Nick Hallett: VOICE + LIGHT SYSTEMS: Part One: Meredith Monk's "Our Lady of Late"

For more information and tickets: http://www.newmuseum.org/events/330

Nick Hallett—singer, composer, and downtown impresario—creates a four-part series at the New Museum theater connecting the human voice to multimedia ritual. Performances are every Thursday in May at 7pm.

Nick Hallett begins his residency tonight with a selection of songs from Meredith Monks "Our Lady of Late", a cycle for solo voice and wineglass drone, written in 1972 and rendered as a concert piece by the composer a year later. The performer begins by singing in unison with the fingered glass, then gradually diverging from the pitch in microtonal increments, which results in the phenomenon of beats, rhythmic pulses that are created in the interference patterns of two waveforms. Eventually, vibrato is added into the mix. In this way, "Our Lady of Late" introduces its audience to extended vocal technique, wherein the singer explores a diverse vocabulary of sounds and performative states. Halletts interpretation—working within the composers clearly defined parameters—incorporates a multimedia table of his design in collaboration with live cinema artist Brock Monroe. Pure light focused onto the glass produces an aqueous, mutable projection. Hallett will be joined by singers Emily Eagen and Peter Sciscioli (members of The M6: Meredith Monk Music Third Generation), who will perform duets from Meredith Monk's "Facing North" and musician Miguel Frasconi, who will play the percussion solos originated by Collin Walcott in the original performances of "Our Lady of Late".

Nick Halletts residency continues every Thursday in May:

May 14 Part Two: Karlheinz Stockhausens Stimmung
May 21 Part Three: Whispering Exercises Premiere
May 28 Part Four: Auroville

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Nick Hallett
• Meredith Monk
• extended vocal technique
• wineglass
• drone
• M6
• Stockhausen
• Shana Moulton
• Ana Matronic

[ElizabethMezzo]

I love it!

[daverydc]

wow, what a tool

[sorry1787]

WONDERFUL!

[earldax]

Thanks for posting this Travis! Nick is awesome. Great way to start off the residency series at NuMu.