Arrington de Dionsyo to perform and teach at AVA

Published 6:50 am Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Arrington de Dionsyo will be in concert at 8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 10, at the Astoria Visual Arts Center, 453A 11th St. A $5 donation is requested.

In addition, de Dionsyo will lead a voice workshop from 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 11, also at the AVA Center. Cost for the workshop is $20.

De Dionsyo performs on the bass clarinet and jaw harps and uses his voice with a distinctly multiphonic ability inspired by Tuvan throatsinging and the ecclesiastics of Albert Ayler and Don Van Vliet, pushing the envelope between musicality and pure energy, between shamanic ecstacy and lunacy. He tours constantly and has performed and/or recorded with notable improvisers throughout the United States, Canada, Italy, France, Israel and Japan. He presents workshops on improvising with the voice in conjunction with his travels around the world.

The human voice is the oldest instrument of artistic expression and our primary means of day-to-day communication. Cultivating an awareness of vocal ability and understanding the process for removing vocal limitations is a useful undertaking for any person. The purpose of this workshop is to help individuals free their voices. Participants will leave the workshop with an enhanced understanding of the expressive capacity of the voice across cultures, and the tools to expand their own voices beyond everyday speaking and singing. Participants will receive instruction in extended techniques used by contemporary musicians and sound poets, while gaining awareness of multiphonics as practiced in a number of traditional and nontraditional settings, with particular emphasis on Tuvan throat singing. Instruction in these techniques will be accompanied by discussion of aesthetic concerns related to the musical cultures covered. The workshop will be limited to 10 students, so that each participant may have the opportunity to perform in an intimate, supportive environment. This workshop is excellent for those working in interdiscliplinary fields, with interest areas in music, dance, theater, poetry, visual arts, healing sound and ethnomusicology.