The Voice, Airway & Swallow Center has started a new program with resident artists in the Pittsburgh Opera called the Vocal Injury Prevention (VIP) program.
The first vocal education day was held in February 2025 and will be offered annually. It involves a half day of education, including lectures and interactive exercises with the Center’s voice specialized speech language pathologists (SLPs). The artists then schedule a two-hour personalized vocal session with a laryngologist and a SLP in the Center. In this section, the artists share their specific health and vocal concerns, have a flexible laryngoscopy and stroboscopy, along with acoustic and aerodynamic assessments. A tailored vocal health plan is then created for each singer.
This program is important for empowerment and vocal longevity, said Chloe Santa Maria, MD, MPH, Director, Complex Adult Airway Center, and Assistant Professor in the Department of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery. “Being informed about the different ways to keep their instrument healthy is so important!” she added.
She has been the lead on this collaboration, which came about due to her laryngology fellowship at the University of Southern California. During her time there, they went through the first year of developing the same relationship with the LA Opera. “It was really helpful for me to see how that program was developed from the ground up,” she recalled. About six months prior to her moving to Pittsburgh, she reached out to the directors of the Pittsburgh Opera to see if they would be interested in a similar program and for the Center to become their formal health partners. Upon starting here, it was easy to hit the ground running with it.
The program also serves as a baseline examination should the artists get sick or have vocal issues later. “By having all of these measurements when they were well means we can really see how things have changed if they get an issue (versus us seeing them when they are sick for the very first time),” Dr. Santa Maria said. “This allows us to better take care of people.
The Center has already started doing outreach to other singing groups and performing arts schools, including Slippery Rock University. They are looking to continue to expand to include more music schools and church groups.