Northampton Complaints Choir (Open Song). Musarc + NN Contemporary Art. April—July 2023

Northampton Complaints Choir (Open Song) is a temporary ‘pop-up’ choir that emerges from a series of workshops and social events over the space of three weekends in April and May 2023 in Northampton. The project is commissioned as part of Sensing Place, an initiative by NN Contemporary Art that asks: what does it take to create more just and equal environments? How we can collaboratively inhabit places and foster a sense of belonging in our communities?

The choir, which will be led and brought to life with the help of experimental choral collective Musarc, is free to join and open to anyone. It offers an opportunity to meet new people, explore the city, cook and eat together, write poetry, sing and take part in collective music making and performance. Explore our project booklet above or download our flyer if you would like to get a quick overview or share the project.

This project has been commissioned as part of NN Contemporary Art’s Sensing Place, a public programme which explores critical and creative approaches to the public realm and placemaking. As the organisation is creating a new space at 24 Guildhall Road, it is looking closely at the policies and processes involved in designing public space and exploring their challenges and outputs. NN Contemporary is actively involved in Northampton’s town regeneration strategies and wants to explore themes such as agency, infrastructure and sustainability across the creative collaborations that merge art, culture, and community-led placemaking. Sensing Place is funded by Arts Council England and West Northamptonshire Borough Council.

Musarc is one of the UK’s foremost experimental choral assemblies. It was founded in 2008 at what is today the School of Art, Architecture and Design, London Metropolitan University. The choir has distinct reputation for its interdisciplinary and research-led approach to music and performance, and the space it affords artists and singers to experiment with new ideas. Since its inception, the choir has collaborated with more than one hundred artists and composers, including Jennifer Walshe, Lin Chiwei, Laure Provost, Ed Atkins, Jenny Moore, Lina Lapelytė, Sam Belinfante, Fritz Hauser, Neil Luck and many others; and numerous festivals and arts organisations in the UK and abroad – including the BBC Proms, London Contemporary Music Festival, Post Disaster Rooftops EP03 (Taranto, Italy), Palais de Tokyo (Paris), the Royal Academy, CCA Goldsmiths, Extra City (Antwerp), Serpentine Gallery, MK Gallery, Wysing Polyphonic, STUK (Leuwen) Cafe OTO, and Whitechapel Gallery.

NN Contemporary
24 Guildhall Road
Northampton NN1 1DP

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22–23 April 2023
20–21 May 2023
1–2 July 2023

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Workshops run on Saturdays from 10.00 to 5pm, and on Sundays from 10.30–3pm. You can join us for coffee on these days from 9.30am. We also meet 6.30pm on Friday evenings in a central social club or pub if you want to get to know us and other singers.

To register, email Simon Wright
simon@northamptonarts.org

Northampton Complaints Choir (Open Song) is developed and facilitated by:

Ilenia Cipollari
Agnieszka Cybul
Aranzanzu Fernandez
Joseph Kohlmaier
Carol Mancke
Derk Ringers
Toby O‘Connor
Anna Schabel
James Wignall

Sensing Place is supported by: