There is a hungry audience out there waiting to be inspired and touched by the music and ideas that today's composer has to offer; all we need to do is reach them.
"The word 'viral,' comes to mind as a trendy but disquietingly accurate image for Robert Voisey's infectious enthusiasm. He is always ready to mutate and reinfect the process as indicated to maintain the highest degree of project fever - and yes, it is spreading."
- Richard Arnest, Sounding Board
As a producer, Robert Voisey is regarded as having ambitious ideas for the dissemination of contemporary music. He founded Vox Novus in 2000 to promote the music of contemporary composers. Through Vox Novus, Voisey has been a significant force in providing composers with opportunities to present themselves and their music throughout the world.
"With few opportunities and much competition, young composers show creativity in just getting heard." And in Chris Pasles's article in the Los Angeles Times, Robert Voisey is highlighted as one of those composers.
"The idea of commissioning sixty pieces each a minute long has elements of both ingenuity combined with madness: can a creative artist have anything serious to say in just one minute? Can a listener gain anything in such a short time span? The answer is yes if one may go by the individual contributions to 60x60"
- Malcolm Miller, Music and Vision Daily
In 2003, Voisey called for 60 recorded works 60 seconds (or less) in length to be presented together in a continuous electronic playback performance that would be synchronized to an analog clock.
Over the past decade, 60x60 has received more than 3500 one minute submissions ranging from almost every type of musical style and genre. Submissions have come from more than 2500 composers, sound artists, and musicians from more than 40 countries throughout the world.
"The point of the project is that it enables an audience to take in and enjoy a cross section of different approaches to new music within a reasonable duration. And the purpose of Robert Voisey is to promote new music"
- Malcolm Miller, Music and Vision -
"The first thing to be said about "60x60 Dance" is that it is a masterpiece of organization. The idea - 60 new dance pieces are performed to 60 new pieces of music, each lasting no more than 60 seconds - is quite mad. But it's this kind of madness that makes the cultural world go round, and so our thanks are due to the composer Robert Voisey, who first came up with the concept in 2003." - By Roslyn Sulcas, New York Times
60x60 Dance has featured more than 500 choreographers and thousands of dancers. 60x60 Dance has had over 15 performances in 3 countries. The project has presented the work of more than 500 choreographers and the performances of more than 1000 dancers.
"Either a genius or crazy concept for a dance show, depending on how you look at it: 60 choreographers each create 60 seconds of movement to be performed in succession, making one hour of fast-changing, switched up dance for the age of short attention spans. Co-ordinated by East London Dance, dance styles range from ballet to Lindy hop to street, jazz and contemporary, and if there's one thing you can say for sure, if won't be boring." - Time Out London
Voisey is also the Co-Director of the Composer's Voice concert series at Vox Novus. This series features and exposes emerging composers as well as accomplished underexposed composers from all regions across the planet. The mission of the series is to display the compositional "voice" of the composer to promote their music to eager audiences.
Robert Voisey founded the Composer's Voice concert series in 2001. In 2007, he began co-directing the series in a joint collaboration with Remarkable theater brigade and Jan Hus Church.
Through the Composer's Voice concert series he has organized and produced more than 70 concerts in New York City, as well as several collaborative performances across the globe. With these chamber concerts he continues his mission to empower composers to broaden their audience by creating a venue to have their music heard.
"Expect it to stretch whatever boundaries you may not have thought you had."
- The Examiner -
60x60 Video is 60 minutes of video synchornized to 60 audio miniatures to create a one hour film. Another dynamic incarnation of the 60x60 project the goal of 60x60 video is to collaborate with video artists, filmakers, and VJ's to present the project in venues with audiences who are rarely exposed to the variety of music and video which is included in 60x60.
Starting with the very first mix, 60x60 has collaborated with video. 60x60 Video is an hour of video which is synchronized to the audio mixes of 60x60. 60x60 Video has collaborated with video artists, experimental filmmakers, and VJ's to pair the 60 different audio compositions with video. The visual element of this version of the project gives a chance for film screenings in festivals where contemporary music is rare, exposing music to new audiences. This format also lends itself to installation opportunities which give way for interesting art performances to eager audiences to expereience something new.
60x60 is a project containing 60 works each 60 seconds in length presented continuously in an hour performance synchronized with an analog clock. The 60x60 mission is to present an audible slice of what is happening in the contemporary music scene by representing 60 works that are diverse in aesthetic and style. Since 2003, the music of more than 1200 contemporary composers has been featured on the Electroacoustic 60x60 project. Thousands of audience members from Berlin to Chicago to New York City to Los Angeles and points in between have experienced this innovative program which synchronizes a clock with 60 one-minute electroacoustic compositions. The 60x60 Orchestra Project brings this innovative listening experience into symphony concert halls.
Robert Voisey co-directs this project with Mike McFerron and David Morneau.
Fifteen Minutes of Fame is a collection of 15 one-minute acoustic works composed specifically for a specific performer or ensemble. The purpose of Fifteen Minutes of Fame is to promote a great variety of contemporary music to audiences hungry to hear what living composers are writing today. The project series seeks one minute music composition from composers working in any style and aesthetic.
Vox Novus places a call for scores and 15 pieces are chosen from the works submitted. The works are then premiered on the Composer Voice concert series in New York City.
Since the beginning of the project, there have been more than 10 calls for different musicians/ensembles and has premiered more than 150 works in New York City works from different composers.
Robert Voisey created the American Composer Timeline in 2000 in order to create a central resource that would highlight American composers. He has compiled an extensive list of American composers in a timeline with links to composers biographies and websites. The timeline lists over 1500 composers from American history as early as the 1600's.
Robert Voisey is the founder and artistic director of Ouroboros. Ouroboros is another collaborative audio project where many different composers overlap their work to create a longer piece which loops back onto itself to create a sonic installation meant to be played continuously for long periods of time.