The Museo Universidad de Navarra will host this Saturday, April 9th, at 19.30, the start of the world tour of The electric voice, a project by Nicholas Isherwood, composer and bass-baritone, one of the leading singers of early music and contemporary music in the world today, which brings together musical pieces for voice and electronics. Tickets are 14 and 16 euros. 

The project is now in its sixth edition and over the course of the previous five editions has explored the relationships and tensions that exist between electronics and the most versatile and resilient of sounds, the human voice, as well as fostering relationships between centres, composers and cities. On this occasion, Isherwood brings together theatres and centres of teaching, research and musical creation from all over the world to generate a programme of pieces, each composed by a composer. The composers, in turn, are proposed by each of the venues hosting the event. The one chosen by the MUN was Juan José Eslava, based in Navarre, with whom he had already worked on the composition of the opera Oteiza. His piece is Cuerpo abierto.

The composers are free to use all the possibilities of electroacoustic music in combination with the voice, and some pieces have also included audiovisuals. For Eslava, the experience of participating in this project has been "magical because through the Museum it has been possible to realise the work. It is not just one musician writing a score, but there are many people and resources involved that make projectpossible". 

In this sense, he highlights "the understanding, intelligence and flexibility" of the MUN, together with the partnership of the Centro Huarte de Arte Contemporáneo, in carrying out internal workshops on vocal and scenic issues, and of the theatre school Teatrolari, from Pamplona, directed by Javier Álvaro. He will be the actor in the play. "This work has allowed the transformation of the piece, a change inherent to the artistic process and which has meant that the piece for voice and electronics has also added an actor, which gives a very important attraction to the recital".

This sixth edition of The Electric Voice is particularly exciting, as it includes legendary festivals and programs of study of electroacoustic music and composers from the Middle East, Asia, Latin America and Europe. The programmes of each edition seek to strike a balance by including composers of all age groups and both genres. It is especially important for the project to represent women composers, so their works make up at least a third of all the pieces in the programme.

It is a worldwide event that starts at the Museo Universidad de Navarra, and is scheduled to visit the Saison Numérique de Montbeliard (France), the Florence Conservatory (Italy), the Warsaw Autumn Festival (Poland), the Mexican Centre for Music and Sonic Arts in Morelia (Mexico), the French high school in Hanoi (Vietnam) and the IRCAM (Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique) in Paris (France), founded by Pierre Boulez.

ARTISTIC FILE

Performer: Nicholas Isherwood
Live electronics: Jacopo Baboni
Artistic direction: Nicholas Isherwood

PROGRAM

Rodrigo Sigal (Mexico) : Micromégas
Luong Huệ Trinh (Vietnam) : La lettre perdue
Jacopo Baboni Schilingi (Italy): Notturno
Sina Fallazadeh (Iran): Cantique de Métèque
Aleksandra Bilinska (Poland): #2020 covid 1984 for Nicholas I.
Juan José Eslava (Spain): Cuerpo abierto (Open Body)