The N.E.O. Voice Festival (New Explorative Oratorio) annually invites professional vocal artists, composer/songwriters, organists, and voice leaders (conductors, SLPs, voice teachers, music directors, etc.) into a shared creative space where everyone sings. Through compassion-focused, artist-centered guidance, the N.E.O. experience encourages you to transcend the dogma-laden, authoritarian-infused influences of today's performing arts systems. Contemporary voice science and practice led by the creators of VoiceScienceWorks, and creative compositional approaches to voice led by the creators of Seeadot Music Publishing Inc. anchor N.E.O.'s workshops. You will devote the rest of the week to creating a new ExplOratorio with your colleagues in a non-judgmental atmosphere. N.E.O. has created six new major works and counting. Be a part of the arts freedom tradition. Share the gift of self-worth with your inner artist. Learn concrete approaches to changing performing arts paradigms. Release your singing voice and your compositional voice. Let your inner child play at this delightfully inspiring summer camp for adults.
Join us in 2025 ~ July 26-August 2
as we create "Rules For Being Human"
applications open in fall of 2024
Watch The 2024 N.E.O. Concerts
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Join a vibrant, diverse community of artists for a week of creativity, performance, and exploration. The week will include daily, interactive workshops, expert mentoring, rehearsals, and live concerts featuring the best of LA’s new music vocal scene. Enjoy sharing your talents while participating in multiple public performances that will culminate in the premiere performance of a new Exploratorio masterwork, written and produced by attending composers and performers.
"The NEO Festival was nothing short of revelatory. What I learned that week has changed how I sing and, to a great extent, why I sing, forever. Perhaps best of all was that the tools I was given in that week have supported continued curiosity, learning, and growth since. NEO is not just a week to explore sound and sound-making--it is a portal to a lifetime of continued exploration and discovery." ~Scott Graff, 2023 Vocal Fellow |
CREATEWork with renowned composition faculty to create a new vocal/choral collaborative masterwork
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PERFORMPerform new music and collaborate with virtuosic singers and composers through virtual choirs and performances
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EXPLOREExplore the latest in contemporary voice science and research, extended vocal timbres and textures, and how to write for the 21st-century voice
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Testimonials
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Being a part of the Neo Voice Festival 2019 has been my favourite and one of the most significant experiences I’ve had this summer. I met and made beautiful connections with so many talented and inspiring people, all of whom I look forward to seeing where they go next!
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The NEO Voice Festival is run by a team of talented, caring, artistically creative professionals, and they foster that same sense of musical exploration and mutual support throughout the week among all the super-talented participants.
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NEO exceeded my expectations! It was the most inclusive, safe and inspiring 10 days of my life. I would definitely repeat this experience! Thank you for such a rewarding experience.
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I came to NEO with the question: How can knowledge of the physics and physiology of the voice expand and refine my singing? The seminar instruction on vocal science helped me gain a better intellectual understanding of the voice while the choral singing challenged me to integrate this knowledge with my embodied experience as a singer.
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I had the best time at NEO. I felt so encouraged as a holistic musician. I felt I could challenge and nourish all parts of myself: the singer, composer, arranger, researcher, human being. I will take the voice science knowledge I now have into everything I study and sing and really look forward to learning more from VoiceScienceWorks and See-a-Dot, in whatever way that may be.
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The NEO festival is unlike just about any other choir-centric festival experience out there, in so many good and important ways. David, Laurel, and Fahad are an amazing team, well-credentialed and full of valuable experience, and they have crafted a fantastic program for singers and composers.
click the dots to see more quotes from NEO alumni