ULYSSES Collaboratory projects provide new perspectives on creative collaboration, testing new methodologies and forms of cooperation tightly linked to specific contexts and audiences, and reflecting on shared responsibility and collective processes.

In 2023, it will be 40 years since John Cage visited  Time of Music in Viitasaari, Finland. The festival pays tribute to the  composer’s legendary visit and legacy in the festival program as well as in a course dedicated to Cage’s music. As part of the ULYSSES project, Time of Music is presenting a collaboratory course with iconic vocal artist and composer Joan La Barbara around John Cage’s large-scale theatre work, consisting of 90 “Solos”. The Solos are put together  in collaboration by the performers, who will choose which solos to perform and will map them over an agreed-upon duration timeline. The cycle includes songs, songs with electronics, directions for theatrical performance, and directions for a theatrical performance with electronics.

For this Collaboratory project, Time of Music welcomes three ULYSSES Journey participants: Kalle Hakosalo, Julia Andersson and Elena Perales.

 JOAN LA BARBARA’s career as a composer/performer/soundartist/actor explores the human voice as a multi-faceted instrument expanding traditional boundaries in developing a unique vocabulary of experimental and extended vocal techniques: multiphonics, circular singing, ululation and glottal clicks that have become her “signature sounds”, influencing several generations of composers and singers. In the early part of her career, she performed and recorded with Steve Reich, Philip Glass and jazz artists Jim Hall, Hubert Laws, Enrico Rava and arranger Don Sebesky, developing her own unique vocal/instrumental sound. Hailed as “one of the great vocal virtuosas of our time”(San Francisco Examiner), she premiered landmark compositions written for her by noted American composers Morton Feldman, Morton Subotnik, Robert Ashley, Philip Glass and John Cage. She has created works for multiple voices, chamber ensembles, music theater, orchestra and interactive technology.

For more information, see here.

Photo: Toni Higgins