The
Sound
Voice
Project
A unique, immersive performance installation
exploring powerful stories of voice loss and identity
"The Sound Voice Project is a pathfinder project which pioneers new means of artistic expression and is a compelling example of digital innovative and collaboration.”
FEDORA Digital Prize, 2023
The Sound Voice Project is an internationally award-winning 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.
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.
Winner FEDORA Digital Prize, 2023
Winner Ivor Novello Academy Award, 2022
Winner Alternate Realities Prize, Sheffield Doc-Fest 2022
Written after many hours of interviews and collaborative conversations with Paul Jameson, who was diagnosed with motor neurone disease in 2017.
Written in collaboration with people who have survived throat cancer, having had life-saving laryngectomy treatment to remove their voice box.
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.
