I recently wrapped up a week-long workshop for an in-progress project co-produced by Red Note Ensemble in Edinburgh, Scotland and Soundstreams in Toronto, Canada. Tentatively titled “New Normal”, the project is a ritualistic operatic piece co-written by myself and Northern Irish composer Brian Irvine. Born in the depth of the pandemic, the project explores the challenges of international collaboration with limited travel. So far, only the composers have travelled across the ocean to work with local ensembles. The final result will be two simultaneous concerts in Toronto and Edinburgh with mine and Brian’s intertwined pieces livestreamed from one hall to the other to form one narrative.

For this second workshop I was again in Edinburgh (the first workshop took place in November 2021) working with sopranos Emma Morwood and Jessica Leary, mezzo-soprano Laura Margaret Smith, and members of the Red Note Ensemble. Brian Irvine was in Toronto working with the Soundsterams team. The singers on the Edinburgh side play three aliens who have landed on Earth on the streets of a small town emptied out by pandemic lockdowns. They attempt to make contact with the one and only human they spy through a window (who is actually in Toronto), but he is utterly oblivious to them, caught up in his own attempt to build a spaceship to escape his life on earth.

This workshop focused on establishing video and audio contact between the two cities in order to test technological capabilities and limitations. We also workshopped a bunch of music and experimented with livestreamed overlap between the performers stationed on opposite sides of the Atlantic.

The premiere for this work is slated for 2024.