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During the festival you will participate in public performances, enjoy concerts featuring some of LA’s top new music vocalists, collaborate closely with the N.E.O. Voice Festival Ensemble, and attend numerous workshops throughout the week. Through these workshops and performances, you will deepen the understanding of your voice through the powerful lens of voice science, expand your knowledge of voice research and composition with leaders in the field, explore creativity through writing and presentation, and experience the choir experience through the premiere of a brand new collaborative masterwork.
Each festival we create an annual major work premiere written and performed by N.E.O. composers and singers. All participants are performers, and as such the Exploratorio teams with creativity flowing through shared community. Composers work with N.E.O. faculty and share with one another to craft entry points into the annual theme. N.E.O. faculty help to define new ways of understanding the voice, voicing, and writing for the voice and organ to inspire fresh approaches to vocal and organ music. Each composer contributes one movement to the larger work, and N.E.O. faculty lead the collected ensemble during the festival week to create and perform the new piece as the culmination of the festival experience. Past Exploratorios include “The Origins Of Creativity”, “The New Morality Play”, “The Passions”, "The Signified, and "Recurrence." Watch Past Concert Premieres
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Learn More About The 2025 Festival "RuLEs foR BEiNG humAn"
FOR VOCALISTSYour voice is capable of remarkable things. The 21st Century vocalist is lithe, flexible, powerful, and able to sing and speak in as many ways as they feel compelled. In the N.E.O. community, you’ll find creative artists who support your explorations and help you find safe and smooth pathways to new solutions. Interactive workshops, led by VoiceScienceWorks creators Laurel Irene and David Harris, will make accessible the latest research on bio-mechanics, vocal acoustics, and neurology to better understand what happens when we vocalize, and how to bring new information into alignment with your vocal goals through the lens of contemporary voice science and learning theory. Opportunities throughout the week open doors to new sounds within a supportive community in which to explore. You'll leave loving your voice in new ways, and curious to try out new tools. 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." |
FOR COMPOSERSThe 21st Century vocalist embraces a wide range of textures and timbres that offer composers profound new creative opportunities. N.E.O. faculty will guide you on how to relate to vocalists and communicate your goals within a meaningful musical context. Composers will work with new tools and alongside virtuosic vocal talent toward a culminating collaborative masterwork. Each day will include interactive lectures and workshops as well as masterclasses with other composers and performers. During the program, you will explore contemporary composition and notation techniques, and build a strategy for how to comfortably and successfully market your creative work to the world. All participants will create daily through guided interactions, and some will be chosen ahead of time to showcase their works.
Being a part of the #NeoVoiceFestival2019 has been my favourite and one of the most significant experiences I’ve had this summer. I met & made beautiful connections with sooo many talented and inspiring people, all of whom I look forward to seeing where they go next! |
THE ORATORIO EXPERIENCEThe oratorio, with its roots in the Renaissance Era, has been a powerful tool for telling the world’s great stories through song. These stories, ranging from biographies, to passions, to celebrations of life, reveal the intricate nuances of text choice, text setting, and flow. What oratorios across time share is creative and powerful use of narrative that translates in a non- or lightly-staged musical performance. In the 21st Century, these themes continue to expand in new directions, illuminating how people the world over explore what they find to be sacred in their lives. Festival participants will help to guide story telling choices with their own experiences and interests, learning to weave complex narrative and thematic elements into a communicative, artistic format in close collaboration with others. The result each year is nothing short of astounding.
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Your artistic goals have a home. At the N.E.O. Voice Festival, you will find supportive artists who are pushing boundaries in inspiring, progressive ways. Festival participants will find a friendly, safe, and welcoming place to deepen questions they have about their unique voice and creativity. We reside in The Creative Capital of the World, and when in person participants enjoy the varied thrills of Los Angeles will provide opportunities to expand community, and build bonds that will lead to life-long collaborations.
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. |