Photo by Intuitive Eye Photography
VocalEase
Last summer, as Saint Louis University assistant professor of music Stephanie Tennill started thinking about returning to campus in the fall, she encountered a problem. It became increasingly apparent that masks weren’t going anywhere, but neither were her vocal performance students, who were being impeded and muffled by their face masks.
At the time, she couldn’t find a product that could support the kind of vocal production and jaw movement that people who use their voices for a living–actors, singers, speakers, etc.–needed to work comfortably and well. As the summer went on, she saw a few singing masks on the market, but none of them addressed the actual acoustics of the mask. So, Tennill started designing her own.
She began by researching acoustically transparent materials and working with supplies around the house to find a structure that would stay put through extensive jaw movement, at one point even raiding her daughter’s art supplies for pipe cleaners to craft a prototype. After hearing about the project, SLU awarded her a Spark Microgrant to purchase materials, and Tennill was able to team up with SLU biomedical engineer Andy Hall to ensure the mask was good for both sound and safety.
Working between their two homes, Tennill and Hall tested various materials for sound and filtration quality. “I would sing in them, and then I would send them to Andy and he would test them for filtration,” says Tennill. “One of the positive things about everyone having to switch to virtual instruction in the spring was that Andy had brought a lot of his testing equipment home. So I was able to put materials in a bag and seal them, and I'd leave them for him in his mailbox. Then he would test them and email me the results. So we were able to keep things moving, even though we didn't have access to all of the facilities.”
The result of those many tests is VocalEase, a nylon, spandex, and cotton mask that includes a foam filter similar to a microphone cover. It is currently designated as a “face barrier covering,” putting its protection on par with your average surgical mask or three-layer cloth mask. Since launching in August, VocalEase has already garnered thousands of users, from community choir members to Broadway performers.
"No one wants to wear a mask, no one likes to wear a mask,” says Tennill. “What we've done here is create a tool so that if you require the use of your voice for your profession or for your passion in your day-to-day life, and you require clarity in what you're doing, the good news is you no longer have to choose between safety and sound. And you can do so with good vocal health.”
In addition to serving vocalists and other professionals, Tennill also made it part of her mission to use VocalEase as a way to support the community. The masks are produced and packed locally through partnerships with The Collective Thread, a nonprofit sewing collaborative that teaches and employs vulnerable women, and JSI, a Jefferson County sheltered workshop that employs developmentally disabled adults.
“I didn't start this to manufacture a product or build a company,” says Tennill. “This all started from just wanting to help people and wanting to support my community...I really saw a greater need beyond my voice studio and department here for this. I was seeing my choir communities across the country just really suffering so much and struggling. And when I decided to go forward with the commercialization, I knew that I wanted the success of the product to have as positive a social impact as possible.”
In addition to the production partnerships, VocalEase also donates a portion of the proceeds of each mask (which retails for $39.95) to Sing for Hope, a national nonprofit that connects underserved communities around the world to the arts.
“I'm just so grateful and humbled by this whole process,” says Tennill. “Supporting the arts is about giving back to our communities and doing what we can to help people come together and connect in their humanity. And the fact that this product has been able to do that from production to packaging to performance has been really remarkable.”
