Mingle a sumo wrestler feeling with a kissing gesture
Workshop with the “Nordic Voices” in Riga
A mixture of opera voice, normal singing voice and Gollum voice – this exceptional mixture united in the piece “Aria” by John Cage represented the prelude of the workshop session at the Grand Prix of Nations 2017 & 3rd European Choir Games. Frank Havroy, one of the members of the Norwegian vocal ensemble Nordic Voices, gave an introduction into classical singing and the Nordic Voices in general as well as an insight in the different vocal techniques regarding overtone singing as the group strived during the past years to refine their skills in this field of music, too.
Frank Havroy, Associated Professor of Music at the Academy of Music in Oslo, stressed that finding your personal overtone would be a “Harry Potter experience”: A tone which is extremely personal, something belonging only to you but yet challenging to find and refine, but once you were successful on your search you would reach the “classical singing nirvana”, the condition all singers would strive for.
The workshop participants were also asked to make their first steps in overtone singing – and by using the image of mingling the strength of a sumo wrestler and a lip gesture of kissing, Frank Havroy guided the workshop participants in a very visual way through their first attempts in overtone singing, which actually made the hall vibrate with mutual humming.
Formed in 1996, Nordic Voices is a six-voice a cappella group which comprises six graduates from the Norwegian Academy of Music and the Norwegian Academy of Opera, who also have a broad range of experience ranging from choral conducting to teacher training and composition. In addition to regular concerts in Oslo and around Norway, recent concert tours have included visits to South-America, Spain, Germany and regular tours of the USA. Nordic Voices focus on new vocal techniques and new way of using the classical trained voice.
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