The Goethe-Institut Libanon is pleased to invite in the framework of Irtijal'22 the Neue Vocalsolisten from Stuttgart to present the project "Voice Affairs". 

VOICE AFFAIRS initiates artistic border crossings in which European art music is infected by the diversity of Lebanon's experimental music scenes. It connects the Neue Vocalsolisten with musicians from Lebanon, Egypt and Palestine who are located in these scenes. From the perspective of contemporary composition, electronic music, sound art, improvisation and avant-pop, they all deal in different ways with the voice, which plays a special role in the music of the Mediterranean region. Panos Aprahamian connects these works through video sequences that oscillate between documentary film and science fiction and in which he explores the phenomenon of the voice. Between immediate expression and instrumental artistry, it stands paradigmatically for our relationship with our natural and technologically shaped environment. In a combination of concert performance and video installation, the project is a grand narrative about the diversity, contradictoriness, explosiveness and poetry of the Lebanese cultural space.

The concert will includes the following musicians:

Cynthia Zaven: Madrigal d'Essilio

for six voices

Raed Yassin: A Short Biography of a Snake

for six voices and electronics

Aya Metwalli: cabaret macabre

for four female voices and electronics

Samir Odeh Tamimi: VROS

for four voices and electronics

Youmna Saba: I covered the planet with a dried leaf

for six voices, oud and electronics

Aya Metwalli: voice and electronics / Youmna Saba, oud and electronics /

Raed Yassin, electronics

Neue Vocalsolisten

Johanna Vargas, soprano / Susanne Leitz-Lorey, soprano / Truike van der Poel, mezzo-soprano / Martin Nagy, tenor / Guillermo Anzorena, baritone / Andreas Fischer, bass 

The project was developed and co-produced by (in alphabetical order) Akademie der Künste Berlin, Irtijal Festival Beirut, Musik der Jahrhunderte Stuttgart, Onassis Cultural Center/Stegi Athens, Ultima Oslo Contemporary Music Festival

A project by the Neue Vocalsolisten, produced by Musik der Jahrhunderte

Supported by "Klangwert" Aventis Foundation Ensemble Funding, Innovationsfonds Kunst des Landes Baden-Württemberg, Deutschlandfunk Kultur, Goethe-Institut Libanon, Part of the Sounds Now Project Co-funded by Creative Europe