Hello Liz,

I thought the brochure of our pending festival may be of some interest to you and

The Speech and Language Therapy website. Some of the voice parctitioners taking workshops who have more obvious links with therapy are detailed in the attachment.

Please do forward as appropriate.

Thank you.

Dominique (The Centre for Performance Research)

GIVING VOICE 2004 - THINKING VOICE, FEELING VOICE

Towards a Philosophy & a Psychology of the Voice

International Festival of the Voice 2004

30 March - 3 April, Aberystwyth

(in association with University of Wales, Aberystwyth)

5 - 7 April, Cardiff

(in association with the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama)

Giving Voice - Wales’ international festival of the voice - is bringing

together 20 of the world’s performers, teachers and thinkers in a unique

celebration of ‘the voice in performance’. Since its first edition in 1990,

it has become highly regarded by voice artists and enthusiasts, attracting

participants and audiences alike from all around the world.

Each festival is programmed around a special theme - this year Giving Voice

is focusing on ‘Thinking Voice, Feeling Voice’ - to stir up debate and

discussion alongside an inspiring mix of vocal practice, vocal performance,

storytelling and theatre. The festival also includes the third ‘gathering’

for community choirs in Wales.

This year the Festival will explore philosophies and psychologies which have

influenced and governed performance techniques, teaching practices,

analyses, valuations and understandings of the voice as well as offering

insights into the deep and enduring relationship between thinking, feeling

and utterance.

In addition to this programme of workshops there are informative and

entertaining presentations and performances. This evening programme will

enable a number of the performers and teachers at Giving Voice and other

special guests to present the philosophy and ideas which inform their

practice, to be open to questions and to provoke discussion and debate.

Giving Voice performances explore the Festival theme in its widest sense –

whether it is the astonishing intricacies of Ukrainian ritual song (MARIANA

SADOWSKA), the powerful other-worldly sound of the Siberian Shaman

(STEPANIDA) or the deeply moving requiem theatre from Wales based Volcano

Theatre Company (THIS IMAGINARY WOMAN).

Key contributors include: Enrique Pardo (founder of Pantheatre in France);

Jean-René Toussaint & Anne-Marie Blink (founders of the Stemwerk Foundation

in Rotterdam); Mariana Sadowska (Ukraine); Tomasz Rodowicz (from the world

renowned Gardzienice Theatre Association, Poland), Stepanida (from Siberia);

Jonathan Hart-Makwaia (Roy Hart International Theatre, USA); Judith Shahn

(leading Linklater teacher); Åsa Simma (acclaimed Saami singer from Sweden)

and from Wales, Frankie Armstrong (UK traditional and folk music performer)

and Volcano Theatre Company (This Imaginary Woman).

Further information about booking tickets for any of the events at the

festival is available from the Centre for Performance Research (01970)

622133 and www.givingvoice.org.uk/projects/givingvoice2004.htm

GIVING VOICE 2004 – Thinking Voice, Feeling Voice – LISTINGS INFORMATION

Events include:

WORKSHOPS IN ABERYSTWYTH 30 March- 3 April

Four Day Workshops Tues 30 March – Sat 3 April 4-day ticket

Enrique Pardo (Peru/France) - THE WONDERFUL WAR - BETWEEN VOICES AND WORDS

The workshop will build up improvisation structures with voice and text,

separately at first, and then bring them together with a strong emphasis on

disassociation tactics (in this respect this workshop is advanced.) It will

include extended voice range techniques and choreographic ensemble work.

Jean Rene Toussaint (Netherlands) - THE POWER OF BEING, THE TEMPTATION OF

DOING

Do we have one or several different voices in us: vertical voice and

horizontal voice; female voices and male voices; a voice for being and a

voice for doing; a voice for listening and a voice for expressing; voice as

a question and voice as an answer?

Two Day Workshops Wed 31 March – Thu 1 April 2-day ticket

Anne Marie Blink (Netherlands) - I NEED YOU …….

How can we sing what we feel, how can we express why a song is touching us?

By working with our body as a music instrument and feeling the vibrations of

the voice in our body we develop a personal connection with the song.

Mariana Sadowska (Ukraine) - THE RITUAL SONGS OF THE UKRAINE

In this workshop participants will share her knowledge of a selection of

ritual songs from the Ukraine –including: songs used at weddings, songs to

‘call’ the Spring (Rusalni), songs to mark Midsummer’s Eve, (Trojitzki).

One Day Workshops  Friday 2 April 1-day ticket

Anne Marie Blink (Netherlands)

Mariana Sadowska (Ukraine)

One day introductory workshops aimed at non-professionals and those with

less experience.

One Day Workshops  Saturday 3 April 1-day ticket

Stepanida (Siberia) - SONGS OF THE SHAMAN

This type of Epic Storytelling, performed in the style of Toyuk (vibrating

singing of different motives to represent different characters – good and

evil by the same performer) is performed by storytellers over three or four

days. The genre of Degeren – a four-line poem performed in Kylykhakh

(throat-singing style, traditional for female shaman). They accompany the

rituals of ‘feeding the spirits’ and the others which come to us from the

centuries ago and still performed in Sakha today.

Sreenath Nair and Arya Madhavan (India) - BREATH, SPIRIT AND PERFORMANCE

Sreenath and Arya have developed a new method of actor training based on the

South Indian Shiva tradition of breathing and Kudiyattam, the oldest

existing Sanskrit theatre of India.

WORKSHOPS IN CARDIFF  5 – 7 APRIL

Three Day Workshops Monday 5 – Friday 7 April  (3-day ticket)

Jonathan Hart Makwaia (USA) - VOICE AND MUSIC

The workshop begins by exploring the voice as it is (range, character and

natural music) and moves on to singing and structures using other kinds of

vocal sound.  Jonathan’s work is rooted in Roy Hart Theatre training,

focussing particularly on the dynamic between performer and form.  Specific

exercises depend on the interests and experience of participants but are

likely to include musical improvisation, work on songs, and exploration of

voice as a source for composition.

Judith Shahn (USA) - 'I BELIEVE': DISCOVERING THE VOICE OF YOUR CORE BELIEFS

In the same way that Kristin Linklater and Carol Gilligan combined writing

(the metaphorical voice) with speaking (the physical voice), this workshop

aims to give people the opportunity to connect with their most passionate

expression by examining their core beliefs. Judy is a leading Linklater

teacher.

Asa Simma (Sweden) – CARVING TIME WITH VOICE

Åsa Simma was born and grew up in Swedish Lapland, and her Saami identity is

crucial to her work. Åsa grew up in the 60’s – a time when it was officially

forbidden for Saamis to ‘jojka’ ( to sing/chant in the Saami language).

This is a unique opportunity to gain some insight into this ancient and

powerful means of vocal expression and to receive training from a performer

of renown in both the folk and theatre worlds.

Tomasz Rodowicz (Poland): CHOREA: Towards the Voices of Antiquity

Tomasz is an actor, director and co-founder of the Gardzienice Theatre

Association in Poland. Through sharing Gardzienice methodologies, Tomek’s

workshop for Giving Voice will explore the theatrical musicality of both the

body and voice; structured around the unique modalities of ancient Greek

song and music - come prepared to be moved!

EVENING PERFORMANCES:

Wednesday  31 March, 8pm

Mariana Sadowska

In Concert

Parry Williams Building, Dept. Theatre, Film and Television Studies

Tickets: £7/£5

Friday 2 April, 8pm

Stepanida (Yakut-Sakha Siberia)

In Concert

Parry Williams Building, Dept. Theatre, Film and Television Studies

Tickets: £7/£5

Saturday 3 April, 8pm

Participatory Concert with Mariana Sadowska (part of Local Voices, Worlds of

Song)

Tabernacle, Machynlleth

Tickets: £5/£3

Tuesday 6 April, 8pm

Volcano Theatre Company (Wales)

This Imaginary Woman – A Modern Requiem

Bute Theatre, Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama

Tickets: £7/£5

Written, Composed and Performed by Fern Smith and Patrick Fitzgerald

Co-commissioned by Battersea Arts Centre

A devastating personal testimony of bitter loss and tender memory.

Wednesday 7 April, 8pm

Jonathan Hart Makwaia (USA)

In concert

Bute Theatre, Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama, Cardiff

The Wild Is Rising

 A solo concert for voice and piano - 90 minutes of mostly original music

integrating traditional and non-traditional voice.  Influences include East

African tribal music, classical music, blues and jazz.

Jonathan Hart Makwaia uses the concert form as a medium for transforming 30

years’ vocal research into music.

"…unusually versatile……a spectacular display of vocal timbres and

techniques…"  The New York Times

EVENING PRESENTATIONS:

Frankie Armstrong (UK)

The Need to Sing

Frankie will speak about the philosophy underlying her own approach to voice

and singing, as well as the development and aims of the Natural Voice

Practitioners Network and its statement of philosophy. Frankie Armstrong is

a practitioner of worldwide renown with more than 40 years experience as a

singer and teacher.

Yvon Bonenfant (Canada)

Gut Feelings, Dynamic Voicings: Psychologies of the Vocal Body

This lively presentation will explore the role that emotional vocal

expression plays in allowing the human body to access extreme emotional

states safely and sanely. Yvon Bonenfant is a body and voice specialist who

creates somatic psychovocal live art and teaches and researches in the UK.

Dr Andrew Kimbrough (USA)

A Practitioners’ Guide to Talking to Academics about the Voice

Film-maker, actor and scholar, Andrew has studied and worked in Sri Lanka,

Moscow and China as well as the USA and currently works as a dramaturg in

Los Angeles. His research area is theories of voice in twentieth century

thought and performance, and he will talk about why the voice has been

silenced in contemporary thought on actor training.

Alice Lagaay (UK/Germany)

Towards a Philosophy of Voice

Is there or can there be such a thing as a philosophy of voice? Alice will

suggest some of the main reasons why voice as a focus for enquiry has

traditionally been overlooked in the history of metaphysics as well as why

it is increasingly being constructed as a paradigm through which to

articulate a theory of human being-in-the-world. Alice Lagaay is a

researcher in the Collaborative Research Centre ‘Cultures of the

Performative’ at the Free University Berlin.

Tara MacAllister (UK)

‘Is Sound Universal?’

Tara explores the perceived shift in focus from culture/discipline specific

British Voice Training for Actors into a more international focus. Tara is a

teaching fellow and PhD researcher in Performance Practice- Voice at the

University of Exeter, School of Performance Arts.

Enrique Pardo (Peru/France)

Myths of the Voice

Enrique will present a project being set up for 2006 on “Myths of the

Voice” - a collaboration between Pantheatre’s “Myth and Theatre Festival”,

CPR and Giving Voice, the Roy Hart International Centre (Southern France),

and the Town of Naples. Theatre Director, actor, founder and co-director of

Pantheatre, Enrique Pardo is also a mythology specialist and directs the

international Myth and Theatre Festival.

Dr. Ralf Peters (Germany)

Liberation and Limitation of the Voice Through Thinking

Ralf will talk about the difficulties of thinking about voice: he will

consider philosophical, historical and aesthetic aspects of the voice,

focusing on the idea of ‘the beautiful voice’ and its effect on our

understanding of the voice on the whole. Ralf Peters is a voice artist in

the field of extended voice movement. He is a voice teacher in Cologne,

Germany and as a doctor of philosophy also thinks and writes about the

voice.

Judith Shahn (USA)

Interview Texts : the search for a cross cultural approach in dialects and

accent training

Judith will talk about the profound results yielded through work she has

developed using dialect research interviews as performance texts. She has

been head of voice and speech at the University of Washington’s professional

actor training programme since 1990.  She trained with Kristin Linklater and

became a designated teacher in 1992, and is one of the leading vocal and

dialect coaches in the Northwest of the USA. Inspired by the work of Anna

Deveare Smith,

Jean-René Toussaint (France/Netherlands)

Stemwerk

Jean-René is director of he Stemwerk Foundation in Rotterdam, now the

largest voice institution of its kind in the Netherlands. He will talk about

his work over the past 15 years, which has included collaboration with

artists such as Jerzy Grotowski, Robert Wilson and companies such as

Festival d'Avignon, Theatre de Radeau, Theatre de Feu, The Living Theatre,

Bread and Puppet Theatre and the Roy Hart Theatre.

Joanna Weir-Ouston (UK/Australia)

The Moment of Magic

When a person connects deeply with the text and his or her breath, a moment

of performance magic occurs. The thinking, feeling voice emerges with a

profound richness of resonance, emotional connection and meaning which

instantly echoes in the hearts and minds of the audience.  Joanna will

explore this ‘moment of magic’. Joanna Weir-Ouston is an accomplished Voice

and Text teacher of international repute.

Linda Wise (Kenya/France)

Voice & Soul

Linda will reflect on a vision of the voice that engages the widest possible

perspective on each person’s individuality. Co-founder and Director of

Pantheatre, Linda is invited to teach and direct throughout the world. She

worked with Roy Hart from 1969 until his death in 1975. She was a member of

the original Roy Hart Theatre and a founder member of the Roy Hart Centre in

the South of France.

LOCAL VOICES, WORLDS OF SONG   Saturday 3 April

An opportunity for community choirs in Wales to celebrate singing for

pleasure - to meet, share ideas, enthusiasm and skills, participate in

workshops around the new song cycle, The Traveller, commissioned for the

Community Choirs of Wales from Welsh composer Karl Jenkins.

BOOKING DETAILS AND NOTES

FESTIVAL TICKETS

1 DAY FESTIVAL TICKET (Aberystwyth) £60 (£45 unwaged)

2 DAY FESTIVAL TICKET (Aberystwyth) £115 (£95 unwaged)

3 DAY FESTIVAL TICKET (Cardiff, Aberystwyth) £165 (£130 unwaged)

4 DAY FESTIVAL TICKET (Aberystwyth): £205 (£165 unwaged)

FULL FESTIVAL TICKETS: £350 (£275 unwaged)

Antony Pickthall

Marketing & Development Director

Centre for Performance Research (CPR)

6, Science Park, Aberystwyth, SY23 3AH

Tel: +44 (0) 1970 621571

Fax: +44 (0) 1970 622132

E-mail: aop@...         

www.thecpr.org.uk

For the curious...opening up worlds of performance