The
Sound
Voice
Project
A unique, immersive performance installation
exploring powerful stories of voice loss and identity
The Sound Voice Project is an immersive opera-video installation created with people who have lost their voice, exploring the intrinsic value of the human voice and our identity. What is a voice and what happens when it is gone?
Three, real-life stories…
Tanja (trio for video and two singers): with a rare cancer behind her vocal cords had her voice box removed one week after diagnosis. She explores how voice loss impacts her ability to be a “good” mother and the stigmas of being a woman with a laryngectomy.
Paul (aria for two singers): diagnosed with motor neuron disease (ALS) in this love song to his wife, invites audiences to understand how he feels as he loses his speech.
I Left My Voice Behind (Tableau for 2 choirs/2 cellos): performed by Shout at Cancer, the world’s only specialist laryngectomy choir and a digital synthetic chorus, created by cutting-edge technology from their voices pre-cancer.
Composer Hannah Conway and writer Hazel Gould collaborate with video designer Luke Halls and sound designer David Sheppard to create three gripping, surround-sound, audio-visual settings from The Sound Voice Project.
Each is a deeply personal and distinct experience. By turns uplifting and heart-rending, it is a celebration of the beauty of the human voice.
Paul
Written after many hours of interviews and collaborative conversations with Paul Jameson, who was diagnosed with motor neurone disease in 2017.
I Left My Voice Behind
Written in collaboration with people who have survived throat cancer, having had life-saving laryngectomy treatment to remove their voice box.
Tanja
In 2020, Tanja Bage was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer growing behind her vocal cords. One week after diagnosis, her voice box was removed.
