Rising senior Eloisy Goncalves, a music education and voice major in the Stetson University School of Music, presented original collaborative research this summer at the 2026 National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) National Conference in San Antonio, Texas. She is the third Stetson undergraduate since 2023 to present collaborative research at a major national or international conference, part of a growing research effort within the voice area that has now reached conference stages four years running.

Goncalves joined Dr. Chadley Ballantyne, Associate Professor of Music, Voice, and Dr. Ian Howell, founder of the Embodied Music Lab, to present “Where Sound Meets Touch: A Study on Vibrotactile Perception in the Singing Voice.”

Their research asks a surprisingly simple question with real consequences for how singing is taught: when a singer perceives their voice buzzing in the face, are they actually feeling it, or are they hearing it? Working with recordings of each singer’s own voice, the team tested where and how singers sense their sound, on the fingertips and on the face. What they found was striking. The place a singer feels a sound and the place they hear it are not the same, and the bright ring teachers often ask singers to “feel” in the face may be something the skin there simply cannot detect. It is the kind of finding that invites teachers to listen a little differently, and it opens fresh questions about a cue voice teachers have used for generations.

For Goncalves, contributing to research on a national stage while still an undergraduate is a significant early milestone. It also reflects a deliberate effort within the voice area to involve undergraduates in serious, publishable research, one that has now brought three students to national and international conference stages across four consecutive years. Goncalves follows Alyson Culbertson, whose collaborative research was presented at the Voice Foundation Symposium and the NATS National Conference in 2023 and 2024 and at the Pan-European Voice Conference in Spain in 2024, and Sophia Maritz, whose work was presented at the International Congress of Voice Teachers in 2025.

The experience left its mark. “Getting to watch the audience react to the presentation was very rewarding,” she said. “I loved hearing the oohs and ahs around the room when a new slide was explained. I also enjoyed the conversations afterward. The curiosity of everyone present was apparent, and it gave me the chance to talk about how this research can be applied.”

The School of Music congratulates Eloisy Goncalves on this achievement and looks forward to seeing where her curiosity leads next.