Discover your own voice – open your ears and mind – compose and even lead musical performances with the singing ensemble formed of this seminar! No previous musical experience is required: if you enjoy singing, making music just for fun, you are welcome to join!
This seminar explores the possibilities hidden in your voice (loosening up your body, breathing, expression, vocal techniques) and the wonder of your voice blending in with the voices of others. Listening exercises will show the importance of being aware of the people in your surroundings. With the help of choral improvisation and collective composing methods we will create spontaneous music. Finally, all of you can learn the gestures of a conductor, let that be a classical one or a leader of improvised music, necessary to put a part of your imagination into real performance.
We invite all participants to bring along segments of their own cultural environment: words from their language, texts, songs or chants. Real teamwork, self-discipline, concentration, a proactive approach and the ability to make compromises is required to reach good musical results – just like in any other field of life. This seminar offers to strengthen all of the above skills through playful and enjoyable musical experience.
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Dora HALAS
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President, Soharóza Nonprofit Association, Budapest | |
Chair | |
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Erwin ORTNER
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Artistic Director, Arnold Schoenberg Choir, Vienna | |
Chair | |
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President, Soharóza Nonprofit Association, Budapest
| | Dr. Dóra Halas is a music conductor, pedagogist and collective choral composer, who works with musical ensembles - both amateur and professional - , choirs and theatre companies to produce brand new music for each performance. She uses and deconstructs already existing music from around the world, writes her own minimalist compositions, but most of all embraces the ideas and concepts coming from the group members themselves through her own methods of collective brainstorming, improvisation and musical construction. Dóra Halas (b. 1978) spent her childhood in Syria, Cyprus and Hungary - hence her openness to the different cultures and people of the world. She received her first master degree majoring in English Language and Linguistics at the ELTE University of Budapest, then gained a master degree in Choral Conducting and Music Teaching at the Budapest Music Academy, and also a DLA (Doctor of Liberal Arts) title specializing in choral improvisation. After working with traditional choirs and receiving international prizes, she moved onto a more experimental field. The ensembles she founded all revolve around her newly developed methodology of collective choral composing, which she likes to call KOMP. Her current and most successful ensemble is Soharóza, who have premiered innovative performances, fusing different arts and genres. |
Artistic Director, Arnold Schoenberg Choir, Vienna
| | Erwin Ortner was a member of the Vienna Boys’ Choir and later a student at the Music Academy in Vienna, studying with, among others, Hans Swarowsky and Hans Gillesberger. From 1980 to 2016 Ortner thought as professor of choral conducting and choral voice training and from 1996 to 2002 was dean of the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. Ortner is the founder and artistic director of the Arnold Schoenberg Choir. Numerous recordings and prizes document his close and enduring collaboration with Nikolaus Harnoncourt. At the Grammy Awards in 2002 Harnoncourt and the ASC’s recording of Bach’s Matthäus-Passion was awarded best choral performance, honouring both the conductor and the choir’s director. As a conductor, Erwin Ortner has worked with Maurizio Pollini in New York, Paris and Tokyo, while his appearances as a guest conductor demonstrate the breadth of his activities at home and abroad. Ortner is also sought after as a lecturer, giving renowned courses in choral and orchestral conducting worldwide. In 2010 he took over the artistic directorship of the Imperial Chapel in Vienna, which has existed since 1498. |
