PHIL MINTON
THE FERAL CHOIR
“ Joyous and jubilant, now i go better on my way”
The Feral Choir project is a series of vocal workshops with non-professionals, leading up to performances. It originated in the late 1980's when I was asked to do some workshops with 'non-singers' in the Musik Centrum Stockholm. The success of these led me to develop the idea further. With the help of a grant from NESTA (National Ednowment for Science, Technology and the Arts) I am currently undertaking a year's programme of work particularly aimed at men and women of all ages who have no previous musical interest or experience.
The choir consists of a three day workshop and performance, not only for singers but for anyone who takes a delight in the freedom to experiment. I encourage participants to take a vocal leap and explore all vocal possibilities through exercises and improvisations, over a the workshop period, leading to a concert . Feral Choir workshops and performances have subsequently been held in about 30 different places including Berlin Kreuzberg Festival, Centre for Performance Reseach Cardiff, Musickzentrum Munich, Tokyo, Angelica Bologna, City Festival Lausanne, Insitute for Living Voice Antwerp and there are plans to stage a large scale version of the Feral Choir in the Roundhouse in 2007.
Some of the choirs have been made up of professionals, sometimes actors and musicians, but many have been amateur groups with previous musical interest or experience. These have been particularly rewarding, as has the work with teenagers in Belgium and Holland, and the responses from the participants have been overwhelmingly positive.
My recent experience of working with singers, many of whom think they cannot sing, has strengthened my conviction that the human voice is capable of so much more than is generally understood. In the workshops I have encouraged participants to realise that anyone who can breath, is capable of producing sounds that give a positive aesthetic contribution to the human condition, and that many of these contributions are without any cultural influences or references.
There is a universe of unheard positive vocal sounds, ignored by Western culture, which can be heard in the voices of the dispossessed and the rejected, who have no social commitment to vocal orthodoxy.
The workshops normally begin with laughter, a non-verbal 'vocal technique' which uses the voice in spontaneous, inventive and sometimes very extreme way. I know that these workshops have a very positive impact on the participants, and I spend enough time with each group to be able to leave a lasting 'legacy' and hopefully a structure in which the resulting choir can continue after I have left.
With the help of the NESTA grant I am working over the year with groups including homeless people in Japan, with prisons in the USA and in july i was working peoples in a remote region of siberia
Some of the comments from previous Feral Choir participants are as follows:-
“You have let the sun enter into my head”
“Thank you for the most fantastic experience to let us express ourselves in this way”.
“A new heart in my voice”.
“You and your work brings happiness (and other great things) to people”
I hope that the workshops and performances will offer an similar experience to the many often 'voiceless' people who participate.
Phil Minton
October 2005
Cost: $12 general, $6 seniors