Notice Board

Crossing Boundaries: Keynote Conversations in Fine Arts
Richard Armstrong
Friday, May 15, 2015
7pm, Room PB210
Dr. Foster James Penny Building (324 – 5 St. S.)
Free Admission

The Faculty of Fine Arts is pleased to present renowned New York based vocal instructor, director and performer Richard Armstrong in the Crossing Boundaries: Keynote Conversations in Fine Arts series.  Reflecting on his vast experience teaching voice, Armstrong discusses his unique approach to vocal training and the full expression of the human voice in performance.  The lecture is relevant to actors, singers, dancers, storytellers, and composers of all levels of experience.  While here, Armstrong is also presenting a 1-day vocal workshop to students.  

Biography
With over 45 years of experience studying and teaching voice, Richard Armstrong’s distinction as a teacher, director, composer and performer has taken him to over 30 countries and inspired a generation of performers and their work.  His unique experience as a pioneer of the extension of the human voice began in the 1960’s when, as a founding member of the Roy Hart Theatre in France, he helped create one of Europe’s most influential schools of voice and body research.  Elissa Poole of the Globe and Mail states, “He cultivates impure sound – the peeps, motor-like rumbles, multiphonics and whistle tones […] with the same diligence that others give to singing on pitch.”  

Recent accolades include the Banff Centre’s Paul D Fleck Fellowship (2013) and a collaboration with singer and producer Fides Krucker, librettist Tom Walmsley, and composer Louis Dufort to perform the new opera Julie Sits Waiting (Toronto), which was nominated for 5 Dora Awards (2012).

Annual events include his International Voice Workshops at the Banff Centre, and a workshop for the graduate theatre programme at Towson University in Baltimore, USA. Armstrong is an associate arts professor at New York University’s Experimental Theatre Wing at the Tisch School of the Arts and teaches for its International Summer School in Amsterdam. 

For more info about Armstrong.