“Artists Talk” at VoxLAB VårFEST
VoxLAB VårFEST is a 3-4 days festival with a focus on newly written vocal repertoire and new musical theatre and has been organized since 2019. The content is mainly new vocal repertoire developed by composers working with an experimental vocal expression. Through concerts, workshops, and ongoing collaboration with VoxLAB, composers get the opportunity to develop new works and share them with others. VoxLAB has had great success with the festival for the past three years. VårFEST is becoming known as a "multidimensional voice party" (mentioned in Ballade).
VoxLAB VårFEST takes place August 30 - September 2, 2023.
The festival opens on August 30 with a discussion panel that delves into the history of improvisation: "50 Years of Improvising - The improvisation scene in "Norway-USA-Netherlands-Hungary-Iran". Here, internationally recognized composers and improvisers who have been innovating for decades meet with up-and-coming artists to share insights on the music scene’s evolution from the 1970s to the present.
https://www.voxlab.no/vaarfest23-festivallaunch
The panel is led by Dr.Bjørnar Habbestad, Artistic Director of nyMusikk, Norway’s Center for contemporary music.
the artists:
Dr.Peter Van Bergen from the Netherlands, director, composer, & multi-instrumentalist improviser, and founder of studio LOOS, who has performed with, among others, Evan Parker and Cecil Taylor.
Miguel Fasconi from New York, founding member of The Glass Orchestra, composer, and improviser, who has worked with John Cage and Merce Cunningham.
Kristin Norderval, composer and singer from the US and Norway, board leader of VoxLAB, performed and recorded works by and alongside composers such as Philip Glass, John Cage, and Pauline Oliveros.
Gregory Vajda, composer and conductor from Hungary, a.o. Music Director and Conductor of the Huntsville Symphony Orchestra.
Anna Molnar, a mezzo-soprano singer from Hungary, was awarded the Annie Fischer Scholarship three times and participated in many experimental performances.
Dr.Idin Samimi Mofakham, Oslo-based Iranian composer/performer, co-founder, and artistic director of the Spectro Center for New Music since 2013, together with the Polish composer and conductor Martyna Kosecka.
about VoxLAB
VoxLAB is an association and a cross-artistic network consisting of creative and performing artists with a particular interest in innovative, experimental renewal of vocal music. VoxLAB works to create and disseminate newly written music for opera and to develop the vocal part of contemporary music.
VoxLAB acts as a laboratory for the development of skills in vocal composition. VoxLAB contributes to the field with workshops, seminars, practical research, networking and concerts, as part of its work as a meeting place and base for the development of new vocal repertoire and new music drama.
