St. Anne Karaoke is scored for in-person and remote singers with portable electronics.

Based on Jennifer Beattie’s poem about the patron saint of unmarried women, housewives, women in labor, grandmothers, childless people, equestrians, lacemakers, miners, the poor, and seamstresses, this work explores communal music and sound sharing, in-person and remotely.

The fabulous Quince Ensemble and Jennifer Beattie premiered St. Anne Karaoke for in-person and remote voices and portable electronics on Tuesday, April 26, 2022 at the Gusman Hall, University of Miami. Through the remote the poet and singer (Beattie), the many many voices– lost, remembered, virtual and potential are welcomed in the reality of our augmented post-pandemic musical presence.

The graphic score takes us on a journey of self-exploration, introspection and a search for a sense of belonging through voice. Listening to the music from a set of small portable speakers, hearing one-self and responding to each other result in a textural music making in which individual voices emerge from the network of locally personalized interpretations, guided by simple instructions.

The electronic music presents creatively modified score parts prerecorded by the individual ensemble members mixed with the recordings of their own outdoor environments, thus creating a spatialized 4-channel sonic chamber for 5 singers. The recordings of the remote singer (both her vocal part and environmental sounds) transverse through the audio channels of the in-person performers. The vocalists, thus hold filtered memories of their own voices and voices of the other in their hands, singing along and within, gaming the unique karaoke. The five recorded environments intersect the music making, humanizing the digital and concert-hall experiences, prompting a sense of a global sonic village.

• Year composed: 2022
• Instrumentation: in-person vocal quartet and a remote vocalist; parts can be doubled
• Duration: ca. 11 minutes

• April 26, 2022: Gusman Hall, Frost School of Music, University of Miami