House of Voices: Three-Day Voice Practices Symposium at CalArts

House of Voices, a three-day symposium on voice practices, runs Jan. 24-26 at CalArts. | Image from House of Voices.

House of Voices, a symposium exploring ancestral voice practices, is taking place on the CalArts campus from Jan. 24-26 during Winter Session. The workshops are open to the Institute and features a different artist each day.

Conceived by CalArts faculty Rafael Lopez-Barrantes, House of Voices is a School of Theater initiative to promote further dialogue between students, faculty, artists, scholars, researchers and scientists about all aspects of human vocal expression.

On Thursday (Jan. 24), Vocal Activist Melanie DeMore is leading a workshop titled, “Tightening the Weave of Community: Sharing Your Ancestral Story through the Art of Gullah Stick Pounding and Song.”

Created by enslaved people in South Carolina’s Sea Islands, Stick Pounding was used as a form of rhythmic communication. DeMore keeps this musical language alive by bringing people together to experience and take part in traditional stick pounding workshops and concerts.

Watch the short documentary Stick & Pound (below), featuring DeMore to learn more about the Gullah stick pounding.

On Friday (Jan. 25), David Harris leads a workshop on contemporary research of voice textures titled, “Science Gives us Choices: Research-based Explorations of Eiverse Vocal Timbres, Textures, and Extended Techniques.”

Based in Los Angeles, Harris is the co-founder and director of VoiceScienceWorks. He and his partner, Laurel Irene, focus on voice habilitation with their clients.

On Saturday (Jan. 26), Tamir Hargana will lead a workshop on Mongolian throat singing. An award-winning performer from the far northeastern region of Inner Mongolia, China, Hargana is one of the only active performers of khöömii (throat singing) in the United States. Additionally, he is a multi-instrumentalist and can play traditional instruments such as the morin khuur (Mongolian horse-head fiddle), tovshuur (Mongolian lute instruments), doshpuluur (Tuvan lute instrument) and igil (Tuvan string instrument).

Hargana lives and works in Chicago where he currently teaches khöömii and Mongolian music at Old Town School of Music in Chicago.

Watch Hargana throat singing below:

House of Voices is made possible by the generous support of the CalArts School of Theater and the Office of the Provost. Students can register for individual workshops or the entire symposium on the House of Voices’ website.