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A performance with vocalist Nicholas Isherwoood exploring the connections and tensions between technology and the human voice
Slought is pleased to announce The Electric Voice, a performance with vocalist Nicholas Isherwoood and collaborators exploring the connections and tensions between technology and the human voice, on Tuesday, April 19, 2016 from 8-10pm. This program has been organized with Soundfield NFP and is being presented in partnership with Bowerbird.
Reaching back to the roots of electronic music, the program will feature Nicholas Isherwood performing his version of John Cage's "Aria" (1958) with "Fontana Mix" (1958) and a special performance with Isherwood and BEEP - the Temple University electronic music ensemble, directed by Adam Vidiksis.
This program will also feature a series of world premieres by a group of composers who have created music for solo voice and electronics, including Eve De Castro (NZ), Pamela Madsen (USA), Helmuth Flammer (Germany) and Gene Coleman (USA).
This is a rare opportunity to hear a preeminent singer of new music, who has collaborated with important composers of our time, including John Cage, Iannis Xenakis, George Crumb and Karlheinz Stockhausen.
After making his debut in the role of "Lucifer" in Stockhausen's Donnerstag aus Licht at the Royal Opera House at the age of 25, Nicholas Isherwood went on to have a career that has taken him to the world's leading concert halls, festivals and opera houses.
He has worked closely with composers such as Sylvano Bussotti, Elliott Carter, George Crumb, Hans Werner Henze, Mauricio Kagel, György Kurtág, Steve Lacy, Olivier Messiaen, Giacinto Scelsi, Karlheinz Stockhausen and Iannis Xenakis. He has sung a vast repertory including medieval and renaissance music with Joel Cohen, French baroque music with William Christie, Händel with Nicholas McGegan and romantic music with Zubin Mehta.
He recently founded a vocal ensemble for new music called Voxnova Italia. Isherwood has taught master classes at schools such as the Paris Conservatoire (Messiaen), Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi in Milan (contemporary) and USC (French Art Song), and classes in contemporary singing techniques at the Universität der Künste in Berlin since 2012. He was recently appointed professor of singing at the Conservatory of Music in Lyon.
Isherwood is also active as a composer, stage director and scholar. He has published peer-reviewed articles for The Journal of Singing (vocal vibrato) and LIM (Luigi Nono) and a book, The Techniques of Singing, for Bärenreiter Verlag. He has recorded 58 CDs for labels such as Harmonia Mundi, Naxos and Erato and made several films and DVDs.
Part 1
The Electric Voice
by various composers
Works for voice and electronic sounds
Performed by Nicholas Isherwood
Intermission
Part 2
Aria + Fontana Mix
by John Cage
Work for voice and electronic sounds
Performed by Nicholas Isherwood
New Work
by Adam Vidiksis
Work for voice and electronic sounds
Performed by BEEP and Nicholas Isherwood
BEEP performers include Josh Carey, Stefano Daddi, Matt Day, Skyler Hagner, Carlos Johns-Dávila, Truman Levine, Tony Manfredonia, Gabe Miller, Alyssa Milman, Arnab Nandi, Isabella Ness, and Samuel Tarasenko