"VOCE the Muse" is an exploratory project seeking the post-modern musical. Compositions use the voice, tradition, improvisation, technology and artists from varying media and styles.

Born in Lexington, North Carolina (of Lexington and Thomasville Furniture fame), Candida Haynes began performing standard American music in New York City with Kaufman Kabaret and as a solo act at Don't Tell Mama, Soul Cafe and Rose's Turn. As a member of local choral societies, she graced the stages of Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center and Radio City Music Hall in performances televised on CBS, PBS and VH1.

While completing a Bachelor of Arts at Amherst College, she benefited from formal training and performance opportunities in jazz, classical and choral music. Her teachers included gospel living legend Dr. Horace Boyer as part of the University of Massachusetts Vocal Jazz Ensemble and award-winning playwright Dr. Andrea Hairston through a Smith College exchange. After college, she took advantage of New York?s massive opportunities to develop her musical abilities through classes at The New School and learned the "Bel canto? technique under Philip Campanella at The Singers? Forum. She continues training in jazz vocal performance with legendary pianist Barry Harris at Lincoln Square Neighborhood Center.

After being exposed to the free music scene by Irrepressible Spirit?s Tor Yochai Snyder in 2000, Candida Haynes began constructing a new musical concept and took on the artist persona VOCE. A premier collaboration between VOCE and instrumentalist/composer Ethan Hein reincarnated some of her web-based installations (mac.com 2001-2002) as live performance pieces.

Live looping effects more commonly used by guitar players reflect the innovation of this emerging composer, improviser and vocal musician as a one-person choir. Her original tunes incorporate popular, sacred and jazz styles and are enhanced by her immersion in the free realm. The same is true for her self-accompanying vocal arrangements of popular songs by artists from the Red Hot Chili Peppers to Roberta Flack. Audiences have been exposed to the evolving VOCE concept since 2001.

Pieces from "Cry Uncle: A VOCE Project," in collaboration with composer/multi-instrumentalist Ethan Hein, have been performed at LaMaMa; the "Discover Columbus" festival in Manhattan; September Concerts at Morningside Park, Baggott Inn and Triad Lounge; Gallery RIVAA and The Artists Gallery. Film credits include Cuban filmmaker Michael Gongora?s All the Wrong Faces and NYU student short Until the Noise Starts. In addition to creating new work with Hein, her primary collaborator, VOCE sings backing vocals with the Benita Charles and Friends Band and makes cameo appearances as part of "La Reina's Barriolesque" a carnivale for the stage at Nuyorican Poets Cafe. In 2005 and 2006, expect to see Live VOCE Sound Art as part of September Concerts in Morningside Park and in a growing number of alternative and contemporary arts venues, festivals and galleries in New York City and beyond.

VOCE pieces have been presented as soundscapes for art galleries and receptions, spoken word, interpretive dance, theatre and film, and presented as center-stage entertainment for intimate venues. This summer, I adapted a piece called "Goodness" to "La Reina's Barriolesque: A Midsummer Night's Scheme." The show's creator, Rhina Valentin is a professional actress, dancer, director and producer based in the Bronx. She specifically requested this piece for the show and created an interpretive dance in response to the piece. The same song sets the tone for an NYU student film called Until the Noise Starts. In the past, "David," from "Cry Uncle: A VOCE Project," inspired "Fa Bathsheeba," a spontaneous piece, by a NYFA Fellowship award-winner, Beluvid Ola Jendai. Both songs can be found on CVHaynes.com.

The works to which these artists were responding include pieces that I wrote according to the following philosophy:

"The voice, like any instrument can be used to compose music, accompany a leading line, improvise and lay claim to the skill and artistry that instrumentalists enjoy as musicians. In VOCE Collaborations, instrumentalists are invited to interact with the voice as equals and even invert tradition by improvising leading lines supported by the voice. Further, with the technology of an old looping machine, one voice can build in volume and texture to sound like a small choir and challenge the definition of a "solo." To some extent, I am composing for the voice and the machine."

Although I still explore those musical ideas, I have expanded my work using a "new" looping machine (Boss Loop Station) and have realized unexpected opportunities to support other art forms with my sound art. I see many of my works as sung poems and believe that adding dancers, for example can transform some into living poems. I hope to continue presenting the voice as an instrument and more deliberately explore the collaborative possibilities of the voice as instrument and muse. Towards this end, I am in the early stages of developing an exploratory project called "VOCE the Muse."




No matter which creative process I use, the goal is to present a purely live performance. At this point, I have not used pre-recorded loops for my shows. The vocals in each sample are created live and cannot be erased once recorded on stage. These real-time creations are subject to lingering
"surprises" in timing, tone and structure that may be stored during the looping process, so part of the performance is making art out of unexpected events - even in planned pieces. The following work samples represent improvisational, composed, and semi-structured realizations of my work, respectively.

Goodness
Americle
OhNaHa
Possibility
Yele

Various fleeting improvisations