Online Lecture to join next Monday: “Making Dementia Matter Through Sound”

Invited by the University of Cologne, Germany, there will be a Zoom lecture to join for those of you interested in the dementia project of the Genetic Choir and our recently published article.

Here the official invitation:

Dear Research Community,

we cordially invite you to our next exciting lecture of the “Phenomenology of Dementia and Aging Network” on Monday, 22.04.2023, 14.00-15.30 (CET, online via Zoom), held by Thomas Johannsen (Amsterdam).

The title of the talk is: “Making Dementia Matter Through Sound – The Stem&Luister project of the Genetic Choir”

Thomas Johannsen is artistic director of the Genetic Choir Ensemble in Amsterdam and co-author of the recently published article “Making Dementia Matter through Sound – The Stem&Luister project of the Genetic Choir”: https://geneticchoir.wordpress.com/2024/03/11/scientific-paper-published-making-dementia-matter-through-sound/

He will give an introduction to the article’s findings and the Stem&Luister project itself, in which singers of the Genetic Choir employ an experimental approach to the voice and ensemble improvisation to make meaningful contact with people in advanced phases of dementia. The project has been running for four years now in a care home in Amsterdam, followed by anthropologist Marjolein Gysels, who is the main author of the article.

Everyone is welcome, so please spread the word to anyone interested. 

Zoom-link: https://uni-koeln.zoom.us/j/91365214213?pwd=cWFRQnZKcjlMY3RzNEdISHMzU09GUT09

Meeting-ID: 913 6521 4213 

Password: 252346 

Best wishes from Cologne and Kassel, 

Dr. Erik Norman Dzwiza-Ohlsen, M.A. Ragna Winniewski & M.A. Christine Keller, 
Phenomenology of Dementia and Aging Network,
Husserl Archives Cologne/a.r.t.e.s. Graduate School for the Humanities Cologne/NAR

Nederlands Kamerkoor, Buckminster College and University of Cologne

Just a note today about the way Genetic Choir practice is spreading internationally…

Last week, Thomas was invited to give a Genetic Choir workshop to the young, international singers of the NKK NXT programme of the Dutch Chamber Choir (Nederlands Kamerkoor).

A week before, he spent two days in Brugge, Belgium, sharing Genetic Choir practice with the students and teachers of the Buckminster College, an initiative of the Vrije Universiteit Brussels to “reimagine international, interregional, intercultural education for ages 10-18”.

picture from the Buckminster College website

Upcoming is an online lecture for the University of Cologne, Germany, and the “Phenomenology of Dementia and Aging Network”, about Genetic Choir’s take on working with people with dementia in the Stem&Luister project. In the lecture, Thomas will give an introduction to the recently published article ‘Making Dementia Matter Through Sound‘.

We’ll share the Zoom link for the lecture as soon as it comes available.
UPDATE –> it’s on Monday 22 April, 14:00-15:30 and the Zoom link is here!

Scientific paper published: “Making Dementia Matter Through Sound”

Anthropologist Marjolein Gysels has been shadowing the Stem&Luister project of the Genetic Choir since many years now, and a paper she wrote about it, co-authored by Chris Tonelli and Thomas Johannsen, has last week reached the status of a peer-reviewed and published scientific article!

In the current issue of the journal ‘Voices’ (www.voices.no), published on 1st of March, 2024, the paper is featured up front. Look here for the journal’s website or download the article directly via this link if you want to read it, or share it.

The paper describes many hands-on situations that Genetic Choir singers encounter in the work with people suffering from late-phase dementia, and places the methods of the Stem&Luister project in the context of scientific discussion about improvisation, music therapy and healthcare.

“Improvisers Without Borders” – a project that should be kept in the air

Today a call on behalf of someone else: The French improvisers collective ‘Fondeur du Son’ is supporting the website ‘Improvisers Without Borders’ since its creation a number of years ago. The website, where improvisers from any country can make an account and get connected with others, was developed with EU funding, but now has to be maintained from other sources, just to keep it technically running.

It is a great networking resource for European Improvisers and should be kept in the air!

Fondeur du Son is now asking help for just the basic yearly IT maintencance of the website, and Genetic Choir just donated towards it, as we think it is an important thing for the European community of improvisers. Please consider supporting it too, even just a few euros are already helping to reach the crowdfunding goal (now at 69%)!

Here’s the place to be and contribute: https://www.kisskissbankbank.com/en/projects/improvisors-without-borders-we-need-you-eb92c7db-4732-45c3-89b3-fc69a8275d79

Thanks already on behalf of all improvisers out there!

What’s in a song?

A song – there is so much inside! And it is not just the story, music and feeling that it expresses in its original form – each song can be seen as an Easter Egg of possibilities. Especially if you look it at from a Genetic Choir point of view.

Working with well-known-songs to improvise and create new music is a long term obsession of Genetic Choir work, and with the upcoming Old Songs, New Songs workshop on 9+10 March, we will have another weekend of improvisation research where everyone brings a song, and we see what we can do with it, musically, while instant composing together.

There are two places left in the group, so if you are interested, click here for the info and/or to subscribe.

OLD SONGS, NEW SONGS

– weekend workshop –

10:00-16:30 on 9 & 10 March 2024

in the Tugela85 in Amsterdam

Connecting Toronto with Amsterdam

Christine Duncan (from Toronto, Canada) was in Amsterdam and we shared a wonderful morning with a few Genetic Choir singers and improviser/musicologist Chris Tonelli singing, eating and talking.

Christine is the founder and leader of the Element Choir, which you could call family of Genetic Choir in the sense that they also love all sorts of human sounds, becoming music. 😃 The main difference is that the Element Choir is conducted while Genetic Choir is about the organism of singers swarm-composing themselves. The great thing about Christine’s way of working (a system of hand-signs that she researched and developed) is that she can easily work with big groups of 50 or 80 singers and very quickly instant compose with them, like she did in the Soundmakers project of Ineke Vandoorn and Mark van Vugt, that she came to the Netherlands for.

We had a lovely conversation, good food on the table and improvised for/with each other freely (Genetic Choir style) as a dessert. What a delightful encounter! Next time in Toronto?

Happy New Music

Which music will the new year bring? Let’s go for songs that nurture and confront, that bring new perspectives in hearts that have gone cold and stiff, music of hope and truth and humour, in any degrees that a moment asks for.

Wishing the world a year with wars ending and everyone in it a year with as much peace or movement/challenges as you wish for! 💫💫💫

For Genetic Choir, of course all music is New music. But in March we will look especially at Old Songs versus New Songs, in a weekend for experienced singers. For those who love short and sweet, there is a Genetic Choir intro workshop coming up, and also the intensive group training on Friday Mornings (eight times this Spring) is going into a new round with some exciting new perspectives on Genetic Choir training!

INTRO WORKSHOP GENETIC CHOIR
27 January – 10:00-13:00 – click here

FRIDAY MORNING SESSIONS
eight times on a Friday morning between 2 February – 19 April – click here

OLD SONGS, NEW SONGS
weekend workshop 9 & 10 March – click here

See you there!

the Genetic Choir

One spot left in masterclass weekend!

Next weekend (16/17 december) is a special occasion of Genetic Choir training: The possibility for you to get full individual attention as vocalist/improviser in a two-day masterclass by Thomas Johannsen (max. 6 participants).

Yinske Silva, initiator of the House of Voice and long-year Genetic Choir veteran, is hosting this weekend in her studio in Amsterdam-West.

There is one spot left, and no specific background is needed to join. Lunch and snacks/drinks provided 😄.

All info and registration via The House of Voice: Singing as a Swarm, here.

WhatIIIF? opens their door Wednesday at 20:30

Right at this moment, 30+ artists from all over Europe are improvising at Worm in Rotterdam. Researching the use of SPACE, performing and reflecting and performing. Five days and two nights, 2-6 October 2023.

There are two Genetic Choir singers/makers in this current gathering in Rotterdam and Genetic Choir stood at the cradle of this nomadic, peer-to-peer festival of interdisciplinary improvisers.

WhatIIIF? at Worm is opening its doors tomorrow evening:

Wednesday, 4 October, 20:30-22:30
@Worm, Boomgaardsstraat 71, Rotterdam

And you can follow all outcomes of this week’s research via the Open Improvisation Knowledge Base on instantcomposition.com

drawings: live on Monday @WhatIIIF? 2023 by Danielle Davidson

Sweet AnaRchy + Genetic Choir

For the spontaneous souls, living in the Netherlands:

Tonight, a Genetic Choir workshop for a mix of singers and instrumentalists as part of the SWEET ANARCHY sessions in Brebl, Nijmegen!

19:00 doors open
19:30 Genetic Orchestra/Choir workshop starts (costs: 10 euro p.p.)
21:00 free impro session starts

Address: Waalbandijk 14d in Nijmegen

See you there or be square! 😄

Singing as a Swarm – the lecture

Completely unrelated to the previous post, but under the same title 😄 , Thomas is giving an online lecture on Genetic Choir practice next week Friday, 29 September, 15:00-17:00.

Invited by CLEA, the Center Leo Apostol for Interdisciplinary Research at the Vrije Universiteit Brussels, Thomas will attempt to describe the ideas and insights gathered in a decennium of researching ‘swarm composing’ with the Genetic Choir Ensemble.

It is also transmitted live in Brussels so if you live there, you can also join an audience on the campus). See all info here.

Zoomlink: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/82757798426?pwd=em9sQlJDVjJYTEFRNk01dEJLWGxGUT09

Meeting ID: 827 5779 8426
Passcode: 122127

“Genetic Choir is a practice of music creation from self-organising principles. It employs human beings (singers) as the agents of instant composition, drawing on principles such as swarm intelligence and emergent behaviour. For the singers, it is an improvisation practice that explores a basic human dilemma: how to be autonomous as well as connected, how to follow your individual, creative intuition but also build meaningful working relationships in the moment, with others? Thirdly, it is a music making method that provides tools for any group of people without a shared musical background to find position and clarity of relationship in a musical space together, without the necessity of agreeing beforehand what ‘music’ exactly is. In over 12 years of exploring this, the Genetic Choir has developed ways of working that attempt to keep human intuition and our fast choice-making abilities active when composing together, while shedding slow choice-making processes related to taste and assumed social rules. Thomas Johannsen, founder and artistic leader of the Genetic Choir, will give an inside look into their practices and share insights related to self-organisation and emergence when applied to music making without a script, score or conductor.”

Singing as a Swarm – the masterclass

There is a special workshop coming up, organised by The House of Voice in december:

Thomas will give a masterclass, working one whole weekend with only 6 singers in a concentrated setting on Genetic Choir technique. If you are interested in this, reserve your place quickly…

“Singing as a Swarm”

16+17 december 2023, 10:00 – 17:00 in Amsterdam

More info and registration on thehouseofvoice.nl

Intro workshop and Friday Sessions – from September!

Take friend to a Genetic Choir intro workshop after the summer vacation, or join the regular Friday Morning sessions this autumn!

Saturday 9 september – Genetic Choir Intro workshop

14:00-16:30 uur / 37,- euro / studio De Eester / C. van Eesterenlaan 302, 1019 JR Amsterdam

For everyone curious about their voices and swarm improvising. No specific experience needed, just your voice!
In case you are interested to become part of the Stem&Luister project, this is also your place to get to know us.
More info and reservation, click here.

Friday Morning Sessions – autumn 2023

8 times singing & training with a committed group from 15 september to 8 december

For those who have done a Genetic Choir workshop before and who want more! Intensive training in 8 sessions with a fixed group of singers. Here, we explore the latest cutting edge of vocal swarm training and create beautiful, unexpected music. More info and reservation, click here.

photos in this post by Nellie de Boer

Genetic Choir singing on 10 June

Genetic Choir is the in-flesh experience of a utopian idea: To create the music that any moment asks for – together – without knowing the music beforehand. But if everything is possible, how do you decide what to go for? In Genetic Choir workshops you learn how to sync with each other and navigate smoothly in a swarm full of sound possibilities.

Anyone who would like to experience again – or for the first time – the feeling of being a swarm singer, is very much welcome on the upcoming workhop on 10 June in Amsterdam!

Iedereen die weer eens – of voor het eerst – de ervaring wil maken van zingen als een zwerm zangers op de Genetic Choir manier is van harte uitgenodigd voor deze aankomende workshop!

Saturday 10 June – Genetic Choir workshop

14:00-16:30 uur / 37,- euro / studio De Eester / C. van Eesterenlaan 302, 1019 JR Amsterdam

Mocht je onderdeel worden van het Stem&Luister project als zanger-vrijwilliger, dan is deze workshop achteraf gratis voor je!

Reserve a place in this workshop via this form.

Structures & Flow workshop on 8th & 9th of July

There’s a Genetic Choir weekend coming up for experienced improvisers who want to deepen their understanding and technique of using Structures and Flow to let new music emerge!

While intuitively, Flow and Structures might seem opposites of each other, they are in fact completely intertwined. Take river deltas and city traffic: Flow creates Structures (all by itself) and Structures create Flow. When improvising together, we can use the same principles and from two side: We can self-impose structures in order to strengthen our flow, or dive happily into free music and become aware of the structures that emerge.

Structures & Flow workshop

When: whole weekend, 8/9 July, 10:00-16:30
Where: Amsterdam
For whom: improvisers with experience
How much: 139,- euro
To directly reserve a place, click here.

Flow is one of those central words of improvising: when there is no flow and vivid engagement in the moment, up comes thinking, doubt, trying to do it ‘right’ – all the things we want to avoid when creating music on the spot.

Structures, however, seem just as important, even if those structures appear in the moment. We need clarity and a certain definition of the musical landscape in order to deepen our material and give shape to the music, rather than going in all directions at once.

One thing is recognising these emerging structures and working with them in the moment, another is using self-imposed limitations (scores, rules or scripts) for our improvisations. But what sort of ‘extra’ structures work well within improvised performance? Which limitations are energizing, rather than smothering the improvisation or numbing it? Which structures make the currents of improvisation engagingly vivid and increase our flow?

The idea of this workshop is to let you create and undergo many different types of scores and frames and by trying them all discover the workings of a well-designed set-up.

Improvisers and voice adventurers – see you in July! 😊

Improviseren leren – Can you learn how to improvise?

Improvisation – Kan iedereen het leren of moet je er talent voor hebben?

Twee afleveringen van de VPRO / NPO Klassiek podcast serie Improvisatie! gaan hierover, met erg leuke bijdragen van tal van Nederlandse improvisatoren. Een heel palet van intrigerende onderwerpen komt langs, en onder andere ook de manier hoe Oosterse filosofie en praktijken hier een rol in kunnen spelen.

Thomas Johannsen sluit zich in de tweede aflevering aan bij saxofoniste Jelske Hoogervorst, die verteld over hoe de Japanse krijgskunst aikido haar essentiële dingen over improviseren leert. Thomas licht toe waarom aikido daarom zo’n groot deel uitmaakt van de training van zangers in het Genetic Choir. Wie erheen wil skippen: het zit rond minuut 27 van de tweede aflevering.

Wie hierdoor nieuwsgierig wordt om ook eens een aikido les mee te maken – kom gewoon eens langs voor een proefles bij de Kishinkai aikido dojo bij Amsterdam Centraal. Of lees eerst hier nog meer over waarom het zo een goede bezigheid is voor improvisatoren.

De betreffende podcast afleveringen zijn hier te beluisteren:

Improvisatie – Kun je het leren? – Episode 1
https://www.nporadio4.nl/podcasts/tussen-de-noten/83565/16-improvisatie-kun-je-het-leren-s07

Improvisatie – Kun je het leren? – Episode 2
https://www.nporadio4.nl/podcasts/tussen-de-noten/83862/17-improvisatie-kun-je-het-leren-2-s07

En ook de rest van de serie is de moeite waard, zoals de episode over vocale improviatie! –> click hier voor het overzicht van alle afleveringen.

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The Improvisation podcast series that was created in the wake of 50 years of Improvisation in the Netherlands (of http://www.BIMpro.nl) is continuing to be a rich resource of improvisation topics and thoughts. (unfortunately for non-Dutch speakers not accessible, therefore this blogpost was mainly in Dutch, for a change)

Let’s talk about improvisation! – Round Table Talk #2

After an inspiring first Round Table Talk Improvisation in November, there will now be a second edition:

On Sunday February 5th, 14:00-16:30
in the ONDERBUIK (Koningsweg 290, 3585LD) in Utrecht.

The first edition was organized last November on the occasion of 50 years of BIM. During the conversations, there was curiosity about the various improvisation initiatives throughout the country and the expressed wish to come together in this form more frequently. Improvisation ensemble and platform BUI therefore invites you to continue the conversation in Utrecht. The UNDERBUIK is a former nuclear bunker on Fort Lunet I and has now been used for a number of years as a musical breeding ground for young Utrecht musicians, managed by the BUI Foundation.

In this second edition we will continue with the themes that have been offered and new themes and perspectives will be addressed. Above all, the conversation is an encounter!

Free entrance, public, musicians, non-musicians, everyone welcome!
Location: https://goo.gl/maps/FrXHbJo2mAvQL6Sr8

(please park on Koningsweg, after the viaduct it is free, or come by public transport!)

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Rondetafelgesprek Improvisatie #2

Na een inspirerende eerste gespreksmiddag in november, komt er nu een tweede editie van het Rondetafelgesprek Improvisatie.

Deze is op zondag 5 Februari, 14:00-16:30 in de ONDERBUIK (Koningsweg 290, 3585LD) in Utrecht.

De eerste editie werd vorig jaar november ter gelegenheid van 50jaar BIM georganiseerd. Tijdens de gesprekken kwam naar voren er nieuwsgierigheid is naar de verschillende improvisatie initiatieven door het hele land. Improvisatie ensemble en platform BUI nodigt jullie daarom uit om het gesprek voort te zetten in Utrecht. De ONDERBUIK is een voormalig atoombunker op Fort Lunet I en wordt nu sinds een aantal jaar gebruikt als muzikale broedplaats voor jonge Utrechtse musici, beheerd door Stichting BUI.

In deze tweede editie gaan we verder door op thema’s aanbod zijn gekomen en er worden nieuwe thema’s en invalshoeken aangesneden.

Bovenal is het gesprek een ontmoeting!
Toegang gratis, publiek, musici, non-musici, iedereen welkom!

Locatie: https://goo.gl/maps/FrXHbJo2mAvQL6Sr8

New year, Last places…

Dear Genetic Choir blog followers,

a Happy New Year to everyone!

Always a good time to look forward and back at the turning of the years. Doing so, I found this picture from six years ago at the beautiful shinto shrine in Tokushima province, Japan, where we performed (and where there was for sure a New Year ritual these days, to appease the kami ).

Here in Amsterdam, we start the year with upcoming workshops being almost full, which is lovely, but maybe there are people who still wanted to join? Here the update for last places:

There is one last place available in the Melody Makers weekend workshop. 21+22 January 2023. More info here.

There are three more places in the Friday Morning Sessions of 9:00-11:00 (eight mornings, starting in February). If you have done a Genetic Choir workshop before, you can reserve your place here.

The later Friday Morning group at 11:30-13:30 is already full!

There are also a few more places in the free Introduction workshop of Genetic Choir singing in the Stem&Luister project: this coming Saturday, 14 January, from 14:00-16:30. For reserving your free place and more info, click here.

The Ensemble has for 2023 already exciting things lined up, amongst which a documentary that we are going to make with Kim Brand and a pilot research about the effects of music in collaboration with the University of Amsterdam and several other partners.

We will update you about all this in the next mailchimp Newsletter, planned for half February!
(if you are not connected to the bigger nieuwsbrieven/newsletters yet, click here.)

Have a good start of your year! 💫

When it’s dark outside, find a melody or two…

It’s becoming more dark outside and the months are getting colder…
In order to get us through the gloomier winter months, Genetic Choir is opening its doors in January for a playful weekend of melody-making!

21 & 22 JANUARY 2023

MELODY MAKERS WORKSHOP

Melodies are the storytellers of music. Just start singing a few notes and instantly there is a feeling/atmosphere, the beginning and promise of a much longer story. Melodies are also playful creatures, meaning that in bigger numbers they tend to swirl around each other, being looped and copied and transposed, creating ever-new relations and mixed identities, transforming to totally different music or ending in beautiful silences.

time: Saturday and Sunday, 10:00 – 16:30
participant fee: 135,- euro / reserve your place here
place: studio De Eester, C. van Eesterenlaan 302, 1019 JR Amsterdam

In this Genetic Choir weekend workshop, we look at how we use melodies in improvisation singing. Voice work and rhythm will feature along the way, but the focus is on weaving melodies and story. How do you go about it, as an improvisation singer? How do you make it personal and how does ‘meaning’ evolve? But also: how do you work together with other singers when inventing soothing and whirling melodies?

The Genetic Choir approach ensures that you don’t need any particular background to be able to join this workshop. Everybody works from his preferred musical style and own level of experience. The magic happens in the middle.

More info on upcoming Genetic Choir workshops? Check out the agenda.

Let’s talk about Improvisation! – this Sunday @De Ruimte in Amsterdam

Many things have been written and said about improvisation, and still it remains an elusive subject for each new generation of musicians. It’s easy to give up on it all together, because finding words for something that is so multi-faceted and open as improvisation seems often impossible (a popular motto being: “If you get, you get it. And if you don’t get it, there’s no use to talk about it!”).

Still, for all the things that have to happen in order to bring Improvisation to the stage (organising, programming, finding and developing concepts together, selling your act or album, teaching improvisation in whichever context, …) language is needed – somehow.

So at the closing of BIM50 – the celebration of 50 years of jazz and improvised music in the Netherlands – Dodó Kis and Thomas Johannsen are bringing together a broad range of people from different corners of the impro scene to spend some time to share and exchange ideas in a Round Table Talk. Musicians, programmers, journalists, educators from all over the country will bring their fascination or question to the table, within two rounds of exploration:

What are the essential aspects of improvisation and therefore, what connects us as improvisers, across all genres and approaches?

What is needed for a lively scene that nurtures the craft of improvised music?

Sunday, November 6th, 2022 – De Ruimte, Distelweg 83, Amsterdam

14:00 to 16:30 — Doors open at 13:45

Colleagues from whichever background, but also curious audiences, everyone with a big heart for improvisation, very welcome to join us this Sunday afternoon!

Admission is free, drinks and snacks available. 😀

To share the event on facebook and support the inititative with an ‘Interested’ or ‘Coming’:
https://www.facebook.com/events/836624100867296