World premiere of ‘not to mention’ by Dmitri Kourliandski by Helēna Sorokina.

‘Exactly 10 years ago my opera ‘Asteroid 62′ was premiered in Graz, where Helēna debuted as one of the soloists. And now I’m thankful and happy to have the opportunity to write a piece for her and to sound in Graz again’ (Dmitri Kourliandski

VOICE.ONLY – a very personal voice laboratory by Helēna Sorokina, in which she explores the possibilities and, above all, the impossibilities of her voice.

Solitude – being alone of your own free will, at the same time the only situation in which one is confronted with one’s naked self and one’s own inner voice, with no possibility of escaping through the noise and busyness of everyday life. So a self-experience. For some it is an existentially necessary journey of discovery, for others it is their “safe space”, for still others it is a great challenge characterized by deep emotionality – both negative (sadness, anger, feelings of injustice) and positive (relief, Liberation, joy) Art. In order to expand the sparse repertoire for a solo alto voice and to enter into dialogue with composers for the project VOICE.ONLY: Shades of Solitude, Helēna Sorokina launched a global call for composers around the world in 2020. They were asked to work on the topic of being alone in their own way and to bring it to the audience. For this project she was awarded “Surprise of the Year 2022” by the Latvian “Radio Klasika” and nominated for the Latvian Media Culture Prize 2022. Together with this year’s edition – Shades of Solitude Vol. 5 – Helēna Sorokina has premiered around 50 works for her unaccompanied alto voice.

Shades of Solitude Vol. 5: Works for unaccompanied alto voice by Dmitri Kourliandski, Jānis Petraškevičs, Santa Ratniece, Gülçin Yüksel, Shiqi Geng, Zesses Seglias and Feliz Anne Reyes Macahis.