À PROPOS / ABOUT

Mandat

Vox Humana s'agit d'un groupe dynamique de musicien.ne.s qui intègrent la récitation de textes dramatiques dans leurs performances instrumentales. L'objectif est d'exploiter la puissance naturelle de la voix humaine dans le contexte de la musique contemporaine, pour livrer une musique qui est culturellement et politiquement pertinente. Cette approche vise à transformer le rôle que peux tenir la musique dans la société, pour qu'elle soit plus flexible, ouverte, libre et remplie d'espoir, ainsi que plus attirante à ceux qui ne s'intéressent pas habituellement à la musique classique. Vox Humana reflète un désir de traiter la musique comme médium artistique ayant la capacité d'agir comme agent dans les domaines fondamentalement extra-musicales, tels la culture, la politique, la religion, et les sciences humaines. L'aspect multilingue de notre approche est conçu afin de reconnaître la diversité et le multiculturalisme de nos co-citoyen.ne.s; après tout, nous sommes tous dans le même bateau!

Andy Costello
fondateur, directeur artistique

Nicolas Hyatt
directeur général

Mission
Vox Humana is a dynamic group of contemporary musicians specializing in “speaking” repertoire – music that incorporates a spoken, coherent text to be recited by the musicians themselves.  The group consists of multi-lingual, multi-cultural musician-actors that excel in dramatic acting and vocal expression in addition to instrumental virtuosity. The goal is to harness the power of the natural, classically un-trained human voice, and cast it in the domain of contemporary music, with an approach that renders a performance culturally relevant, politically pertinent, and artistically meaningful.  The goal is to bring music to domains that are not inherently musical, such as culture, politics, religion, and social sciences.  At Vox Humana music is the medium, but not the target.  The aspect of multilingualism is a way for us to promote multiculturalism – through language we find new ways of living, new ways of thinking. We live in a diverse, complicated world – one that often requires explanation (not to mention, translations of these explanations) – but one thing is for sure: we are all in this together.

Andy Costello
Founder, Artistic Director

Nicolas Hyatt
General Director

MEMBRES

Andy Costello, Founder, Artistic Director

Andy is a pianist and composer originally from Chicago, and currently based in Montreal.  Known by many as "the speaking pianist," Andy thrives on solo piano music that incorporates the delivery of text from the pianist.  As a “speaking pianist”, Andy has performed extensively in solo, chamber and large ensemble settings.  The goals of Vox Humana reflect Andy's broad artistic motivations, and more specifically, those within the realm of the "speaking pianist."

The first word Andy ever uttered was: “Football” (pronounced: FUH-BUH).  He had his first kiss at the age of 12.  He tried his first cigarette at the age of 13.  He ran away from home at the age of 14, again at 15, and again at 17, because he couldn’t take the pressure of success.

Andy's personal website: www.MyNameIsAndyCostello.com

 

Nicolas Hyatt, General Director

Nick Hyatt is a franco-ontarian from the south-west: Windsor, On.  He is a composer, pianist, artistic collaborator, community organizer and political history junky.

He has spent the last four years working on collaborative new-music and multidisciplinary projects with composers David Lacalamita and Jake Paleczny, curators Steve Ferrara and Lisa Martin of Well and Good (Toronto), and fashion designer Christian l'Enfant Roi (Montreal).  He is currently doing linguistic research on the variety of French spoken in his hometown, with plans to integrate the findings into future compositions.