Queer Sonic Avatars

with Kristin Norderval

In this lecture performance, singer and composer-improviser Kristin Norderval explores themes of resonance, presence, place, and the distortion of time with her mediated voices or “Sonic Avatars." She will perform with EVII, the Expanded Vocal Improvising Instrument for gestural vocal processing that she has developed over the last years. She often refers to the instrument as her digital improvising partner. Norderval’s concert will be followed by a Q&A and a demonstration.

Kristin Norderval’s career has been twofold: as a singer of contemporary music working with composers such as Philip Glass, Pauline Oliveros, Annea Lockwood, Tania Leon, and many others, and as a composer-improviser working with technology. Kristin is inspired by hybridity, interactivity, and the idea that everything one does is site-specific. She blends acoustic and electronic sound, and is fascinated with detuned instruments, machines, and ambient sound. Between 2019 and 2023 Kristin was a PhD Research Fellow at the Oslo National Academy of Opera in Norway, where she developed an Expanded Vocal Improvising Instrument (EVII) for gestural vocal processing using wireless MIDI rings. Kristin has used the EVII in her latest opera, Crane Reflects on a Favor, and in collaborations with Limpe Fuchs, Peter van Bergen, Jill Sigman, and Miguel Frasconi.

Kristin Norderval is a Culture Moves Europe grantee and an Artist in Residence at Studio Loos. This work was produced with the financial assistance of the European Union. The views expressed herein can in no way be taken to reflect the official opinion of the European Union.

Prior to the lecture performance, Kristin Norderval will lead a Deep Listening workshop. She will also join the conversation Veering Voices, on Friday, 5 April.