The Vocal Oevre of Exile Composers
Chair: Prof. Dr. Gerold Gruber

Description:

Austria was the home of many of Hitler’s most important musical victims, the best known of whom have already become established culturally historic figures. Yet others still await their discovery or, more often, their re-discovery. Gaping holes exist where they have not been incorporated into rightful positions within Austrian musicology or performance-practice. exil.arte operates as a center for the reception, preservation and research of Austrian composers, performers, musical academics and thinkers who, during the years of the ‘Third Reich’ were branded as ‘degenerate’. Only within recent decades has Austria started to address this issue. The assessment and restitution of such a multi-facetted cultural inheritance, extending from the 19th century through, operetta, film music and ‘chanson’, cabaret, and the developments of the ‘Second Viennese School’, ‘Jugendstil’, ‘New Objectivity’ and much more is an enormous, multi-disciplinary undertaking.

Exil.arte’s purpose is to restore these important missing links to the chain of Austrian music-history.
The exil.arte Center of the mdw is situated in exactly the same building where talented musicians studied and pioneering lecturers taught. Between 1933 and 1938, many of the mdw’s most gifted individuals were forced to flee the Nazi terror. Some managed to continue their careers, while others found they had lost the very foundations of their work. An entire generation of younger musicians was deprived by this cultural catastrophe of ever being admitted to the mdw. The first exhibition opening the newly founded exil.arte Center at the mdw focuses on the lost musical legacy and the fates of these many and diverse lives. Over the last two years exil.arte has been able to gather over 15 musical estates of various composers, conductors and musicians.

"The society exil.arte lets us hear voices again that were silenced, bringing music that was brutally suppressed to our ears – and thereby also to our heart."

Thomas Angyan
Artistic director of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna,
quoted from his laudation at the awarding of the 2010 Bank Austria International Art Prize to exil.arte

Information for presenters:
exil.arte has already received more than 16 estates. exil.arte invites lecturers who are interested in giving lectures, taking part in round tables or poster sessions etc.to use the provided songs of exiled composers for their papers. For getting all the informations, send an e-mail to info@exilarte.org.

Female Composers from the 19th Century
Chair: Prof. Dr. Annegret Huber

Description:

There is hardly a composer who completes a composition without the hope that the piece will be performed; composing is undertaken for certain occasions, people, or ensembles that will bring the works to be heard. Performance conditions in the nineteenth century were not, though, equally accessible to men and women: compositions from men could be heard virtually everywhere; compositions from women performed in the public sphere were an exception that strengthened an unwritten rule. This resulted, however, in various performance contexts for nineteenth-century women composers, that developed regionally and over the course of time quite differently.

One may take as inspiration the immense array of Klavierlieder that were performed both on public concert stages and in private salons, the choral compositions for bourgeois choral societies such as those from Emilie Zumsteeg (1796.-1857), the “Gartenlieder” Op. 3 for social singing from Fanny Hensel (1805-1847), operas from Marie de Grandval (1828-1907) or Ethel Smyth (1858-1944), sacred music such as the Messe pour deux voix égales op. 167 from Cécile Chaminade (1857-1944), or oratorios as from Ann Mounsey Bartholomew (1811-1891), to name only a few examples. If you do not know where to find inspirations for a contribution, please look here:

https://imslp.org/index.php?title=Category:Female_people&intersect=People_from_the_Romantic_era&transclude=Template:Catintro
https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/page/women-composers-by-time-period;jsessionid=127ACA03CE7BFBCB57B09DF375AAC787

We invite proposals for presentations with a focus on vocal works from female composers of the nineteenth century in the social contexts of vocal practice. Different presentation formats are possible: lectures or reports (both with or without artistic presentations) of max. 20 minutes, or poster sessions.

Singing with Body and Soul
Chair: Prof. Ruth Gabrielli-Kutrowatz

Description:

Vocal training exempt from the inclusion of breathing exercises and body work is in our day and age simply unimaginable. The expression of a singer is not solely a matter of the instrument (the larynx and vocal folds), but represents the full sentiment, body and soul of the complete individual. Toned muscles, breath support, general physical fitness and one's mental attitude have an important impact on voice quality. In the cluster “Body Work Methods – an Overview” we want to discuss our experience.
We invite you to apply as a speaker in order to share your knowledge and research results e.g. in the form of workshops, lectures or poster sessions in the context of the ICVT 2022.

Fit for Stage – Acting for Singers
Chair: Prof. Helga Meyer-Wagner and Prof. Wolfgang Dosch

Description:

Everyone can sing – this form of expression belongs to each and every human being. Since the beginning of time people sing: yodeling in the mountains, choral singing in religious services, the daily calls of religious cantors such the Muezzin are just a few examples. Singing together in a group often leads to higher forms of expression such as triumph, joy of life, desire, sadness and even experiencing ecstasy.

The development of artistic high achievements is in today’s world varied. Earliest childhood experiences of the joy of music in children seems to set the stage for later development. As compared to learning an instrument, singing is at first much easier. The body is the instrument and one needs only an example to try to imitate. A particular song including its rhythm and melody captures the attention and if singing with other children, such as in Kindergarten, one is motivated by others and even brings this music on their way home,sharing it in their families and with their friends.

Often early gifts for singing are evident, which when encouraged and trained can be developped into famous singers. Many famous soloists have discovered their passion for singing during their late teens and have taken on all endeavours of hard training and have climbed the ladder of success in their careers.

The education of singers in music universities lays the basis for the future beginning with the efficiency of breath management, phrasing.text interpretation in various languages, the development of range and volume of the voice including body movements and expression. The young talents must not only perfect their abilities, but also must learn to listen to their singing partners, conductors and orchestra without losing the character sung. Very important is the repetition of performing before audiences. Through this they learn not only the reality of  stage life, but can also realize how their nerves cope with everything. Extreme nervousness often creates massive hurdles in order to attain their „Dream Career“.

When one begins auditions and competitions not only the singing abilities count, but also their stage personalities, stage presence and charisma are of upmost importance. And on top of everything one needs a good portion of luck.

Voice Maintenance and Health
Chair: Josipa Bainac

Description:

This cluster´s program is based on the idea of introducing newest results in the field of artistic, scientific and technical voice research to professional voice users such as singers, vocal pedagogues, actors, teachers and speakers, supporting them in application of gained information and thus increasing the quality of their daily professional life.
Cluster-Congress Voice Maintenance & Health will address important topics in the field of laryngology, speech and language pathology, voice diagnosis, prevention of vocal damage, voice therapy, nutrition as support to vocal production, singing and speaking techniques.
Lectures, round tables, poster exhibition and presentations will be open to all applicants of ICVT Vienna 2022, with special accent on participants professionally enrolled in artistic vocal development.
The lecturers taking part in this cluster are renowned and frequently published physicians, voice therapists, voice scientists, singers and vocal pedagogues that will discuss state-of-art and perspectives of maintaining a healthy functional voice.