Centre for Performance Research

GEORGIAN SONGS: Listen to CPR's Voice Director Joan Mills talk about how Georgian music has inspired her and her work during an interview on the 'Voices Of The Ancestors' podcast.

The 'Voices Of The Ancestors' podcast is about Georgian polyphonic songs and the women who sing them

LISTEN to Joan on Episode 7 at www.voicesoftheancestors.co.uk on soundcloud on Spotify ( https://spoti.fi/2GDvoDP) on Applepodcasts (https://apple.co/32o8o3) or wherever you listen

5 Star Apple Podcast Review “ Fascinating & beautiful podcast
This is such an interesting podcast, featuring beautiful voices, stories and songs from Georgia. Full of emotion, heart and wonderful music. I had no knowledge of this topic before listening, but love hearing from the people, teachers and singers of these traditional songs – a hidden gem of the world. bee_franz 12.12.2020

GIVING VOICE 30TH ANNIVERSARY
Giving Voice Festival Friends, performers, scholars, teachers, directors and participants, whether you came as an individual or as part of an ensemble:

This year marks the 30th anniversary of Giving Voice, the international festival of the voice in performance curated by the Centre for Performance Research. We had hoped to mark this milestone by holding a special edition of Giving Voice as well as producing a publication. However, the combination of the ‘Brexit effect’ on planning and funding last year, followed by the Covid 19 crisis, made such an event initially doubtful, then impossible.

Yet perhaps you can help us to achieve a different but beautiful event!

We are asking everyone we have invited over those thirty years to help us celebrate this anniversary, despite the current restrictions: we would love any of the more than 200 invited artists or anyone who participated in workshops or came to performances or other presentations to get in touch and send a personal response to the project.

What we would like you to do is to send a video or an audio file that we can weave into a digital Giving Voice Quilt. Your contribution could be a song or speech, a poem, some thoughts about voice or a voice exercise that is, ideally, no more than three minutes long. We would also like you to share a memory of your time at Giving Voice, but in a separate file: What do you recall as significant; did you learn something new or hear voices you were not previously aware of; did you meet another artist with whom you then collaborated or corresponded; did what you experienced influence your subsequent work? The file should be clearly titled with your name and the subject (i.e. Name/Song/Speech/Talk or Memory, or whatever is appropriate) and emailed to the following address:

[email protected]

The material will eventually be woven into the Giving Voice Quilt and posted on our website, and more widely, for the delight of all those who love the voice. We hope to construct it so that the viewer can access individual items, but so that it is also representative of the huge variety of vocal contributions made to the festival, as well as the truly international nature of the project. We feel this would be a fitting celebration for Giving Voice 30 and a reminder of the Centre for Performance Research’s enduring curiosity and passion for understanding the relationship between tradition and innovation in performance over many decades.

If you are in touch with anyone else you know has been a contributor to Giving Voice, we would be very grateful if you would pass this message on, to ensure they are aware of this request. Sadly, some Giving Voice guests are no longer with us, but we hope to extract footage from the archives so they can be present, nevertheless.

We will keep the opportunity to contribute open for the next three months to allow the request to circulate: so from May 11th to August 31st 2020. If you want to ask about this or clarify anything then just email me, Joan Mills, directly: [email protected] or
Helen Gethin: [email protected] - We will get back to you as soon as we can. If you send us a contribution, we will assume that you are happy for this to be shared publicly, but the copyright will remain with you.

To help you recall the time/s you were there, see the list below for the project editions to date and their theme or ‘frame’:
1990 First explorations: Cardiff, Wales
https://bit.ly/3dRFlZw (for brochures 1990- 2004)
1994 A Geography of the Voice 1: Cardiff, Wales
1995 A Geography of the Voice 2: Cardiff, Wales
1996 An Archaeology of the Voice 1: Cardiff, Wales
1997 An Archaeology of the Voice 2: Aberystwyth, Wales
1999 A Divinity of the Voice: Aberystwyth, Wales
2002 The Voice Politic: Aberystwyth & Cardiff, Wales
2004 Towards a Philosophy and Psychology of the Voice: Aberystwyth & Cardiff, Wales

2006 Myths of the Voice: Aberystwyth, Wales
https://bit.ly/2WzbXkH
2008 Breath, Inspiration, Voice: Aberystwyth, Wales
https://bit.ly/2WY8GKX
2009 Harmonic Accord: Encounters through song: Wroclaw, Poland
https://bit.ly/2yRvB2B
2010 Hearken! Do you hear an Angel?: Pontedera, Italy
https://bit.ly/3dGmtwm
2015 Listening Mind, Moving Voice: Falmouth, England
https://bit.ly/2Z8B6V8
2016 Giving Voice at Voice Encounters: Wroclaw, Poland
https://bit.ly/3dP93ye

We look forward to hearing from you.
With best wishes from Aberystwyth
Joan Mills
Director – Giving Voice