Art Song Anima: Ambiguity, Authenticity, Augury
The Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies at the University of British Columbia (www.pwias.ubc.ca) is hosting a 3-day interdisciplinary Exploratory Workshop June 21-23 in conjunction with the Vancouver International Song Institute (www.visi.ca), a new and unique interdisciplinary professional training program for the study of Art Song, at the UBC School of Music June 17-23. The title of the workshop is “Art Song Anima: Ambiguity, Authenticity, Augury”, convened by Professor Rena Sharon, Artistic Director of VISI, and Drs. Eric Vatikiotis-Bateson, Linguistics, and Laurel Fais, Psychology. Its topics flow from an arts/humanities starting point on the first day (ambiguities and specificities in the setting of poetry to music), into discussion on day two of the phenomenology of speech/song intersections, comprising linguistics, vocal physiology, cognition, neuroscience. The final day will include consideration of song from a biocultural perspective, with presentation of data about the use of song in therapeutic environments such as Alzheimer’s’ care, and its evolutionary role in individual development of parent/infant communication and collective social ritual.
