Training Opera Singers Gets a 21st Century Upgrade: New App Makes Learning to Sing in Foreign Languages Easier

NEW YORK, April 19, 2020 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- TRAINING OPERA SINGERS GETS A 21ST CENTURY UPGRADE: NEW APP, DICTIONBUDDY, PUTS A COACH IN SINGERS' POCKETS

Singer-founded company, DICTIONBUDDY, announces the launch of the DictionBuddy mobile application, which delivers essential on-demand access to native-speaker diction coaching for a multi-lingual, searchable library of opera, art song, and oratorio repertoire. The app is now available in both the Apple App and Google Play Stores via monthly or annual subscriptions. It provides a convenient, affordable, and accessible solution to the modern classical performer's need to produce pristine diction in a variety of languages.

Created by singers for singers, DictionBuddy offers recordings of texts to over 600 opera, oratorio arias, and art songs in Italian, French, German, English, Russian, Czech and Latin. Each text is read by a native speaker and classical singer who is an expert in the differences between spoken and lyric diction, and who understands the challenges involved in enunciating a text while singing. Texts are available in two choices of speeds: normal, and slow, and the listener can pause, fast forward, stop, or backtrack in increments of 15 seconds.

Download of the app and list of titles is free. There are four subscription packages available, each costing considerably less than one hour of live 1:1 coaching. DictionBuddy adds new titles monthly, and for an additional cost, users can request songs, arias, or complete roles. Enhancements and updated offerings occur frequently. At the end of January 2020, at no additional cost, DictionBuddy added in-app texts and transliterations(for Russian) attached to each track for easy reading while listening to the pronunciation. Translations into English are being added starting with Czech & French also for no additional cost. A new option, Enterprise Solution, also available in January 2020, offers an exceptional educational rate and allows schools to subscribe to the app on behalf of their students.

With a library of titles searchable by title, work, role, or composer, in English or original language and filterable by genre, language, voice type, role, and composer, DictionBuddy is an efficient and easy-to-use study aid.

"The average singer can spend hundreds of dollars a month on career training. Diction coaching is something a singer needs repeatedly, and can pay up to $100 per hour for," says Kofi Hayford, a professional operatic bass and DictionBuddy's Chief Customer Officer and co-founder. "We're singers ourselves and understand how frustrating and expensive the singing industry can be. DictionBuddy is the tool we all wanted for ourselves. We are extremely happy and proud to have created a simple and affordable app that our fellow singers can use to prepare for auditions, coachings, and roles. The feedback so far has been overwhelmingly positive. We are excited about this launch and already planning for the future."

This innovative tool is not a replacement for traditional diction coaching. Instead, it enhances singers' preparation and allows them to get more out of their time with coaches, saving both time and money.

Mr. Hayford concludes: "Opera has been slow to fully adopt technology to its benefit. DictionBuddy helps change that."

"DictionBuddy is one of the best tools for singers I've seen; it brings languages ... to life in a way that just using text on paper cannot provide," says conductor, coach, and pianist William Hicks, renowned for his work with stars like Luciano Pavarotti, Renee Fleming, and Franco Corelli. "I highly recommend using as part of preparation for performance."

Renowned International Soprano Carole Farley states: "I have just tried out a fantastic new app for opera singers called DictionBuddy which is simple, brilliant and extremely useful. I am recommending it to my base of singers all over the world as a terrific hands-on tool which gives them immediate help with the challenges of singing in Italian, French, German, Russian and more as it offers native speakers in operatic and song repertoire. Don't miss out on this great opportunity to take advantage of DictionBuddy!"

ABOUT DICTIONBUDDY LLC

DictionBuddy was co-founded in 2019 by three entrepreneurial artists who experience firsthand the modern singer's need for high-quality, accessible, and affordable diction coaching. Award-winning Russian mezzo-soprano Viktoriya (Vita) Koreneva is a former Wall Street executive with an MBA in Finance. She is joined by Ghanaian-American bass Kofi Hayford, who brings over ten years of sales experience and millions of dollars' in closed transactions as Business-to-Business Sales Executive in the technology industry to his role as DictionBuddy's Chief Revenue Officer. French mezzo-soprano Emma Lavandier, a New Jersey-area voice teacher and diction coach, draws on her background as an executive in the personal care industry, where she oversaw the launch of hundreds of products worldwide, in her capacity as Chief Operating Officer. All three founders contribute to the diction recordings, along with Metropolitan Opera Soprano Kirsten Chambers for English, native Germans Katrin Bulke, Sarah Calderón, and Eva Kastner-Puschl; native Italians Marco Nisticó, Stefano de Peppo, and Paolo Buffagni; native Russian Galina Ivannikova, and native Czech Radoslava Quinn.

CONTACT: KOFI HAYFORD, CO-FOUNDER AND CHIEF COMMERCE OFFICER
PHONE: 914-310-2967
EMAIL: CONTACT@DICTIONBUDDY.COM

SOURCE DictionBuddy LLC