Underground Ictus: Recent Episodes
David Harris and Laurel Irene
Underground Ictus is a conversation about vocal music, creative leadership, and human interaction that explores how creative artists can learn to love and cherish their process and product by practicing compassion. We ask questions based in science and practice in order to understand how to avoid forms of trauma, disengagement, and unequal power paradigms that can so easily become byproducts of group-based creativity, and we join with the growing numbers of artists who seek for their art to feed every aspect of their lives.
How do you sing a 12-hour opera? Laurel and David explore the intensely immersive experience of Laurel’s lead role in the experimental opera “Bliss” in a 2019 archive interview. Hear more about the piece, its cultural context, the way the team worked together, and specifics about Laurel’s preparation and execution during an evening of over 1000 high Gs. This episode is being released during the third week of parenthood for the couple, an experience that Laurel said was made more possible by having sung endurance art music. The song of the day is Mozart’s “Laudate Dominum” sung by Laurel in duet with Jaquain Sloan on bassoon and Christoph Bull on organ with Laude as the choir.
The conclusion of “Bliss”: How do you sing a 12-hour opera? Laurel and David explore the intensely immersive experience of Laurel’s lead role in the experimental opera “Bliss” in a 2019 archive interview. Listen to an excerpt of the performance recorded on David’s iPhone, and hear what Laurel went through to be able to emotionally approach singing again after an evening of over 1000 high Gs. This episode is being released during the third week of parenthood for the couple, an experience that Laurel said was made more possible by having sung endurance art music. The song of the day is a compilation of operatic and experimental pieces Laurel has recorded including: J.S. Bach’s “Jauchzet Gott In Allen Landen” with Christoph Bull, Kate Soper’s “Go Away” with Kenny Cox, Bellini’s “Ah Non Credia Mirati”, Erin Ghee’s “Mouthpiece I”, Handel’s “Endless Pleasure, Endless Love”, Cathy Berberian’s “Stripsody”, Eric Whitacre’s “Lux Aurumque” with Laude, and Amadeus Regucera’s “If Only After Me Then You” with Xenia Deviatkina-Loh.
It’s time to play! Laurel and David extol the virtues of play, reaching past the derivative notion that play is a time waster and beneath "real work". By contrast, the research on play and personal practice reveal that play sits at the core of learning, creativity, and being. They also explore the importance of setting up the type of game and play framework (infinite vs. finite games), why the phrase “just play around with it” can feel like a trap rather than an invitation, and how play is actually a synonym for giving your all to the process of learning something new.
The song of the day is David’s "Laughing Meditation" sung by Laude.
**Laurel and David sink into repetition as a powerful compassion tool echoing science that shows that the mind and body learn through repetition, and contrasting the engrained traditional methodology that suggests that saying something to an individual once can elicit lasting change. They also explore specific tools for employing repetition that lead to lasting connections through joy, trust, and confidence.
The song of the day is Molly Pease’s "Am I" sung by Molly Pease, Laurel Irene, and Katie Hampton.**
Laurel and David explore the core of the Underground Ictus "Compassion Revolution" by defining compassion, exploring ways in which judgement language enters and defines traditional rehearsal spaces, and offering anecdotes and processes for practicing compassion prior to and during creative endeavors. The song of the day is Fahad Siadat's arrangement of Robert Wadsworth Lowry's "How Can I Keep From Singing" sung by Laude.
Laurel and David continue to explore the core of the Underground Ictus "Compassion Revolution" by defining compassion, exploring ways in which judgement language enters and defines traditional rehearsal spaces, and offering anecdotes and processes for practicing compassion prior to and during creative endeavors.