CARLISLE — This week, Joan Boytim passed away in Carlisle. Her compilations of songs for a variety of singers have established a standard for private voice training in America. She was ninety years old.
Boytim, who focused on training young vocalists, was a well-known vocal instructor in south central Pennsylvania for almost 50 years. During that time, her students filled the stages of local theaters and music halls.
When she was selected by the Hal Leonard music publishing company to write a series of lesson books targeted specifically at younger singers—defined in the industry as junior and senior high school students—her legacy, however, became genuinely national in the early 1990s.
Boytim had previously spent years building a vast library of sheet music and other hidden gems for her studio since she understood from personal experience that the majority of instructional books that were available at the time typically only contained a few tunes that were helpful for teaching teens.
She therefore jumped right into the project, creating books for instruction in classical, choral, and musical theater that sold over a million copies by 2015.
Throughout the years, Boytim continued to operate her own studio from her house in Carlisle, helping to prepare many pupils for careers as music instructors, college professors, and performers in settings ranging from recital stages to Broadway.
In addition, Boytim performed frequently over the years as a singer and French Horn player (she was a member of the Harrisburg Symphony for a while), but her main passion was teaching.
It’s true that I am a highly demanding teacher. However, I think children are real. Boytim stated in a 1996 feature with The Patriot-News, “I like teenagers and I like to instill excellence in each one.” It is my goal to help every student reach their full potential.
Born in Sheridan, Schuylkill County, Boytim attributed her lifelong passion of music to her parents, who began piano lessons at the age of four after Joan, then a young child, began imitating the commercial jingles she heard on the radio.
Boytim moved to the Carlisle region as a junior high music teacher in 1956, having completed her studies at Indiana University of Pennsylvania and Kutztown High School. She then started teaching voice.
In 1965, she started her own full-time studio.
Boytim’s longtime editor Richard Walters told PennLive in a 1991 interview that Hal Leonard first became aware of her when she blasted her colleagues’ increasing use of photocopied music during a panel discussion at a voice teachers convention. She claimed that this practice was forcing music publishing houses to remove many excellent instructional works from print.
Years later, Boytim explained her position by saying, “As voice teachers, we had never had to pay for our instruments.” Instead of unlawfully replicating the music that our publishers and composers supply, shouldn’t we pay them for it out of respect?
Walters was present that day and, after learning more about Boytim’s past, he identified her as a potential source for a new series of songbooks for young singers, a project he had been hoping to start for a while.
Boytim’s lifelong commitment to educating young singers, a type that many teachers took on merely to fill their studios, piqued Walters’ interest, he remarked at the time.
Walters added, “I wish every small town had a studio like Joan Boytim’s. She has a very unique perspective.” This nation’s music education system would be in much better shape if they did.
In 2016, Boytim was honored with the National Association of Teachers of Singing’s lifetime achievement award for her work with her peers and the arts.
NATS executive director Allen Henderson said this week that Boytim’s support of new and aspiring teachers throughout her career and her contribution to make beautiful music affordable for literally thousands of young singers through the anthologies made it a well-deserved accolade.
Jim, Joan Boytim’s spouse and a longstanding professor at Dickinson College and Carlisle High School, passed away in 2014.
In January 2025, a celebration of life service is scheduled. The arrangements are being handled by Hoffman Funeral in Carlisle.
Stories by
Charles Thompson
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