This artistic research project explores how classical vocal technique can underpin sustainable and diverse vocal practices that embrace extended vocal techniques, alternative notational systems, and collaborative compositional processes. The investigation is grounded in my own experience as a classically trained singer navigating new repertoire, and develops through close co-creation with composers including Andrea Szigetvári, Jostein Stalheim, Mirsaeed Hosseiny Panah, Craig Farr, Tord Kalvenes,Knut Vaage and others. Together, we examine how extended techniques and unconventional notations can be integrated into works that remain vocally healthy and artistically expressive, allowing the classical voice to expand rather than abandon its foundations.
Methodologically, the project unfolds through cycles of experimentation, rehearsal, and dialogue, where rehearsal itself becomes a site of artistic research. Each collaborative process functions as a laboratory in which sound, notation, and embodiment are negotiated and transformed. The co-creative approach situates the singer not only as interpreter but as equal artistic partner, generating new works, recorded materials, evolving methods, and reflective tools for other singers and composers.
A deliberate limitation guides the work: only extended vocal approaches that can be naturally integrated with classical technique and sustained for long-term vocal health are explored. The project aims not only to create and perform new compositions, but to contribute to the wider discourse on contemporary vocal art, offering embodied insight into how classical and extended practices can inform each other and enrich the expressive and technical potential of the singing voice.
Zsuzsa Zseni-Clausen: Ph.D. Artistic Research Fellow, The Grieg Academy – University of Bergen
I am a Hungarian-Norwegian classical singer and educator based in Bergen. My artistic background lies in classical Lied, opera, and contemporary vocal performance. I hold a master’s degree in classical singing from the University of Bergen and a postgraduate degree in performance from the University of Stavanger, with additional studies in drama and interdisciplinary art from NMH.
Over the past decade I have performed at major Norwegian festivals such as Borealis, Festspillene i Bergen and Bergen Kirkeautunnale, and internationally at festivals in Iceland, Germany, and Hungary. As a member of the experimental vocal ensemble Tabula Rasa, I collaborate regularly with composers on new works that merge extended vocal techniques, improvisation, and theatrical elements.
My current Ph.D. project, “The Expanding Voice – Classical technique as a foundation for diverse vocal practices,” explores how classical singing technique can support the development of sustainable and diverse vocal practices. The project combines artistic experimentation, collaboration with composers, and reflective documentation to create new works and artistic toolkits for singers navigating contemporary and new repertoire.