Emerging Voices

Dr Felicity Wilcox

Who are the new opera-makers shaking up the canon? Emerging Voices examines state-of-the-art and gender in contemporary opera, featuring interviews with diverse, leading, global practitioners. Emerging Voices is hosted by composer and Senior Lecturer in Music and Sound Design at the University of Technology Sydney, Dr Felicity Wilcox. This podcast forms part of Emergence – a Discovery Early Career Researcher Award Project, funded by the Australian Research Council and University of Technology Sydney. https://emergenceopera.com/podcasts 

Episodes

  1. Episode 3 - Du Yun

    28/06/2025

    Episode 3 - Du Yun

    In this episode of Emerging Voices, Dr Felicity Wilcox interviews composer, multi-instrumentalist, performance artist, activist, and curator Du Yun. This interview was recorded in July 2023 at the Darmstadt Summer Course. https://channelduyun.com    Du Yun, born and raised in Shanghai, China, and currently based in New York City, works at the intersection of opera, orchestral, theatre, cabaret, musical, oral tradition, public performances, electronics, visual arts, and noise. Her body of work is championed by some of today’s finest performing groups and organizations around the world. Known for her “relentless originality and unflinching social conscience” (The New Yorker), Du Yun’s second opera, Angel’s Bone (libretto by Royce Vavrek), won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize in Music. She was nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best Classical Composition category for her work Air Glow. Her collaborative opera Sweet Land with Raven Chacon (for opera company The Industry) was the 2021 Best New Opera by the North America Critics Association.     Emerging Voices is hosted by composer and Senior Lecturer in Music and Sound Design at the University of Technology Sydney, Dr Felicity Wilcox. This podcast forms part of Emergence – a Discovery Early Career Researcher Award Project, funded by the Australian Research Council and University of Technology Sydney.      Emerging Voices is recorded and edited by Felicity Wilcox and produced by Elizabeth Jigalin     Trailer and Closer music by Felicity Wilcox, text by Alana Valentine, from the new opera Emergenc/y.    Singer credits: https://emergenceopera.com/emergency     http://emergenceopera.com

    33 min
  2. Episode 2 - Christopher Sainsbury

    12/05/2025

    Episode 2 - Christopher Sainsbury

    In this episode of Emerging Voices, Dr Felicity Wilcox interviews composer, songwriter, guitarist, and educator Professor Christopher Sainsbury. This interview was recorded on 24 February 2024 via Zoom. https://www.sainsburymusic.com/  Christopher Sainsbury composes in various genres and his recent works include a Flute Concertino for Sally Walker and the Canberra Symphony Orchestra 2025, an opera The Visitors commissioned by Richard Mills for the Victorian Opera Company's 2023 season (with libretto by Jane Harrison) and a string orchestra work String Talk commissioned by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra for July 2024. Sainsbury is Professor in Composition at the Australian National University (ANU) Canberra. He won the APRA National Luminary Award in 2020 for effecting change within the classical and new music industry through the Ngarra-burria First Peoples Composers program, and a Classical:NEXT Innovation Award was awarded to the program in 2022 for innovation in practice.  Emerging Voices is hosted by composer and Senior Lecturer in Music and Sound Design at the University of Technology Sydney, Dr Felicity Wilcox. This podcast forms part of Emergence – a Discovery Early Career Researcher Award Project, funded by the Australian Research Council and University of Technology Sydney.   Emerging Voices is recorded and edited by Felicity Wilcox and produced by Elizabeth Jigalin    Trailer and Closer music by Felicity Wilcox, text by Alana Valentine, from the new opera Emergenc/y.   Singer credits: https://emergenceopera.com/emergency    http://emergenceopera.com

    53 min
  3. Episode 1 - Gelsey Bell

    03/04/2025

    Episode 1 - Gelsey Bell

    In the first episode of Emerging Voices, Dr Felicity Wilcox interviews composer, writer, singer, and multi-instrumentalist Dr Gelsey Bell inside the HERE Theatre in Soho, New York City. This interview was recorded on 13 January 2023 during the Prototype Festival, where Gelsey's experimental opera mɔɹnɪŋ [morning//mourning] premiered. https://gelseybell.bandcamp.com/album/m-n-morning-mourning  Gelsey Bell is a singer, songwriter, and scholar - a composer-performer, teacher, and sound artist. She has been described by the New York Times as “one of New York’s most adventurous musicians” and the “future of experimental vocalism.” She performs regularly as a vocalist and multi-instrumentalist, culling from a wide range of techniques and styles to create her own performance works, to literally voice those of contemporary composers, and to explore improvisation. https://gelseybell.com/  Emerging Voices is hosted by composer and Senior Lecturer in Music and Sound Design at the University of Technology Sydney, Dr Felicity Wilcox. This podcast forms part of Emergence – a Discovery Early Career Researcher Award Project, funded by the Australian Research Council and University of Technology Sydney.  Emerging Voices is recorded and edited by Felicity Wilcox and produced by Elizabeth Jigalin    Trailer and Closer music by Felicity Wilcox, text by Alana Valentine, from the new opera Emergenc/y.   Singer credits: https://emergenceopera.com/emergency  http://emergenceopera.com

    1 hr

About

Who are the new opera-makers shaking up the canon? Emerging Voices examines state-of-the-art and gender in contemporary opera, featuring interviews with diverse, leading, global practitioners. Emerging Voices is hosted by composer and Senior Lecturer in Music and Sound Design at the University of Technology Sydney, Dr Felicity Wilcox. This podcast forms part of Emergence – a Discovery Early Career Researcher Award Project, funded by the Australian Research Council and University of Technology Sydney. https://emergenceopera.com/podcasts