Voice++

Artists: Pauline Oliveros, Jeremy Turner, Cathy Lewis, Bradley Dick,  Kathy Kennedy Coast Salish Unity Drummers and Singers, Viviane Houle, Stefan Smulovitz, Christine Duncan, Hypatia, Nick Fairbank, Cari Burdett, the Avatar Orchestra Metaverse

Date: May 3 to 10, 2008.

The 4th annual Open Space Voice++ Festival, Voicing Up a Storm, descended on Victoria May 3rd to 10th, 2008. The 2008 festival featured a Vocal Swarm through downtown streets, a live virtual performance with players spread across North America and Europe and premiere performances of works by iconic American composer Pauline Oliveros, Vancouver composer Jeremy Turner, local composer Cathy Lewis, Coast Salish artist Bradley Dick and Montreal sound artist Kathy Kennedy.
Voice++ performers included the Coast Salish Unity Drummers and Singers, members of Hexaphone, Viviane Houle and Stefan Smulovitz, Christine Duncan, Hypatia, Nick Fairbank, Cari Burdett, the Avatar Orchestra Metaverse and many more. Works by these performers and by John Cage, Meredith Monk, Alvin Curran and others are included in the program.

VOICE ++ 2008 PROGRAM SCHEDULE
May 3 - May 10, 2008

Victoria Vocal Swarm
with Kathy Kennedy
May 3 – 9
Open Space and Downtown Victoria
FREE

Saturday May 3, 2 PM (Workshop)
Monday May 5, 7 PM (Workshop)
Tuesday May 6, 7 PM (7:30 PM Victoria Vocal Swarm through downtown)
Wednesday May 7, 4 PM (4:30 PM Victoria Vocal Swarm through downtown)
Friday May 9, 7 PM (7:30 PM Final Victoria Vocal Swarm through downtown)

Montreal sound artist Kathy Kennedy was commissioned by Open Space and CFUV 101.9 FM Community Campus Radio to compose a community voice work for the 4th annual Open Space Voice++ Festival.   The Victoria Vocal Swarm, called for singers to gather together and walk a designated route singing along with a soundtrack composed especially for the event, and broadcast on radio. Each singer held a portable radio tuned to CFUV, which was broadcasting the soundtrack. Everyone was invited to participate.

Voice Workshop
with Christine Duncan
Wednesday, May 7, 7 – 8:30 PM
FREE

Christine Duncan, one of Canada's most adventuresome vocalists explored the voice and its soaring possibilities in a group setting. In this fun and lively workshop, Christine Duncan showed participants areas of resonance in the body that open new timbral and textural qualities in the voice.  Extended vocal techniques such as throat singing, multiphonics, whistle tones, and vocal fry were demonstrated, and Christine used conduction and group improvisation to explore a large group vocal sound.

Concerts:
Thursday May 8
8 PM at Open Space
$10 / $12

Unity Drummers and Singers with  Butch and Bradley Dick

Open Space was honoured to host the  Unity Drummers and Singers in the Voice++ festival.  Coast Salish elder Butch Dick introduced the group and the traditions of  the families who have populated this area for generations.  The Coast Salish Unity Drummers and Singers (www.unitydrummersandsingers.ca/), is a large local group that opens its doors to people of any age and culture interested in learning about local Native culture. Unity welcomed the audience with the thundering sounds of traditional drum songs from local First Nations and new songs by Coast Salish artist Bradley Dick.

Kathy Kennedy – solo voice and electronics
Howl
Dadada
One
Kathy Kennedy’s solo performances included a high level of improvisation over lush soundtracks of painstakingly mixed vocals and other sounds to create an immersive world of different voices.  She explored themes related to feminism, myth, the soundscape and commentaries on musical forms such as opera.

Hypatia and Christine Duncan – voice and jazz instrumental ensemble
Victoria Comprovisation 10101
Wizard of voice Christine Duncan (Toronto) and members of Victoria’s Hypatia all female jazz ensemble used the practices and elements of instrument playing to find ways for the players to vocalize, and apply vocal practices to their instrumental playing in a true collaboration between voice and instruments.

Hypatia is Melissa Hubert, Flute; Donna Williams, Viola; Rhonda Leduc, Soprano/Tenor Sax; Karla Sleightholme, Alto Sax; Audrey Bailey, Baritone Sax; Lorae Farrell, Trumpet/Leader; Michelle Footz, Trumpet; Sheila MacMillan, Kim Firth, Aubrey Kelly, Trombones; Heather Burns, Piano; Jenny Weston, Bass; Sherry O'Leary, Drums

Friday May 9
8 PM at Open Space
$10 / $12

Hexaphone, Cathy Lewis,  Nick Fairbank and Cari Burdett performed works for solo and ensemble voices, alone and with electronics, by American composers John Cage, Meredith Monk, James Tenney and Terry Riley.  This round table concert also featured compositions by Gyorgy Kurtag and Hector Bravo Benard, premiered a new work by Nicholas Fairbank, an Anthem by Canadian composer Rodney Sharman, and a voice and live electronics work composed and performed by Canadian composer / vocalist Andrea Young.

Works:

John Cage:
-Solo for Voice 23:  Theatre with Electronics (Irrelevant)
-Solo for Voice 43:  Theatre with Electronics (Relevant)
-Aria for solo voice

Meredith Monk Change for Four Voices
James Tenney Hey When I Sing These 4 Songs Hey Look What Happens
Rodney Sharman Anthem: Passing of the Claimant
Terry Riley Olson III
Nicholas Fairbank Tetraphone for voice and cellphones
Hector Bravo Benard Pink Noise for solo voice
Andrea Young Insatisfecha  for voice and live electronics
Gyorgy Kurtag Einige Satze aus den Sudelbuchern Georg Christoph Lichtenbergs

Saturday May 10
Afternoon Panel and Concert

1 PM Voice ++ Panel
with Pauline Oliveros (virtually), Kathy Kennedy, Viviane Houle, Cathy Lewis, Christine Duncan

2 PM AVATAR ORCHESTRA METAVERSE -  Virtual Reality Performance
Pauline Oliveros  (New York) The Heart of Tones 
Jeremy Owen Turner (Vancouver)  XAANADRuuL 

Avatar Orchestra Metaverse premiered two new works created for the orchestra with guest vocalists and instrumentalists from Canada and the United States.  All performers played live in remote locations, connected through  Second Life which was projected visually and sonically at Open Space.  Composers Pauline Oliveros and Jeremy Owen Turner also performed live in Second Life.

Avatar Orchestra Metaverse is a group of composers, performers, and media artists living in Europe, East Asian and North America who explore together the interactive possibilities of the Second Life online virtual reality platform to create works with open, interactive and possibly "infinite" elements.   The Orchestra works with ideas that challenge conventional practices of creating and performing music, and finds new ways to conceive of and era examining notions of identity, place, social, cultural and sexual identity, and the roles of composer, performer and listener.  

Heart of Tones was dedicated to the memory of trombonist Toyoji Tomita, and XAANADRuuL was dedicated to the memory of Karlheinz Stockhausen.

Evening Concert
$10 / $12

Love Letters - Viviane Houle and Stefan Smulovitz (Vancouver)

Viviane Houle and Stefan Smulovitz combined free improvisation, improvised song and unearthly electro-acoustic soundscapes to explore the boundaries of beauty and chaos. In performance, Smulovitz unleashed the full potential of the laptop as a musical instrument and exposed unimagined terrains of sonic expression. Houle’s extreme vocals and unforgettable versatility defied categorization; the intelligence of her singing blended with deep emotion to make music that was at once sweet and fierce. Their Voice++ performance drew inspiration from love letters contributed by audience members to create an improvised song cycle.
 
Medicinal Lullabye - Cathy Fern Lewis (Victoria)

Cathy Lewis worked with her father’s Chinese medicine cabinet to weave a story about mothering and parenting.  The cabinet’s drawers were filled with sounds and words that Cathy used to create a sound collage that included a lullabye with musical accompaniment from Italian musician Biagio Francia.

the storm – ensemble roundabout

ensemble roundabout is Kathy Kennedy, Christine Duncan, Cathy Lewis, Tina Pearson, Viviane Houle and Stefan Smulovitz 

Visiting and local artists came together to create a Voice++ finale with voices, instruments and electronics in a dynamic and exciting conclusion to the festival.

Voice++ provided the ground where the depths and edges of human expression were exposed in live performances, collaborations and public workshops. Voice ++ illuminated relations between people, places, cultures, and technologies through the human voice.