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Classical and Jazz: Preview - Voices Across the World celebration at the Royal Opera House on Sunday July 31

VOCAL music from around the globe is to be sung at the annual Voices Across the World celebration at the Royal Opera House on Sunday July 31, arranged by its ROH2 contemporary producing arm.

Composer Orlando Gough has put the celebration together, inviting 12 of his favourite singers to perform. “Each of them not only has an amazing voice but an original and radical attitude to singing,” he says.

All the singers will perform without amplification, either a cappella or with minimal accompaniment, in the Paul Hamlyn Hall at the ROH, starting at 2pm. 

Singers include: Christian Zehnder: “a spectacular yodeller and throat-singer,” says Orlando Gough in comment on the singers.

Mikhail Karikis: “an eye-opening performer and ear-opening singer.”

Erika Stucky: “sounds more like Tom Waits than any other female singer I know of.”

Dessislava Stefanova: “sings like a Bulgarian which she is – enough said.”

Clare Wilkinson: “sings early music as if were brand new.”

Manickam Yogeswaran: “a Tamil from Sri Lanka with a voice of pure honey.”

Phil Minton: “sings with bravery verging on the heroic.”

Loré Lixenberg: “the most experimental opera singer I’ve ever come across.”

Eska Mtungwazi: “sings jazz-soul-hip-hofol-African music with a friskiness verging on the ecstatic.”

Talitha MacKenzie: “sings Gaelic music in a way that makes you understand Gaelic.”

Melanie Pappenheim: “has the voice of an angel and the sense of humour of the devil.”

Some of singers will gather again in the evening to join electronic artist Andrew McDonnell in an improvised session in the ROH’s Linbury Studio Theatre, start-time 7.30pm. Expect looping, live sampling, duets, trios, choruses, transfor­ma­tions, experimentation and exhilaration.

Other events include Extreme Karaoke in the ROH’s famed Crush Room where you can try out your own voice in an interactive playground, created by composer Dominic Murcott, start-time 2pm.

The Clore  Studio Upstairs will have continuous showings of Shirin Neschat’s dual-screen film that celebrates the power and poetics of the human voice, start-time 2pm.

• Voices Across the World, Royal Opera House July 31, day tickets 2-6.30pm £10, £7 students/ under 16s; evening only 7pm, £10,  £7 students/ under 16s; combined ticket £15, £10 students/ under 16s; 020 7304 4000, www.roh.org.uk/world   

Published: 21 July, 2011
by SEBASTIAN TAYLOR

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