Choosing repertoire isn’t as simple as picking a good song.
Our AASR surveys revealed that singing teachers are balancing an extraordinary number of factors every time they select repertoire for a student. Difficulty, range, tessitura, score availability, suitability, voice type, recordings, age-appropriateness, cost, accessibility… the list goes on. In fact, 80% of teachers rated score availability as one of the most critical deciding factors - ranking equally with vocal range.
One respondent described the process as:
“Trying to find recordings or scores - or enough of the score - to gauge suitability for a student … [is] an incredibly time-consuming and unsatisfying experience.”
That’s exactly why the Australian Art Song Resource (AASR) was created.
Rather than forcing teachers to search across publisher catalogues, libraries, composer websites, YouTube links, syllabuses, recordings and personal contacts, the AASR draws this information together in one place - helping teachers and students discover Australian repertoire through practical, teacher-informed criteria.
We were surprised that the surveys revealed that 75% of songs and 64.7% of composers were being taught by individual teachers only - meaning many educators were discovering incredible repertoire completely independently, with very little crossover between studios. (See Why don’t voice teachers talk to each other about Australian Art Song?)
Australian art song is richer, broader and more diverse than many people realise. Sometimes the biggest challenge isn’t the repertoire itself - it’s simply finding it.
Explore the growing AASR database and find the ones that speak to you.