The creation of The Phoenicia International Festival of the Voice was and is a labor of love, passion and hope. Love for music and singing and the amazing effects that it produces on human beings. Passion for this area and its people and hope for the rebirth both artistically and economically of this lovely corner of the Catskills.
Classical singing, particularly opera, has an ability to uplift, to cause vibrations that ripple through people and touch places they didn’t know they had. A soaring high note, a rumbling low note, a note sustained and soft, a beautifully arching phrase, notes that fly by like the wind—almost no other vocal forms contain these vocal expressions. Well, maybe one at a time but opera has all of them all the time!!! Opera is emotional, opera is drama, opera is athletic; opera is a combination of such skilled expression- opera is ultimate!!!
Not everyone can play an instrument; piano, violin, oboe, trombone, accordion, bagpipes, flute, guitar; these are instruments that one picks up and learns. But everyone has a voice, the one instrument that is with us always, all day, all night and I would bet there is not a person who does not or has not sung. People sing when they’re happy, when they’re sad…but people sing. And that is why the human voice and singing is so important, it’s innate in each of us. And though it can be, singing is not just a ‘noise’, it combines music and words. Sounds and words that work together to express, to incite, to calm, to inspire, to heal!!!
We truly believe in the healing power of singing. We don’t want the audience to leave merely feeling entertained; we want their spirits to reach a higher level. When you leave a concert suspended in a cloud of indescribable sensation—something has shifted in you and the singing made it happen. That is our vision and it is why so many work as volunteers to bring this amazing event to our little town.
Just as Phoenicia is transformed for four days and evenings, so are our hearts.
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