Friday 24th to Sunday 26th February 2017
The House at the University of Plymouth
Celebrating 12 years of musical innovation
Organised in partnership with Plymouth University’s Interdisciplinary Centre for Computer Music (ICCMR)
Ever since the dawn of humanity, voice has always been our primary source for communication. Our ability to evolve sophisticated verbal languages distinguishes us from other species but voice also transmits other kinds of emotional and social information in ways that written words are not able to transmit. And of course, let us not forget the undeniable expressive power of the singing voice.
Paradoxically, voice seems to be losing ground to other means of communication. One might say that new communication technologies are to blame. For instance, back to the invention of silent cinema people realized that pictures could speak a thousand words. Indeed, this trend became entrenched in our society today: notwithstanding the fact that we can record voice with our mobile phones, people generally prefer to take photographs instead.
Movies now combine audio and vision, but voice is often regarded as the poor cousin of image. More disturbingly, recent studies on usage of mobile phones have shown that texting has taken over making voice calls in the USA and in most of Western Europe.
What is happening? Is voice becoming obsolete? Is technology really to blame here? Or would it be the case that voice, as we used to know it, is going through an upgrading process to be able to express matters of the present times?
VOICE 2.0 offers a glimpse of how musicians, scientists and linguists are re-inventing voice through an ambitious programme exploring new means, forms and usages of voice in communication and musical creativity.
It will premiere new compositions by University of Plymouth composers and guests, including the world premiere of a concert for a beatboxer with an orchestra in her mouth, a choir of real and virtual singers and a fully-fledged invented language, created specially for the festival by David J. Peterson, the inventor of the language Dothraki, of the series Game of Thrones.
The composers involved in the Peninsula Arts Contemporary Music Festival 2017 include:
- Eduardo Reck Miranda, Professor in Computer Music at Plymouth University, where he leads ICCMR and is co-director of Peninsula Arts Contemporary Music Festival
- Simon Ible, Director of Music of Peninsula Arts, Plymouth University and Artistic Director and Conductor of Peninsula Arts Sinfonietta, co-director of Peninsula Arts Contemporary Music Festival
- Alexis Kirke, member of the Plymouth University’s Interdisciplinary Centre for Computer Music Research and is composer-in-residence for Plymouth University’s Marine Institute, award-winning composer and filmmaker
- David J. Peterson, one of the world’s most famous language creators
- Linas Baltas, Lithuanian composer who has created 11 new compositions over the last few years with premieres in England, USA and Lithuania
- Núria Bonet, PhD student at ICCMR and composer of electroacoustic and instrumental music
- Butterscotch, professional beat boxer and finalist of America’s Got Talent in 2007.
A full programme is available here.
Tickets are available from Peninsula Arts.