Paramorph
During December 2020, SING THE NORTH travelled to historic Montréal, which sits on the banks of the mighty St Laurence river, to create a choral improvisation with the Paramorph Collective – two exciting young Montreal-based composers Kim Farris Manning & An-Laurence Higgins.
SING THE NORTH singers joined us from across Canada, the US, the UK, Germany, and Italy for this opportunity to compose as well as sing. We were especially thrilled to be able to sing with a hugely creative group of high school students from the Lyceo A. Volta in Torino, Italy.
In a series of choral improvisation workshops, Kim & An-Laurence led our singers to improvise their own vocal, visual, and written material. The result was an entirely new composition/video installation:
“Suddenly I was alone / d’un tratto ero sola”
Our Paramorph project was a reminder to every participant that creativity of the highest order lies dormant within each one of us. When we come together to listen to and sing to one another, each of us is encouraged to both find and share their own creative voice. As a group, with the inspirational and gentle guidance of our visionary composers, our choristers became singer, composer, and composition, all rolled into one.
What will you create next? We hope you will be encouraged to carry the message of Paramorph with yo, to hear your own music within, and to share it with the world, wherever you may be.
Meet Kim Farris-Manning & An-Laurence Higgins
Hi! We are Kim (left) and An-Laurence, two composers who work together to create new works for voice and other instruments.
For our Paramorph project with SING THE NORTH, we invited singers from across Canada and around the world to take part in a very exciting and creative experience!
We invited them to create a collective piece of music, poetry, and visuals together.
Over the course of three weeks in December, we explored different approaches to improvisation and creation together, so that the artists who joined us had the chance to add your own melodies, spoken word, rhythms, and visuals to make a collaborative multi-media film from their homes.
We asked them to record their ideas and send them back to us, which we will then edit together – the final piece is a musical, poetic and visual artistic piece that we will all have participated in to create!
We had a wonderful time singing with you!
Virtual Field Trip
Montréal, Québec
Every SING THE NORTH project features a trip in our virtual choir tour bus, a special session when we travel together as a choir to a different part of Canada to meet the people who live and work there.
Improvisation Beneath the Surface
Our Paramorph project included a fascinating virtual choir field trip beneath the surface of the mighty St Laurence River.
Under the expert guidance of Dr Brian Hickey of the River Institute, we swam with migrating fish, followed the course of the river through the gargantuan Great Lakes waterway, and learned more about what we can do to protect this well-source of life and creative imagination.
