Tag Archives: Voice

BAMA DIY & DIT

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Tomorrow I’ll be joining friends in the Birmingham Art Music Alliance for a DIY Composers Concert featuring composer/performers playing their own compositions. I’ll be performing music for banjo, live electronics and voice. Also on the program are Raphael Crystal and Gaines Brake, Monroe Golden, Kenneth Kuhn, Kyle McGucken and area newcomer Geni Skendo.

Tuesday August 9 7pm
BAMA “DIY” Concert
Unitarian Universalist Church of Birmingham
4300 Hampton Heights Dr
Birmingham AL 35209

DIY = Do It Yourself, of course
DIT = Do It Together (and in this case, Do It Tuesday)

Sudden Swan Soars Saturday

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Susan WilliamsSoprano Susan Williams will premiere Sudden Swan for voice and live electronics at the Birmingham New Music Festival on Saturday August 23 at 7:30pm. The concert is at UAB’s Hulsey Recital Hall, 950 13th Street South, Birmingham, AL. Admission is free.

Susan and I have known each other since our college days at Birmingham-Southern.  Since then she’s landed leading opera roles and appeared with the Cleveland Orchestra, Akron Symphony, Duke Symphony Orchestra and many others. This is the first time Susan and I have worked on a piece together, and we’re so excited to present it on Saturday.

The performer in Sudden Swan improvises a melody to a drone using a small set of just-tuned pitches. Each pitch is associated with one or more words which are strung together to create an ever-evolving poetry. The computer responds to variations in the vocal performance with subtle shifts of timbre, pulsating rhythms, and sometimes unpredictable flourishes.

Here’s a snippet of our working score:

sudden swan score snippet

Nine Tas

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I recently heard a recording of the premiere performance of Nine Tas by the Austin New Music Co-op and thought I’d share it here. The singers are Ashley Gaar, Kathy Hatch, Wendi Olinger and Brandon Young

[audio:http://www.hollandhopson.com/music/various/nine_tas.mp3]

Nine Tas

The rest of the concert is knockout good. Let’s hope the Co-op makes it available soon.

The Universal Instrument: New Music for Voice

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The Universal Instrument

The Austin New Music Co-op is presenting a concert of new music for voice on Saturday, April 12 in Austin TX. The concert will feature music by Chris Cuellar, Brent Fariss, Holland Hopson, Keith Manlove, Josh Ronsen and Travis Weller performed by vocalists Ashley Gaar, Kathy Hatch, Deena Hyatt, Wendi Olinger, Anton Boyd, Brandon Young and Kevin Adickes.

The ensemble will be premiering my vocal quartet, Nine Tas (Download the score). I unfortunately won’t be in attendance.

NMC is presenting a number of related events beginning with an open rehearsal tonight, a radio broadcast tomorrow and a pre-concert talk on the 12th. More information about the concert and all the extras.