Music and song will be filling our fine city this weekend for a special mini-festival dedicated to experimenting with the human voice.
Vocal Invention is being presented by The Voice Project, a festival regular which over the years has become well known for its big Norfolk and Norwich Festival performances at places including Norwich Cathedral, Holkham and the Sainsury Centre for Visual Arts.
This year's The Voice Project event has a slightly different twist, because as well as entertaining audiences Vocal Invention is also encouraging people to get involved with the making music.
Performances, workshops and other events will be held from Friday to Sunday at Norwich Arts Centre and other venues.
The Voice Project has teamed up with an array of musicians, poets and performers for the programme which includes everything from an evening of song with Helen Chadwick, Mouthful and Human Music to a workshop about making music David Bowie-style to a unique 12-voice installation called Harmonium.
In true The Voice Project tradition, there will also be a free pop-up performance by The Voice Project Choir on Saturday, starting at 1pm from the Colegate area. The choir will perform new work and highlights from the last few years as it moves around the city for about 45 minutes.
Sian Croose, who runs The Voice Project with Jonathan Baker, said Vocal Invention was partly a celebration of some of The Voice Project's 'greatest hits' but also a chance for people to meet music professionals and enjoy music-making together.
She said: 'The key is participation - whether it's being a perfomer in the Voice Project Choir or coming to a performance or doing a workshop. It's really all about taking part.'
Mr Baker added: 'Vocal Invention is an opportunity for everybody to come and learn about all kinds of aspects of the voice and the ways to use the voice - singing, writing, movement and improvisation.'
He added: 'It's getting close up and having a look inside the box to see how the work is made and having a huge amount of fun in the process.'
Vocal Invention is part of the [Live] Art Club programme at Norwich Arts Centre.
Vocal Invention events (events at Norwich Arts Centre unless otherwise stated)
FRIDAY
8pm concert: Helen Chadwick, Mouthful, Human Music.
SATURDAY
9.30am workshops: creating songs with Helen Chadwick; Dave Camlin and Sharon Durant explore rhythm and groove. 1pm performance: Vocal Invention Choir's city centre pop-up performances around the Colegate and St George's Street areas. 3pm workshops: Pete Murdoch explores David Bowie's creative methods; multi-layerd music with Bex Mather and Katherine Zeserson.
5.30pm/6.15pm/7pm installation at the Wharf Academy: Harmonium, an experiment with 12 voices by Sian Croose.
8.30pm concert: Ross Sutherland, Birds of Hell, The Neutrinos and Sal Pittman.
SUNDAY
10.30am workshops: Sian Croose and Su Hart explore sounds without words; Sianed Jones explores acoustics around Norwich; Dan Richards explores writing in landscape. 1pm concert: Sianed Jones.
2pm workshops: The Neutrinos and Sal Pittman find song and sound in the strangest of places; movement and song with dancer Neil Paris.
7.30pm poetry performance at The Bicycle Shop: Ross Sutherland, George Szirtes, Stephen Watts, Esther Morgan.
For more, visit www.norwichartscentre.co.uk
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