DR. MONA TOBIN HOUSTON, recently retired from the Department of French and Italian at Indiana University, brings to her coaching a linguist's ear, a translator's understanding of language, a musician's training, and a performer's dramatic sensibility.

During DR. HOUSTON's university career, she taught, among others, courses in Phonetics and Pronunciation, Advanced Translation, French for Singers, and Seventeenth-century French Theater and Poetry. In 1989, she received the Lilly Endowment Open Faculty Fellowship to study the rehearsal process in professional theaters in Baltimore, Washington, D.C., and Paris, France.

Her translations include a volume of French Symbolist poetry, as well as several plays by Molière, one of which, with music by Jean-Baptiste Lully, was performed at the Bloomington Early Music Festival.

In addition to roles in the spoken theater DR. HOUSTON has also incarnated HORTENSIA in L'AMFIPARNASO of Orazio Vecchi (Indiana University Early Music Institute), the WITCH OF ENDOR in Honegger's LE ROI DAVID, as well as a host of Gilbert and Sullivan roles. She recently presented a recital of melodramas by Richard Strauss, Debussy, Walton, and others.

Singers, directors, and conductors seek out DR. HOUSTON not only for her academic experience, but also because her musical training and excellent ear make her uniquely able to apply the pronunciation of the language to its musical context.

DR. HOUSTON has worked extensively with musicians at Indiana University's renowned School of Music, including coaching the Opera Theater's production of Debussy's PELLÉAS ET MÉLISSANDE, choral concerts of Berlioz, Poulenc, Honegger, and individual singers. She has coached the award-winning CONCORD ENSEMBLE, and many well-known opera and concert singers.

If you would like to see a detailed description of DR. HOUSTON's career, we invite you to browse through her resume.

To contact DR. HOUSTON directly, or to request information about workshops, coachings, and her work in general, please address your e-mail to MTH@singingdiction.com.