Pedro Clarós presents his 3rd doctoral thesis on the influence of hormones in the operatic voice

Tesis doctoral Pedro Clarós

Pedro Clarós, full academician and vice-president of the Governing Board of the Royal European Academy of Doctors-Barcelona 1914 (RAED), defended his 3rd doctoral thesis on January 28 at the Camilo José Cela University, entitled “Influencia de las hormonas en la voz operística. 40 años de experiencia” (Influence of hormones in the operatic voice 40 years of experience); a complete and documented study based on a whole life dedicated to research and clinical intervention on the main lyric voices as specialist medical consultant of the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona and other operatic theatres.

In his work, Clarós carries out an exhaustive study of how sex hormones influence the operatic voice. It’s a volume of almost 500 pages with a contribution of 14 medical articles published by the author himself in the international medical journals with the greatest impact. For the first time some studies on the changes of the voice in the different hormonal phases of the professional opera singers are detailed, as well as studies of how the voice changes in the adolescence or in the aging of the voice, without forgetting the action that certain medications can influence the voice and the interference of them with each other.

“The study shows that the voice of opera singers is very sensitive to changes in sex hormones, as well as the different factors that arise in vocal aging, modifying their characteristics. The work studies the side effects of some drugs and especially the association of some of them. However, the effects of tonsillectomy on the voices of professional singers, if done with good technique, don’t modify their characteristics”, the author points out in the introduction to his thesis.

From this complete study, Clarós is already working on the project of editing a guide for singers, theatres and teachers that collects the conclusions and medical advice that should guarantee the care of the voice. The thesis has been directed by the also full academician of the RAED Francisco López Muñoz, who like Clarós himself is already working on his 3rd doctoral thesis.