"The human voice is the organ of the soul." (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow)
April 16 was World Voice Day to celebrate this powerful organ and "increase public awareness of the importance of the voice and alertness to voice problems."
Dr. Norman D. Hogikyan, NeuroNetwork for Emerging Therapies Faculty, Associate Chair of Clinical Affairs and Laryngology and General Otolaryngology Division Chief, wrote an important message speaking to this year's theme: Focus Your Voice in 2020.
On World Voice Day this year we find ourselves united in a global fight against a formidable enemy where one of our most powerful weapons is the avoidance of direct human contact. Social distancing, another term unknown to most of us last autumn, is now the norm. Countless events worldwide celebrating World Voice Day have been canceled, including our own annual vocal concert co-sponsored by U-M School of Music, Theatre & Dance and The Vocal Health Center, in order to embrace sound public health principles and to hopefully “flatten the curve.” It made me sad to think of so many silenced concert halls, voices going unheard, and songs going unsung.
Upon further reflection though, I was heartened by the realization that this year perhaps more than ever we are in fact focused on the human voice. "
Read his entire message
The theme for World Voice Day on April 16 is Focus on Your Voice in 2020, a creative play on words bringing to mind perfect 20/20 visual acuity. When this theme was chosen in September 2019 coronavirus and COVID-19 were not in our collective vocabulary, and yet in retrospect this choice of theme does indeed seem visionary.
On World Voice Day this year we find ourselves united in a global fight against a formidable enemy where one of our most powerful weapons is the avoidance of direct human contact. Social distancing, another term unknown to most of us last autumn, is now the norm. Countless events worldwide celebrating World Voice Day have been canceled, including our own annual vocal concert co-sponsored by U-M School of Music, Theatre & Dance and The Vocal Health Center, in order to embrace sound public health principles and to hopefully “flatten the curve”. It made me sad to think of so many silenced concert halls, voices going unheard, and songs going unsung.
Upon further reflection though, I was heartened by the realization that this year perhaps more than ever we are in fact focused on the human voice. Just think about how vital your voice has been in recent weeks as we all struggled to maintain some semblance of our normal professional and personal lives. Simply hearing the voices of friends, colleagues, or family has taken on a significance that we could not have imagined prior to this tumultuous and fearful time. Voice has also become in many cases the primary medium through which we provide comfort and guidance to our patients whose appointments with us are necessarily deferred or converted to remote encounters. At a time when even gathering to mourn a loss is forbidden, voice has been the means through which we express condolences and support.
Yes, World Voice Day this year will be different, and yet each day that we navigate this global pandemic serves to further highlight the unique importance of the human voice. We are in this fight together. I hear your voices and they are focused.
Watch
NeuroNet alumnus Dr. Adam Rubin of Lakeshore Professional Voice Center, and former student of both Drs. Eva Feldman and Hogikyan, hosted a 2020 Virtual World Voice Day Concert:
A History
This celebration started in Brazil in 1999 as the Brazilian National Voice Day. It was the result of a mixed initiative of physicians, speech-language pathologists and singing teachers that belonged to the former association ‘Sociedade Brasileira de Laringologia e Voz – SBLV’ (Brazilian Society of Laryngology and Voice), under the presidency of Dr. Nedio Steffen. This Brazilian initiative was followed by other countries, such as Argentina and Portugal, and the Brazilian National Voice Day became the International Voice Day. In the United States, the American Academy of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery officially recognized this celebration in 2002 and in that year the event obtained the name ‘World Voice Day’ (Svec, Behlau, 2007; AAORL-HNS, 2012).
