Digital opera: new means and new meanings


Monday 9 May
Department of Music, University of York

Introduction

Digital opera: new means and new meanings is intended both as provocation and exploratory gesture: how can 21st-century digital technology become a fundamental, constitutive element (voice) in the creation of digital opera? What could digital opera be? Motivated by recent innovations in digital performance and 21st-century music practice, this symposium will explore the open, creative space between composition, technology and theatre, each understood in the broadest sense. The boundaries of digital opera will not be prescribed in advance; the aim is to open up pathways along which new concepts could develop. We are interested in finding the 'new meanings' within the 'new means'.

Digital opera: new means and new meanings will take place on 9 May 2011 at the Music Research Centre, University of York.

International Journal of Performance Arts & Digital Media: special issue

The proceedings of Digital opera: new means and new meanings will be published in a special issue of the International Journal of Performance Arts & Digital Media (Spring 2012). All symposium participants and scholars/practitioners working in digital opera-related fields are invited to submit a paper for inclusion in the special issue.

Schedule

For the full schedule, click here.

The concept of digital opera

Intermedial space, place and narrative

  • Professor Simon Emmerson (Composer; Professor of Music, Technology and Innovation, De Montfort University)
  • Mira Calix (Composer; Performer)
  • Dr Fred Charles (Principal Lecturer in Visualisation, School of Computing, Teesside University; Digital Futures Institute)
  • Dr Christopher Morris (Opera/Media Specialist, Lecturer in Music, University College Cork)

The digital voice

  • Professor Nicholas Till (Theatre Artist; Director of Centre for Research in Opera and Music Theatre, University of Sussex)
  • Dr Ambrose Field (Composer; Reader in Music, University of York)
  • Franziska Baumann (Performer; Professor of Improvisation-Composition and Vocal Performance, Berne Conservatory of Music)

Registration

Registration fee: £45 (including lunch and refreshments); £20 concession rate (including lunch and refreshments). Registration deadline: 3 May 2011.

Click here for online registration or use the Digital Opera Conference Registration Form (MS Word , 39kb). Further enquiries to Dr Áine Sheil.

Travelling to the University

For information about getting to the University, click here.

Location of the symposium

The symposium will be held in the Music Research Centre, Department of Music, Heslington Campus. This is at the western end of the campus (see Sir Jack Lyons Concerts Hall on this campus map). If you are arriving by bus no 4 or 44 from the train station, get off at the Wentworth Roundabout stop (this is the first of the university bus stops if you are coming from town/the train station).

Symposium organizers