Voice++

Artists: Christopher Butterfield (Victoria), Cathy Lewis (Victoria), Susanna Hood (Toronto), Carol Sawyer, Robert Minden and Carla Hallett (Vancouver, Anna Hostman (Victoria), Kim Cousineau (Victoria), Massimo Pintus (Victoria), Rodney Sharman (Victoria), Steve Bagnall (Vancouver) and Sean Q. Lang (Vancouver)

Date: May 7 to 9, 2009

Concerts
May 7, 8 pm Grace Lutheran Church, Cathy Lewis and Cari Burdett
May 8, 8 pm Open Space, Susanna Hood and Carol Sawyer
May 9, 8 pm Open Space, Robert Minden and Carla Hallett
Tickets $12/$10

Workshop
Saturday, May 9, 10 am – noon, Open Space, Susanna Hood
Tickets $5 

The fourth annual Open Space voice fesitval Voice++ featured vocal explorations in a collaborative context bringing together local and national artists and the Victoria community in an adventurous context focused on the human voice.

This year's event featured three concerts over three evenings that highlighted sonic mixes with saxaphone, flute, guitar, percussion, flowerpots, Theremin, musical saws, piano and other instruments and an evening of vocal couplings with video and dance.

Opening the Festival on Thursday, May 7, local chanteuses Cathy Lewis and Cari Burdett and guests presented a collection of cabaret and colourful songs at Grace Lutheran Church (1273 Fort St.). The edgy social and political commentary in the work of Kurt Weill, Hans Eisler and Mauricio Kagel provide contrast and context to newer vocal works by Canadian composers Rodney Sharman, Anna Hostman, Linda Smith and Tim Francis.

On Friday, May 8 Open Space welcomed visiting artists Carol Sawyer (Vancouver) and Susanna Hood (Toronto), two adventurous vocalists taking the voice into zones beyond speech and song to pure emotional utterance through extended techniques. Susanna Hood invokes the discipline of modern dance and sonic expressions of voice in her touching rendition of Steve Lacy’s Somebody Special. Carol Sawyer, a Vancouver visual artist and singer, presents Ramshackle Heaven for multichannel video and improvising musicians – a visual and sonic investigation into ideas of heaven, paradise and the close links between utopia and dystopia –with video artist Sean Q. Lang and saxophonist Steve Bagnall.

On Saturday, May 9 from 10 am to noon, Susanna Hood offered a workshop at Open Space. Everyone is welcome to explore Susanna’s practice of vocalizing from a body and movement perspective.

Vancouver’s Robert Minden Duo will close the Voice++ festival on Saturday, May 9 for a full concert of magical storytelling with old, new, invented and found instruments. Robert Minden and Carla Hallet create a mesmerizing backdrop to their sound stories with an orchestra of the unusual - bowed carpenter saws, flowerpots, waterphones, bowls, bottles, Theremin and other sounding objects. Minden is known as a master storyteller, and Hallet’s lyrics explore identity and resonance within an enchanting and intimate acoustic sound world.

Cari Burdett: http://www.joythroughmusic.com/home.htm

Susanna Hood: http://www.humdansoundart.ca/people.html

Carol Sawyer: http://www.ionzoomusic.com/

Robert Minden and Carla Hallett: http://www.lostsound.com/rmd/default.html