Voicelab
Southbank Centre needs you
Under the direction of Mary King, internationally acclaimed vocal artist and star of Channel 4’s Musicality and Operatunity, Voicelab provides many training and performance opportunities throughout the year for all kinds of people, from enthusiastic amateur to aspiring professional. Participants learn how to sing better and work across a wide range of vocal styles from classical music to beatboxing, from musical theatre to world music.
Mary King introduces Voicelab
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=xW4gvXy1754
“If people can produce a sound, they can sing! Voicelab will be about unlocking people’s potential.”
Jude Kelly, Artistic Director of Southbank Centre.
Voicelab is generously funded by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation.
SING WITH VOICELAB
Voicelab is currently grouped into three strands: Surge, Swell and Pulse.
Surge is a choir of many voices, open to all regardless of their musical experience.
Swell is a smaller chamber choir which is auditioned for each project. Both Surge and Swell function on a project-by-project basis with recruitment for different singers for different projects.
Pulse is a year-long part time course for ten professional singers who form a core Voicelab ensemble. It is an auditioned and fee paying course. Auditions took place throughout July and this year’s group began in October 2007.
If you would like to join Voicelab’s mailing list and keep in touch with our projects and event, register your details by emailing voicelab@southbankcentre.co.uk
Things We're Doing
Carols with Voicelab
Friday 14 December
Voicelab launch Southbank Centre’s Ballroom Festive, a season of free Christmas events on The Clore Ballroom, with ‘Carols with Voicelab’ on Friday 14 December at 6.30pm. We’re bringing together a choir of 120 singers from Surge, our massed choir, to perform alongside the other two strands of Voicelab - Swell and Pulse. This informal christening of the festive space includes a selection of winter solstice and celebratory songs as well as opportunities for members of the public to join in with this huge singalong event.
There are still places for tenors and basses to sing with Surge during this event. There is one rehearsal on Thursday 13 December from 6.30pm to 9.30pm. We will then meet on Friday 14 December at 5.30pm to rehearse before performing from 6.30pm to 7.10pm at The Clore Ballroom.
If you’re a tenor or bass who would like to take part, please register your details by emailing voicelab@southbankcentre.co.uk
Switch on - Thursday 6 December
David Batchelor's popular festive lights display Festival Remix returns to Southbank Centre this season. Batchelor's neon-outlined concrete mixers and festoons of colourful recycled bottles will illuminate ledges, platforms and pillars around The Hayward and Festival Terrace. Southbank Centre has also commissioned a new display of lights this year by Turner Prize nominee, Anya Gallaccio. As part of a free event, Voicelab marks the switching on of these lights in a promenade performance. Swell, under the direction of Mary King, performs a collection of songs and lead the audience around the Southbank Centre.
Voicelab Pulse 2007/08
Eight aspiring professional singers and performers have auditioned and been selected to join Pulse, a new year-long part-time vocal course directed by Mary King. Whether formally trained or self-taught, these singers are developing their talent in a range of musical and theatrical styles. They receive one-to-one and ensemble training and are also developing their dramatic, communication and movement skills. Singers receive top class tuition in parallel with professional performance opportunities at Southbank Centre.
If you would like to receive information about Pulse 2008/09, please email voicelab@southbankcentre.co.uk to be added to our mailing list.
Things We’ve Done
Paco Peña ‘Flamenco Requiem for the Earth’ - September 2007
Voicelab provided two choirs, Swell and Voicelab Children’s Choir, to perform with Paco Peña, guitarist, composer and dramatist, and his flamenco troupe. Different worlds, languages and musical styles worked seamlessly as one in this moving piece that was performed in Royal Festival Hall.
Voicelab Children’s Choir Summer School – August 2007
Thirty young people aged from eight to 13 worked with Voicelab during this Summer School project to form a Children’s Choir and perform with Paco Peña in Royal Festival Hall.
Overture: Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony & Singing River – June 2007
As part of the Overture opening celebrations of the Royal Festival Hall, a Voicelab Surge choir of 150 were part of a 1300-strong choir joining the Philharmonia Orchestra in a remarkable performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, with a new translation by Billy Bragg. The Surge choir were also involved in Orlando Gough’s Singing River. 150 singers sang a specially written piece from the balcony of the Royal Festival Hall to welcome a boat full of singers who had sailed up the Thames on a barge.
First Voicelab rehearsal of Beethoven 9
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=pohbuuV1k_M
War Oratorio – March 2007
Auditions took place in early March for places in the group that is recording the new Dominic Muldowney commission for Channel 4's War Oratorio, a major new music film about war in our time.
Open Voice – February 2007
Over 400 members of the general public from a variety of musical and non-musical backgrounds took part in this hugely popular mass singalong in Queen Elizabeth Hall Foyer in February. As the first Voicelab event, participants had the opportunity to learn more about exciting forthcoming projects.
