KINGSVILLE (August 6, 2026) – Four members of the vocal community in the School of Music at Texas A&M University-Kingsville participated in the National Association of Teachers of Singing National Conference in San Antonio recently.
Deja Godwin placed third in the Advanced/Graduate division of the Commercial Music category. She graduated in May 2026 with her master’s degree in music. Over 15,000 singers were entered in the initial rounds through their regions in 40 different categories. Godwin placed first in the Texoma Region, which made her eligible to enter the National Student Audition Preliminaries held on YouTube. She then advanced to the National Semi-finals and Finals. Godwin was joined as regional winners by Marisol Salazar, third place; and Hillary Bravo and Caitlin Randall, second place. Randall continued with Godwin advancing to the National Semi-finals.
Godwin also was part of two poster presentations at the conference. She was joined by Karla Clemens, music performance alumni; Katherine Ragan, adjunct professor of voice and alumna; and Dr. Melinda Brou, professor of voice and opera workshop. They presented Sequencing Vocal Music with Intention: A Rubric-Based Approach for Evaluating Repertoire and Redesigning Vocal Literature Instruction for a Changing Curriculum: A One-Semester Model.
“Among the strong feedback we received for these presentations was the editor of the Journal of Singing suggesting that we write one of the posters up for consideration to the journal” said Brou, who also was the program chair of the national conference.
Brou, Godwin and Ragan performed during the closing plenary session as part of Leonard Bernstein’s Songfest. “We performed the sixth movement, To my dear and loving husband, with poetry, by Anne Bradstreet. Each of the 12 movements was performed by singers from across the NATS membership, Brou said.
-TAMUK-
