Season of big change! – Voices of Silicon Valley

This Spring 2017 season Voices of Silicon Valley are embarking on a unique project as we are attempting to shake up Bay area musical scene in a significant way. We are looking forward to new singers joining us for this project.

We rehearse on Wednesday nights from 7 to 9:30 at First United Methodist Church downtown San Jose, corner of Santa Clara and 5^th, with the first rehearsal this Wednesday January 18:

http://sanjosefirst.org/worship/index.html

We’ll be performing a work by the great German modernist composer Karlheinz Stockhausen called Stimmung. This piece was composed in 1960s and broke a new ground not only in vocal music but in All music. It challenges us as singers in a variety of ways:

1. we’ll have to get away from the traditional notation and learn how to sing from notation that is more about gestures and sounds

2. We’ll have to learn how to sing certain overtones by manipulating different vowel sounds

3. We will explore philosophy behind different names that Stockhausen calls ‘MAGIC NAMES’ that come from different religious traditions.

4. We’ll learn how to build beautiful harmonies that start with the sounds provided from a tape as the composer builds them into sounds that touch on the foundation of all harmonies in music

5. we’ll learn how to sing with mikes so that our sounds resonate properly when projected into a variety of speakers

This piece has never been done before by more than 6 singers. As we’ll attempt to perform it with a larger number of singers we will break a totally new ground.

In addition, we will sing a joyous Missa Luba, a 15 min. piece that combines traditional Mass text with African rhythms and drums (and has traditional notation).

If interested, please contact our Director Dr. Cyril Deaconoff at to set up an audition.

Spread the word to your friends about this unique project!

More info about Voices of Silicon Valley may be found at our website at www.voices-sv.org