Ballantyne Completes Guest Artist Residency at Illinois Wesleyan University

Chadley Ballantyne, Associate Professor of Music, Voice, at Stetson University, completed a three-day guest artist residency at Illinois Wesleyan University from September 27–29, 2026. The visit brought together applied teaching, voice pedagogy, respiratory biofeedback, and performance through individual lessons, a voice master class, a guest lecture, and a collaborative recital.

The residency began with individual lessons for Illinois Wesleyan voice students. Ballantyne worked with singers on vocal function, repertoire, and respiratory coordination, incorporating the RespTrack system as biofeedback during instruction. RespTrack provides real-time visualization of rib-cage and abdominal movement, allowing singers to observe their breathing patterns while they sing and connect those patterns with what they feel and hear.

Ballantyne continued that work in a master class with Illinois Wesleyan voice students and in additional individual lessons. Throughout the teaching portion of the residency, RespTrack served as a tool for exploring how singers organize breathing for different musical and technical demands.

On the final day of the residency, Ballantyne presented the guest lecture “The Biomechanics of Breathing” for singers and wind and brass players. The presentation examined respiratory anatomy, inspiratory and expiratory muscle action, rib-cage and abdominal displacement, posture, and the effects of gravity and body position on respiratory mechanics. Students also participated in guided physical exploration and hands-on RespTrack demonstrations, using real-time biofeedback to observe breathing during respiration and musical tasks.

The residency concluded with a guest artist recital featuring Ballantyne, bass-baritone; Ingrid Kammin, soprano; and Caleb Wayman, piano. The program included music by George Frideric Handel, Aaron Copland, H. Leslie Adams, Caleb Wayman, Alexander Zemlinsky, Francis Poulenc, and Karl Weigl. Ballantyne and Kammin performed both solo repertoire and collaborative works for soprano and bass-baritone.

The recital also offered Ballantyne the opportunity to collaborate with Kammin, a longtime friend and colleague, in a program built around both shared and individual repertoire. Together, the teaching, lecture, and performance allowed Ballantyne to work closely with the talented students and faculty of Illinois Wesleyan’s voice program across several dimensions of his work as a singer and voice teacher.