In 2022, I was invited to teach a masterclass on improvisation at the ICVT conference in Vienna. It was a great honor, because at this conference—organized by the American NATS—vocal professionals from all over the world gather for presentations on all aspects of the voice. One of the lectures I attended was by Loraine Sims and focused on “Gender-Neutral Voice Pedagogy”: How can we strive for a more inclusive, gender-neutral vocal pedagogy for all singers? After all, most books still refer to male and female voices, and Sims asks whether we should continue this practice. Ideas about voice use in relation to gender are changing, and although hormones have a major influence on our vocal folds, the voice itself is gender-neutral, just like our heart and lungs, for example. So shouldn’t we try to prevent singers from being limited in their development by gender labels and gender expectations—where a woman must sound feminine and a man must sound masculine?
I found it an interesting question: the idea that the voice is gender-neutral, even though we still distinguish between male and female voices, seems to me to be determined primarily by culture and style. Within the pop and jazz genres, there’s quite a bit of freedom to use a wide range of vocal sounds, even outside the usual vocal range. And in practice, you see singers regularly ignoring or playing with traditional gender roles and labels. Just think of David Bowie, Grace Jones, Sam Smith, KD Lang, and Prince. In classical music, this is more complex, because there are many traditions regarding the desired vocal range, character, and timbre.
Sims argues that it would be a good start to decouple labels such as soprano, alto, and tenor from gender, and to use them solely to denote a voice type with a specific range and timbre. That way, it would no longer be surprising to encounter a female tenor like Stephanie Blythe or a transgender singer with a heroic baritone like Lucia Lucas. That strikes me as a welcome development!
© 2026 Ineke Vandoorn
ZINGmagazine nr 129- juni/juli 2026