About

 

Our Service

IPA Source was developed to assist singers and teachers in the intelligent and well informed performance of vocal literature. What started as a support site for students in a university diction class in 2003, has grown into the largest collection of literal translations and International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) transcriptions on the web. The goal of IPA Source is to promote comprehension and accurate pronunciation of foreign language texts in order for the singer to imbue each syllable with the appropriate emotional content.

IPA Source is a trusted resource for assisting educators and singers with language understanding and pronunciation. Our extensive IPA catalog has amassed 15,792 professionally translated and transcribed titles including texts of arias, art song and liturgical texts in French, Italian, German, Spanish, English and Latin. Representing works from 924 composers and 1,143 poets, subscribers can easily find the repertoire they need. With IPA Source, educators and artists can skip the translating and phonetic work and sing with confidence and accuracy.

Who We Are

IPA Source is written and maintained by Bard Suverkrop who holds degrees in voice and opera from the University of Cincinnati where he was the pupil of the Italian basso, Italo Tajo. Mr. Suverkrop received his advanced vocal training in Europe from Hans Hotter and Josef Metternich. After an extensive European career in opera at such opera houses as Berlin, Cologne, Düsseldorf, Hannover, and Heidelberg, he returned to the United States where he has taught voice, vocal pedagogy, diction, and opera at Butler University, Shenandoah University, Miami University, and the University of Southern California. He was a long-time member of the faculty of the American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria and has acted as stage director and the Director of Theatre Arts at the Bay View Music Festival. As a recitalist, Mr. Suverkrop has been heard in concert in Europe, the United States and Asia where he has twice represented the United States in the International Friendship Concerts in Tokyo, Japan. (Latin, Italian, German, French, and English literature)

Dr. Suzanne Draayer (Spanish literature) is one of the world’s foremost experts on Spanish literature. Dr. Draayer frequently performs Spanish vocal literature and has written extensively on the subject including articles for the Journal of Singing and the Classical Singer. Dr. Draayer has studied Spanish and Ladino diction with Nico Castel, a multilinguist and diction coach at the Metropolitan Opera. Additionally, she has studied Spanish at La Escuela Carmen de las Cuevas, in Granada, Spain, at the Berceo Institute in Salamanca, Spain and in language schools in Córdoba and Sevilla, Spain. Dr. Draayer’s print publications include A Singer’s Guide to the Songs of Joaquín Rodrigo (Scarecrow Press, 1999), three volumes of Canciones de España (Scarecrow Press, 2005-2007), and the Art Song Composers of Spain (Scarecrow Press, 2009). Dr. Draayer’s CD, Under a Spanish Moon, includes thirty-three of Joaquin Rodrigo’s original eighty-seven songs.

The Future of IPA Source

IPA Source offers texts to works for the solo voice in French, Italian, German, Spanish, English and Latin. Our guiding principle is to offer a great depth of literature in each language before adding new “singing” languages.