Nice to meet you

Evan Woods Gunter is a lyric baritone, voice teacher, and scholar currently pursuing the Doctor of Music in Voice Performance at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where he also studies vocology and music theory. His work brings together professional stage experience, practical studio teaching, and research in voice pedagogy, with particular interest in repertoire selection, voice classification, functional voice training, and the development of young singers.

At Indiana University, Evan serves as an Associate Instructor of Voice and Coordinator of the Secondary Voice Area. In these roles, he teaches private voice, supports undergraduate singers in their technical and musical growth, and helps coordinate instruction for students across the university. His teaching is shaped by a belief that singers need both clear technical tools and a strong sense of artistic ownership. In the studio, he works to help students understand how their voices function, how repertoire can reveal and strengthen vocal coordination, and how healthy singing can serve honest, expressive performance.

Evan’s current research focuses on the use of repertoire as a diagnostic and developmental tool in the voice studio. His doctoral work has examined the undergraduate high baritone and male Zwischenfach voice, exploring how range, tessitura, passaggio behavior, registration, timbre, vowel demands, stamina, and dramatic maturity can help teachers make more thoughtful repertoire choices. Rather than treating voice type as a fixed label too early in a singer’s training, his work asks how teachers can listen for evidence over time and choose music that supports both present function and future growth.

As a performer, Evan has appeared in opera, operetta, and musical theatre across a wide range of styles. His operatic and operetta credits include Moralès and El Dancaïro in Carmen, Guglielmo in Così fan tutte, Figaro in Le nozze di Figaro, King Melchior in Amahl and the Night Visitors, the Pirate King in The Pirates of Penzance, Giuseppe Palmieri in The Gondoliers, and Papageno in scenes from Die Zauberflöte. At Indiana University, his credits include Curly McClain in Oklahoma!, L’horloge comtoise in L’enfant et les sortilèges, Moralès in Carmen, and Kenny Kincaid in The Cook Off.

Evan also brings substantial experience in musical theatre, having performed professionally with companies including The Little Theatre on the Square, Red Mountain Theatre Company, College Light Opera Company, The REV Theatre Company, Tent Theatre, The Prizery, and The Broadway Palm. His roles include the Beast in Beauty and the Beast, Robert Martin in The Drowsy Chaperone, Rapunzel’s Prince in Into the Woods, Ambrose Kemper in Hello, Dolly!, Marius in Les Misérables, Gabey in On the Town, Jimmy Winter in Nice Work If You Can Get It, and Anthony in Sweeney Todd.

Before beginning doctoral study, Evan taught as Adjunct Professor of Voice at the College of Central Florida, where he designed and taught applied voice courses, prepared students for juries and auditions, and presented guest lectures on audition techniques, collaborative piano communication, and vocal health. He previously served as Artist in Residence at The Little Theatre on the Square in Sullivan, Illinois, where he taught private voice, piano, music theory, musical theatre classes, audition preparation, and served in music direction and vocal coaching roles. He has maintained a private voice studio since 2017, working with singers of varied ages, backgrounds, and experience levels.

Evan holds the Master of Music in Vocal Performance from the University of Florida, where he served as a graduate assistant in opera, and the Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance and Bachelor of Music in Music and Worship from Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama. His training includes extensive study in voice, vocal pedagogy, conducting, piano, acting, dance, diction, and languages. He has studied German, French, Spanish, and Italian, and his work as a singer and teacher is supported by experience in piano, accompanying, choral conducting, stage direction, choreography, and curriculum development.

His research and presentations reflect a broad curiosity about the relationship between the body, the voice, and musical expression. Recent work includes “Exercise Physiology and the Singer,” a doctoral vocology presentation on aerobic exercise and singing function, and “The Singing Athlete,” a guest presentation exploring how full-body engagement can support vocal production. He has also presented on audition technique, collaboration with pianists, emotionality in vocal performance, music and identity, and worship leadership.

A native of Birmingham, Alabama, Evan’s path has taken him through Birmingham, New York City, Gainesville, Florida, and now Bloomington. These places have shaped the range of his musical life: classical training, professional theatre, graduate study, university teaching, and doctoral research. He is a member of Actors’ Equity Association and brings the perspective of a working performer into his academic and pedagogical life.

Evan lives in Bloomington, Indiana, with his wife and daughter. Outside of music, he enjoys running, cooking, gardening, and the ordinary rhythm of family life. These parts of his life matter to his teaching because they keep his work grounded: singing is serious, disciplined, and deeply human, but it is also part of a larger life. Whether working with a beginning student, a young artist preparing for auditions, or a developing singer trying to understand their instrument, Evan aims to teach with clarity, patience, humor, and respect for the person behind the voice.