Soundpainters Around the World News

• Jeffrey Agrell and Evan Mazunik at The University of Iowa, Iowa City

• Shannan L. Hibbard-Whitehead at Holcomb Elementary School, Detroit, Michigan

• Jody Espina at The Hoff-Barthelson Music School, Scarsdale, New York

• Julia Haines at the Stratford Friends School, Haverstown, Pennsylvania

• Sabine Vogel at the Jazzschule Berlin and the Arcuna Grundschule, both in Berlin, Germany

• Bronwyn Evans at the Escuela de Música Creativa, Madrid, Spain; the Escuela de Música Viva and the Conservatorio Privado, both in Tenerife, Spain; and the American School of Barcelona, Spain

• Olivier Guion at Antony Music School and at Verrières-Le-Buisson Music School, both in France

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Following is a listing of select activities by members of Soundpainters Around the World in their words:

Jeffrey Agrell

"I use Soundpaintng daily in my Intro to Improv class. I also introduced some high school music teachers to it last summer in a Creative Music workshop I gave at the University of Iowa. Evan is rehearsing his University of Iowa Soundpaintng ensemble, Gamut, getting ready for the arrival of Walter, who will be on campus October 18-31 to do the premiere of his new work, "Columbus: a Soundpainting Opera." Walter is visiting under an Ida Beam Distinguished Visiting Professor grant and will be giving various lectures and demos of Soundpaintng to the general public and to various departments and groups within the Division of Performing Arts. Performances of Columbus are scheduled for October 29, 30, and 31."

 

Jim Whitney

"My Soundpainting activities encompass the IV-V-SIX ensemble (a sextet that performed at Deep Listening Space), Leese Walker's group Strike Anywhere, and the Walter Thompson Orchestra. In the first two ensembles, Soundpainting is part of a broader mix of improvisation and composition."

 

Marc Duby

"I read a paper on Soundpainting at the 26th ISME (International Society for Music Education) conference in Tenerife in July. This paper has been published in the conference proceedings. I am currently hard at work on my doctorate on the subject scheduled to be completed at the end of 2005."

 

Sabine Vogel

"I started to teach a new Soundpainting course for adults. it's every Wednesday from the 15th of September until the 1st of December at Musikschule Datenklang, Marienburgerstr. 31 D-10405 Berlin from 8pm to 9pm. There will be a concert at the end of the course."

 

Leese Walker

"On July 23 and August 6, 2004 I'm teaching master classes in Soundpainting to a panoply of puppeteers, musicians, and dancers from around the world in Bali, Indonesia, as part of the Asia Pacific Performer Exchange. On August 12, 2004 I'm performing a Soundpainting with 9 artists from the APPEX group in Pengosekan, Bali. The group comprises 4 musicians, 2 puppeteers, and 2 dancers from India, Malaysia, the Philippines, and the United States."

"There are some wonderful pictures on the APPEX 2004 website of me Soundpainting with the APPEX artists from around the world. And there are other pictures of me Soundpaintng the APPEX artists for a local Balinese audience."

 

François Jeanneau

"I'm doing now a Soundpainting master class, in Paris, for the La Villette Jazz Festival (7 days of work, with a concert on 12th September) For the La Villette Jazz Festival too, I have had a very important and nice concert (7th of September) with my group Pandémonium (12 musicians, 25% of written music, 75% of Soundpainting). Next concert with Pandemonium on 25th of November in Paris at La Maroquinerie with the 12 musicians but also 3 actors and 2 dancers. From 22nd to 26th of September, I will be in Odessa (Ukrainia) for a Soundpainting workshop and concert. For 2005, Switzerland (Geneva), Pakistan (Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad) and Nigeria (Lagos) are planned."

 

Jody Espina

"Since 1998, I've been Soundpainting a student group that meets weekly at the Hoff-Barthleson Music School. The group is called the Open Ensemble and some of it's student members have actually played with and conducted the Walter Thompson Orchestra. The Open Ensemble consists of students from 3rd grade to high school. Most of the students have never improvised before coming into the ensemble. In it's sixth year the Open Ensemble is stronger than ever, with it's highest enrollment to date in the fall of 2004. I give clinics and master classes around the world. Some of these clinics or seminars are specifically for Soundpainting, and often when the clinic is a more general woodwind clinic or a clinic with a band, I throw in a healthy dose of Soundpainting. I've Soundpainted the bands at the Hackley School in Tarrytown, New York; in the Scarsdale, New York, school system; and in the Sarasota, Florida, school system. I've given a seminar and trained a big band in Soundpainting in Stavanger, Norway. I use Soundpainting in my group, a small jazz combo group where I play saxophone and conduct at the same time. I'm a member of Leese Walker's Strike Anywhere, a multidisciplinary theater group. Strike anywhere often utilize Soundpainting in their work and I'm frequently one of the conductors in the group. I've also used Soundpainting in the Summer Arts Program at Hoff-Barthelson Music School. I've also formulated ways to use Soundpainting to aid learning in music theory classes. I strongly believe that Soundpainting is a tremendous tool to use in education to stimulate creativity and to free students of inhibitions."

 

Ricardo Odriozola

"I am still at the 'beginner' stage where Soundpainting activity is concerned. I envisage the first time I will use it actively will be in January, as part of an improvisation course at the Grieg Academy in Bergen, Norway. Otherwise, I taught the basics of Soundpainting to my 11‑year‑old daughter this summer and she was enthralled. She kept wanting to do it all the time :)"

 

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Performances by members of Soundpainters Around the World are posted on this page from time to time. Check back for updates!

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