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.

Melk bij de wijn: Genetic Choir & De Vorlesebühne

The Genetic Choir teams up again with the writer’s collective De Vorlesebühne to present an evening of prose and music at Molen De Ster in Utrecht on Saturday 17 March. An evening of vocal absurdity not to be missed!

You can dine together with the performers from 18:15 inside a historic windmill. Jolanda’s Kitchen prepares a delicious and nutritious three-course menu. Reservation via vorlesebuhne@gmail.com is mandatory, at the latest on Thursday 15th March.

 

Date: Saturday, 17 March 2018
Time: Dining from 18:15 uur / performance doors open: 19:30, performance begins at 20:00
Place: Molen de Ster, Molenpark 3, Utrecht
Admission: € 12, – (€ 10, – with CJP, U-pass or library card)

Reservations possible via vorlesebuhne@gmail.com
Entrance to the windmill via bridge Floresstraat.

Photo series of concert at dawn in Muziekgebouw a/h Ij

If you follow this link, you will find photo impressions of the Sunrise Concert the Genetic Choir gave on 11 October 2015 in the Muziekgebouw aan het Ij.

We were part of the 24hour Resonance event initiated by Merlijn Twaalfhoven, with a one-hour concert of Genetic Choir music with invited dancers between 7 and 8am and a collaboration with several World Music singers in the following music block, that was curated by Yinske Silva. Great memories!

 

Photo credits: Poike Stomps

Workshops in 2016

The Genetic Choir workshop planning until the summer is complete, and workshops are filling up quickly…  🙂

Click below to read about it and if you are interested to join, send us a note via the Contact page.

Sing with us in the Muziekgebouw!

The Genetic Choir will sing a concert at sunrise in the Muziekgebouw aan het Ij in Amsterdam on

Sunday morning, October 11th, 2015

and you are invited to sing with us!

The concert is part of the 24h Resonance concert, curated by Merlijn Twaalfhoven, with the motto to experience the power of music and support active music making – together – beyond the common separation of amateurs and professionals. Merlijn gave various entrepreneurs of the voice a Carte Blanche to fill an hour or two with their approach to vocal music in this 24 hour non-stop concert.

From 7am to 8am, the moment when the night ends and the light returns in the all-glass foyer of the Muziekgebouw overlooking the water, the Genetic Choir Ensemble will lead an instant composition concert titled “Sounds of the City / De ontwakende stad”.
Subsequently, from 8-9:30am, Genetic Choir singer Yinske Silva will curate a concert of World Music, with singers and songs from every corner of the world. At 9:30, the Genetic Choir Ensemble will join the world music singers to culminate the morning into an instant composed all-genres&styles musical climax. It will be grand, it will be crazy & it will be beautiful!  🙂

 

Here’s how you can join:

To be part of the 7am-8am “Sounds of the city” concert:

There will be a special rehearsal for the concert on

October 9th (Friday) from 15:00-17:00

in q-factory, Amsterdam

If the Genetic Choir way of working is well-known to you and you’ve recently worked with us in a session or workshop, then joining this rehearsal is sufficient for joining the concert as a singer. If you think this applies to you, please send an e-mail to thomas@genetic-choir.org or react via the Contact page to announce your wish to be part of this.

If you are new to the Genetic Choir, or haven’t worked with us recently, Thomas Johannsen will give a special workshop that you can join on

October 3rd (Saturday), from 10:00-16:00

in Studio Wladiwostok, Amsterdam

The workshop is low priced (Euro 48,40) to make the concert accessible for anyone interested, and still make sure everyone is well-prepared. Inscribe to it by following this link to the concert description and clicking the button “Workshop” in the middle of the (Dutch language) webpage. (Alternatively, you can also follow this direct link to inscribe)

Anyone is welcome to join us in the Muziekgebouw concert between 7 and 8am, whatever your experience and background!  You just need to be able to come on both October 3rd and 9th, for the workshop and the rehearsal.

 

To also be part of the World Music concert with Yinske Silva:

Follow this link to read more and give yourself up. Then come to her rehearsal on September 26th, 10:00-15:00

 

Any questions? Don’t hesitate to ask!

Exploring Space and Place through Sound

SPACE / SOUND / BODIES, Utrecht

21+22 March 2015  

It may not always feel like it, but your body, the space around you and your voice are all subtly connected: if one changes, the other two are affected. To become more aware of this triple interaction and be able to play with it as a performer in an interdisciplinary ensemble is the ambition of these two days.

“Find your space and you will find your voice”, Enrique Pardo tends to say to his performers. We will investigate this notion and find that any type of space, and any specific constellation of bodies in that space has profound influence on our voice. Everyday life trains us not to be too influenced by this, but for improvisers this is where the magic happens in live performance.

Our research will be to give this interdependency all our attention, so that we can play with it, be moved and surprised and use space, voices and bodies to their fullest ability.

This Genetic Choir workshop is in collaboration with Dans Improvisatie Utrecht

Blue

Our friend and colleague Michael Fischer from Vienna recently made this hallucinative video from a musical collaboration we had with him back in 2011:

Sound is recorded live at the Glazen Huis, Amstelpark, Amsterdam.

According to our own nomenclature, this is composition nr. 11042501  🙂

“The Art of Change” in the Akoesticum

On the 6th of November 2014, there will be an introduction to the Genetic Choir method in the Akoesticum in Ede (NL). This workshop is part of a 2-day conference “De Kunst van Veranderen” (“the art of change”), which addresses the current challenges and interests of musicians and art makers when working either community-based, with new working methods or with unusual audiences.

Thomas will give a workshop/lecture about the Genetic Choir in the afternoon between 3 and 4:30.

Also the rest of the conference is very much worth you attention (Dutch language, though). Look for the whole program here.

 

From Insects to Good News (concert!)

Next Saturday, 19th of April, the Genetic Choir performs once more in collaboration with the Vorlesebühne Utrecht.

The evening will be under the spell of Easter: “Het goede brengen van slecht nieuws” (Good ways of bringing bad news) is the theme around which writers and singers will convene. It starts 20:00 in the Houtzaagmolen in Utrecht and it has been rumoured that you can get very nice food before – if you reserve it before Thursday by contacting the Vorlesebühne.

For the happy occasion of this continuing collaboration, listen here to the welcoming piece that was created during the Insects Concert in the Library – our last pairing up with Vorlesebühne writers in November.

The text you hear in this recording was written and read by Hiekelien van den Herik.

After vocally embodying insects, embodying Good News this Saturday will be a piece of cake, of course. Come and listen!

Date: 19 April 2014

Time: 20:00

Place: Houtzaagmolen De Ster in Utrecht, Molenpark 3

      

     

 

The Silo Tapes #1

Composing vocal music in the amazing super-echo environment of an abandoned silo, in the former harbour of Amsterdam.

This is what the Genetic Choir did last month and here is the first of a number of instant compositions we recorded there. ( Maybe a new CD in the making…? )

 

Many thanks to
Jakub Kupikowski for the suggestion
www.nlarchitects.nl

Carolien Zwirt for the connection
www.bureauzwirt.nl

and AMVEST for the permission and opportunity
www.amvest.nl

   

You can find more Genetic Choir music on our Audio Page or on our first CD.

   

     

Midas felt like flying

It was an unexpected compliment by Dutch biologist and writer Midas Dekkers, last night at the end of “Alive&Buzzing”:

“What I thought was the most beautiful thing this evening, that was the Genetic Choir…”

On an evening about insects, food and literature, audience could not only taste baked grasshoppers and worms (tasting better than they look, actually), but also listen to instantly composed music by the Genetic Choir. We reacted on the talks about insects with musical interludes and created intense moments of short-strange-prose together with the writers of the Vorlesebühne.

Midas: “These sounds… some of them… I had to laugh, but it also did something to me. I really got this urge to fly!”

We had a great time ourselves.

With thanks to the Bibliotheek Utrecht who organised it, and Vorlesebühne-writers Bernhard Christiansen, Sylvia Hubers and Hiekelien van den Herik for (again) a lovely collaboration.

Here the opening number of the evening, featuring an insect text by Hiekelien:

 

And for our Dutch followers: hier het citaat van Midas in zijn originele context (tafelheer Oscar Kocken evalueert de avond met Midas Dekkers):

   

  

  

CD Release!

It was about time:  The first Genetic Choir CD is now available for you to purchase!

After inofficial pre-sales on our previous improvisation concerts, we now officially release this album of selected compositions that the Genetic Choir created during the last three years.

The album is full of unpredictable, unpindownable music that nobody in particular thought up. Only the “musically reactive organism of the Genetic Choir in full blow” can be held responsible for this very varied collection of new music.

All pieces on this album were instantly composed and recorded, during concerts and live sessions in the period 2011 to early 2013. You can listen to some of our music on the audio page, if you’d like an impression.

If you would like the CD to be delivered to your doorstep, click here: Order CD

Next opportunity to hear the Genetic Choir live: 2 November 2013 in Utrecht, NL.
More info will follow, keep connected to this blog.

Genetic Choir workshop to start 2013/2014 season!

hi everybody,

beginning of next month, we enter a new season of Genetic Choir vocal music making with the workshop in Amsterdam on

7+8 September 2013

3 places still available as we speak.

Times are 10:00-17:00 on both Saturday and Sunday, workshop fee is 110,- Euro excl. BTW / 133,10 total.

Write us a message through the contact page if you would like to join.

Weaving with Sounds @ the Rietveld

In collaboration with Anna Orlikowska, who is presenting her work “The Weaving” tomorrow at the Rietveld Academy in the big end-of-year exhibition, the Genetic Choir will perform a live-sound-installation inspired on her work, that is moving through the semi-public spaces of the academy building: staircases, corridors, elevators…

Address: Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Frederik Roeskestraat 96, 1076 ED Amsterdam

WEDNESDAY, JULY 3rd, 2013

We will start at 16:30.  You are very welcome.

And of course there is much more to see and hear at the Rietveld tomorrow…

www.annaorlikowska.nl

www.gerritrietveldacademie.nl

Concert in Amsterdam this coming Wednesday

After yesterdays long and beautiful night with short, strange prose in Utrecht, we are looking forward to our Tabula Rasa concert, on Wednesday night in Amsterdam!

Tabula Rasa

presents on

Wednesday, 26th of June 2013 at 21:00
(doors open around 20:00)

Genetic Choir

with special guests: Marije Nie (tap) and Marieke Franssen (flute)

Genetic Choir singers on the night: Yinske Silva, Thomas Johannsen, Petra Pieck, Peter Huber, Monica Coronado, Moira Mirck, Marjolijn Roeleveld, Jeannette Huizinga, Hans Paape, Emiel Zonneveld, Amazone Nativel

and

Ricardo Tejero (reeds) / Dominic Lash (bass)

all the way from the UK !

http://www.ricardotejero.com / http://www.dominiclash.co.uk

——————————————————————

Tabula Rasa: Improvised Music @ Maarten Luther Kerk – basement
WEDNESDAY, June 26th 2013 – 21:00

Maarten Luther Kerk, Dintelstraat 134, Amsterdam

Free Entrance, Donations Welcomed (beer is cheap!)

 

June contemplations

I am a week late with posting this month’s musical offering of the Genetic Choir… Busy with creating the first Genetic Choir CD (!) which will be available at our concerts on 22nd and 26th of June. But for now:  Listen below to this small, unassuming gem from our session archives.

Composition 1206169 – Du

workshop coming up: Melody Makers

Melodies are the storytellers of music. Just start singing a few notes and instantly there is a feeling/atmosphere, the beginning and clear 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 identities with each other, transforming to totally different music or ending in beautiful silences.
In this Genetic Choir 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?
The Genetic Choir approach ensures that you don’t need any particular background to be able to join this workshop. Any level of experience and/or musical styles are welcome.

Genetic Choir workshop – Melody Makers

29th & 30th of June 2013 – informatie in het Nederlands, klik hier

10:00-17:00 both days  –  110,- Euro (excl. VAT)

More information and inscription: Send a message through the form below.

photo by Oxyman

[GFDL, CC-BY-2.5], via Wikimedia Commons

May Music

A recent session of the Genetic Choir yielded the piece of music below. Enjoy!

In our ambition in publishing a new recording every month, this more contemporary piece contrasts nicely with the April Melodies of last month.

Composition 1304071 – Pas ce soir

  

Upcoming Genetic Choir Events:

22 June 2013 – Genetic Choir @ Lange nacht van kort vreemd proza, Utrecht

26 June 2013 – Genetic Choir @ Tabula Rasa, Amsterdam

29/30 June 2013 – workshop Genetic Choir / theme: “Melody Makers”

April Melodies

To prove that we can also end up with a slightly more mainstream a capella sound when singing from nothing, listen to this piece that appeared as the opening composition of a concert we did last summer. (Although ‘mainstream a capella people’ will probably still find this music rather curious, I believe. Oh sweet relativity!)

Composition 1206011 – Overture PuntWG

The Genetic Choir is publishing every first day of the month a new composition, drawn from our previous concerts and performances. Have a look at all the other music on our Audio Page.

If you are interested to experience being part of the choir and how this type of music is being created, there is an open Genetic Choir workshop planned on

29+30 June 2013

with the theme “Melody Makers”. Click here for more information.