“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. Composing electroacoustic and chamber music, his aesthetic oscillates from the ambient to the romantic. Rob Voisey embraces a variety of media for his compositions, and pioneers new venues to disseminate his music and reach audiences. His works have been performed in concert venues and radio broadcasts around the world.
Robert Voisey recently received his Carnegie Hall debut with his 10 minute opera, "Poppetjie." His art songs “Dos Palabras”, “Queja”, and “Soy” are touring with the soprano Agueda Fernández Abad and have been performed in the Argentinean Consulate and the Composer’s Voice concert series in New York City as well as Valencia, Spain. “I Want My Bottle” was commissioned for and performed at the EM-NY Festival, Electroacoustic Speakeasy and Burlesque Show. His work “Constellations USB MIX” was performed at Stony Brook University in New York.
Voisey’s work “Electric Trains” included on the 60x60 2008 International Mix was performed in Bowling Green, Ohio; Brookes Oxford's Sonic Art Festival, Oxford, England; Outside the Box New Music Festival, Southern Illinois University; and EARFEST Stony Brook University, New York. His 60 second works: “Tongues” and “Sagittarius” was performed at the national University of Music in Bucharest. “Sagittarius” was also performed on 60x60 Dance at Galapagos Art Space in New York City.
As a producer, Robert Voisey is regarded as having ambitious ideas for the dissemination of contemporary music. His 60x60 Dance collaboration in 2008 brought huge success to the project and Roslyn Sulcas in The New York Times wrote: “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.”
“Composer and electronic music impresario Robert Voisey devised the 60x60 concept so large numbers of composers could bring their work to audiences in a portable, palatable, and decidedly unconventional format. Since the series' inception in 2003, Vox Novus — Voisey's organization dedicated to the promotion of contemporary composers and their work — has solicited 60x60 submissions by composers at all professional levels worldwide and presented its hour-long recordings at concerts in cities from Brooklyn to Bucharest. …This digitized, compartmentalized, sound-bite format is a tantalizing new way to experience widely varied and eclectic electronic music. And 60x60's longevity and international acclaim show that Vox Novus' innovative strategy to attract audiences and encourage composers has actually worked” - Alexandra Jones, Classical Voice of North Carolina
60x60 contains 60 works from 60 different artists. Each work is 60 seconds in duration and sequenced together to create a one hour performance. “A minute can be ample time to express a whole gamut of imaginative sounds, or it can be a constraint which forces an artist to isolate what is the most important element of a work. 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 & Vision
Robert Voisey is also a member of CDZabu (formerly known as ~chromatik_d_zabu.tmp) is an international collective of musicians who collaborate via the Internet. Pieces are composed sequentially, through the continual addition of musical strata by different participants of all stripes (academic, self-taught, electronica, rock, classical) who operate under mysterious pseudonyms. The pieces are then mixed and published for free on the collective's web site. Come visit and join the fun, new members are welcome! During the past year, Voisey has collaborated on more than 15 compositions, which are available for download over the Internet at the CDZabu website.
As a presenter and producer of new music, Robert Voisey is the Artistic Director of the 60x60 project, Co-Director of the Composer’s Voice Concert series, Vice President of Programs for the Living Music Foundation, and Founder of Vox Novus. Producing and presenting over 100 concerts in more than 10 countries around the world, he seeks innovative and creative approaches to promote the music of today's composers.
Voisey is the Artistic Director of the 60x60 project, an annual event of worldwide concerts that highlights 60 composers who have composed works 60 seconds or less for an hour-long continuous concert. The "60x60" project started in 2003 and has created an annual yearly mix as well as alternate mixes such as the Pacific Rim Mix, Midwest Minute Mix, and others. Besides its annual world debut in New York City, in the project has received performances all over the United States and throughout the world including London, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sydney, Munich, Bucharest, Istanbul, St Louis, Minneapolis, Kansas City, and many others.
60x60 has been included in several festivals including the A*DEvantgarde, DMRN(Digital Music Research Network Festival,) Electronic Midwest Music Festival, Fresno New Music Festival, Internation Electro-acoustic Festival at Brooklyn College and Spark,.
This project represents a slice of the contemporary music scene as a showcase of music from composers around the world, writing today's music.
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 other regions. It is designed to display their compositional "voice" in a themed exposition dedicated specifically to promote their music. Since the start of his role as Director of the "Composer's Voice" concert series, he has organized and produced more than 20 concerts in New York City. Through this series he continues to empower composers to broaden their audience by creating a venue to have their music heard.
Voisey is the Vice-President of Programs at the Living Music Foundation. The Living Music Foundation's mission is the support of independent, professional and emerging composers and performers of post-modern art music in their struggle for the space and freedom of expression growing out of the need to relate to one's surroundings interactively. His role is to coordinate and raise funds for concert programs, including grant writing and project production.
Robert Voisey founded Vox Novus in 2000. This organization was created for the purposes of expanding the presence of contemporary music in the public's vision, empowering composers and contemporary musicians to create, produce, and promote their music. Vox Novus does this by the production of concerts, exposure on the Internet, and facilitating networking between professionals.
Robert Voisey was also interviewed by the Los Angeles Times for its Sunday Entertainment Section, profiled on No Extra Notes with Richard Zarou, Arts Electric at the Electronic Music Foundation, Fly Global Music Culture’s web magazine, as well as being featured on the Arts & Answers on WKCR, Afternoon New Music on WKCR, Kalvos & Damian's New Music Baazaar, Noizepunk & Das Krooner show and Martian Gardens on WMUA. His work routinely receives airplay on WKCR's “Arts & Answers” and “Art Waves” radio programs in New York City as well as Max Shea's “Martian Gardens” on WMUA Amherst, Massachusetts.
He has been invited to speak about his own music, the 60x60 project, and the promotion of new music at the Stony Brook University, Concordia University, Duquesne University , University of Missouri-Kansas City, University of Central Florida, University of California at Fresno.
He has also presented and introduced the 60x60 project to audiences all over the world including Mills College (Oakland, California), the University of Central Florida (Orlando, Florida), Electronic Music Midwest festival (Kansas City, Kansas and Romeoville, Illinois), Adelphi University (Long Island, New York), A*DEvantgarde festival (Munich, Germany), Goldsmiths College (London, England), the Amadeus center (London, England), Oberlin Conservatory of Music (Oberlin, Ohio), State University of New York at Albany (Albany, New York), Lille Conservatory (Lille, France), University of Hartford, (West Hartford, Connecticut), William Paterson University (Wayne, New Jersey), CalArts (Valencia, California), Harbor College (Los Angeles, California), International Electroacoustic Festival (Brooklyn, New York), and Collective: Unconscious (New York).
Robert Voisey received his undergraduate degree from S.U.N.Y. Stony Brook where he studied Computer Science Engineering, Mathematics, Studio Art and Music Performance. He earned a certificate of Composition at Tel Hai College in the Upper Galilee of Israel, where he studied with Oded Zehavi and Aiten Schteinberg. He also studied at C.U.N.Y. Brooklyn College where he studied with Noah Creshevsky and George Brunner.