio] Lastly, Elliot performed Robert Schumann's In der Fremde click here as a true Baritone for a packed house of excited and supportive listeners, who erupted into whoops and applause at the end.

Elliot does not yet have a sufficiently wide range to return to professional performing, but he's getting closer. His usable range now extends from C#3 - Eflat4— a huge increase from the P5 he'd been limited to a couple of years ago. It has been an enormous pleasure and privilege to accompany him on this journey. Note: If you'd like to listen to the entire Master Class I gave with Elliot, click here