Christian Wolz, Vocal Artist, Germany

Giving Voice - an international Festival:

Artists, Scientists, Professionals, Students, Technical Engineers and Voice Enthusiasts from around the world and from different cultures meet each other in Aberystwyth to give each other new stimuli and to exchange new life experiences. New meetings take place and some meet once again. It is like a family meeting and the family is constantly growing. Never before have I experienced a Festival like Giving Voice. Everyone is a part of this vocal society, at least for the week. People are not nervous of each other and it is easy to mingle with others, whether this is after a performance, during a lunch break or in a workshop. Everyone takes the opportunity to be a part of this big event.

The Voice is the most direct tool that can be used to represent the mental and physical human state. Singing is the most natural art of expression of a human being. The work with and the development of the voice is the basic requirement for all forms of performing arts - singing, theatre, performance arts and even dance. Any new arts development is an interdisciplinary collaboration between these arts forms. The human voice has so many facets. Only through the exchange of the different methods of using the voice is it possible to develop it as a tool, to go much further and to develop new forms of its expression.

The influence of different cultures such as Inuit singing, classic singing, Belcanto singing, oriental singing, Gaelic singing and avant-garde singing flowed through the Festival and were offered to festival participants and local public in the form of presentations, talks and workshops. The artists and scientists also exchanged views and got together to make new plans for development and co-operation, which will in turn be distributed around the world. And in this way art is constantly expanding. The Festival offers a special opportunity to get together. It is important to save such an event because this Festival continues to grow and develop further from year to year. It grows, the voice community grows and through it a pool of so much information about the voice is collected. In addition, so many creative processes take place there which lead to an excellent understanding between cultures.

I was a part of this festival as an artist and as a teacher and enjoyed my time there immensely, although I wished I could have had more time for myself to be able to process all the new information that I was given during the day. I met people during the Giving Voice Festival who I would have otherwise never met in such intimate circumstances. Something has happened to me since then - I have had contact with new experiences and thoughts, which have caused very deep reflection. It was a special meeting and I wish to meet this vocal family in Wales again in the future.

I will live on the food of Giving Voice 2008 for a long time. In the future, I will be working together with other participants of the Festival and I hope to come once more to Wales, Aberystwyth to find some more impulses and friends of the arts.

Christian Wolz, vocal artist and composer, teacher, Berlin - Germany