Joan La Barbara

Joan Linda Lotz La Barbara (born June 8, 1947) is an American vocalist and composer known for her explorations of non-conventional or “extended” vocal techniques. Considered to be a vocal virtuoso in the field of contemporary music, she is credited with advancing a new vocabulary of vocal sounds including trills, whispers, cries, sighs, inhaled tones, and multiphonics (singing two or more pitches simultaneously). Biography An influential figure in experimental music, La Barbara was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She is a classically trained singer who studied with soprano Helen Boatwright at Syracuse University, Phyllis Curtin at Tanglewood/Berkshire Music School and contralto Marion Szekeley Freschl at the Juilliard School in New York. Joan La Barbara’s early creative work (early to mid 1970s) focuses on experimentation and investigation of vocal sound as raw sonic material, including works that explore varied timbres on a single pitch,“circular singing” inhaled and exhaled singing inspired by horn players’ circular breathing techniques, and multiphonic or chordal singing i.e. double-stops for the voice . In the mid 1970s, she began creating more structured compositional work