Upcoming Voice Events The annual meeting of the Swedish Voice Society, Röstfrämjandet, 16-17 April 2010, here at KTH. 4th Advanced Voice Function Assessment Workshop, AVFA4 York, UK, 19-20 May, 2010. Presented in cooperation with COST Action 2103. 5th International Conference on the Physiology and Acoustics of Singing, PAS 5, 10-13 August 2010, at KTH. Past Events Symposium: Jan Gauffin in memoriam, 16 October 2008, at KTH TMH. The transactions of this symposium have now appeared as a special issue of Logopedics Phoniatrics Vocology, 34 (4). Advances in Quantitative Laryngology, 17-18 October 2008. 17 February, 2005: A STINT on Voice Research, a one-day voice workshop held in York, UK. Arranged by the University of York, KTH, the British Voice Association, and supported by STINT. Twelve papers on current voice research at York and KTH were presented to a UK audience of about fifty people. A CD with the presentations is available on request. Swedish-Finnish Voice Research Meeting in Tampere, Finland November 4-5, 2004 Arranged in celebration of the 30th anniversary of the formation of the Department of Speech Communication adn Voice Research, Tampere University. The programme contained both invited and free presentations. Invited speakers were Randy Hirokawa, Iowa USA, Aatto Sonninen, Erkki Vilkman, Paavo Alku, Anne Maria Laukkanen, Johan Sundberg, and others. Social activities included banquet and concert at Tampere Hus. The symposium was jointly organised by The KTH Voice Research Centre Department of Speech Communication and Voice Research, Tampere University Center for Hearing and Communication Research, Karolinska Institute Röstfonden/Röstfrämjandet The 4th Pan-European Voice Conference August 23-26, 2001 Stockholm Symposia Details of all KTH Voice Research Centre symposia are posted here. To date, we have held 5 public symposia, all at KTH in Stockholm: 1999 Real-time Biofeedback in Voice Therapy and Training, Oct 23 & 24 1998 Country & Pop Singing, Nov 6 & 7 Child Voice, Sep 26 & 27 Breathing and Phonation, Sep 24 & 25 The Voice in our Society, May 8 Mailing list To attend any of our symposia you must reserve a place. Send an email with your full name, postal address, telephone/fax numbers, email address and occupation, and we will put your name on our mailing list. You will be sent details of the symposia by post as they are announced and you can reserve a place. Details of our most recent symposia can be viewed here. 1998 Symposia All our symposia were open to the public. Entry was free. The Voice in our Society, May 8 Breathing and Phonation, September 24 and Friday, September 25, Child Voice, September 26 and Sunday, September 27 Country & Pop Singing, November 6 and 7 Symposium 1 VOICE IN OUR SOCIETY Friday, May 8 -10 am to 5 pm Voice is one of the most important means of communication in our society. A very large proportion of the population is dependent upon a healthy voice for their daily work. In Sweden in particular, the voice is important also because of the internationally outstandings activity and quality of its solo and choir singers; indeed almost 10% of the population are choir singers. The demands on the voice and the need for medical voice care increases as we try to make ourselves heard in an environment polluted by noise and stress. The main aim of this symposium, supported by the Swedish Voice Association Röstfrämjandet and the Patricia Gramming Memorial Foundation, was to expose, discuss and broadcast facts elucidating the importance of the voice in our society. Most lectures were in Swedish. Speakers: Erkki Vilkman, Finland, has studied the dependence of the voice in different professions. Katherine Verdolini, USA, is an expert on environmental effects on the voice. Christian Ljunggren is president of the Swedish Choir's Directors' Association. Sten Ternström, KTH is renowned for his expertise in the acoustics of choral singing. After the presentations, one of Sweden's most excellent choirs, the KTH student choir Teknologkören conducted by Helene Stureborg, gave a brief concert. Following this, there was a panel discussion between the speakers complemented by the famous choir professor Eric Ericson, the former head of the Radio Theatre Stefan Johansson and the phoniatrician and director of Röstfrämjandet, Björn Fritzell. Symposium 2 BREATHING & PHONATION Thursday and Friday, September 24-25 Voice practitioners pay much attention to breathing behaviour as it considered a factor of decisive significance in voice health and technique. Theory of voice production explains why the air pressure in the lungs is important, but not why the the method of generating this pressure is relevant. The area of breathing and phonation, therefore, is a brilliant and striking example of an impressive gap between theory and practice. The aim of this symposium was to give an overview of the current status of research to bring together researchers in the area and thus to promote discussion and progress. Several internationally-renowned researchers accepted our invitation to present. Andrea Aliverti and Antonio Pedotti, Italy Pamela Davis, Australia Peter Macklem, Canada Tom Hixon, USA Eva Holmberg, Stockholm Robert Hillman, USA Christine Sapienza, USA Elaine Stathopoulos, USA In addition, three doctoral students at the KTH Voice Research Centre presented their research in this area: speech pathologist, Jenny Iwarsson, singing teacher, Monica Thomasson and engineer and oboist, Leonardo Fuks. Symposium 3 CHILD VOICE Saturday and Sunday, September 26-27 Dedicated to the memory of the phoniatrician, Patricia Gramming In the past, children's voices have been rather neglected in research. Lately, however, several studies have appeared. For example, a recent Swedish investigation, showed that 24% of children's voices are perceived as hoarse. But it is not just pathological voice, which is of concern to clinicians and scientists. Relatively little is known about how children's voices function and about what the limits of normal are both before and entering into adolescence. For this symposium, we gathered together important contributors from the field of child voice research, including: Elaine Stathopoulos, USA Graham Welch, UK David Howard, UK Riccardo Speciale, Sicily Speakers from the KTH Voice Research Centre included: speech pathologists Anita McAllister and Elisabeth Sederholm and voice scientist Peta White, UK. Topics discussed included hoarse voice, young children's singing development, the trained voice, laryngoscopy, sex differences in preadolescent children, developmental aspects of anatomy and physiology and the acoustic measurement of children's voices. a suggested contribution of 150:- SEK per participant towards the Patricia Gramming Memorial Fund was collected on the day raising nearly 8,000:- SEK for which we are extremely grateful. Symposium 4 COUNTRY & POP SINGING Friday and Saturday, November 6-7 from 9 till 17 each day One of the most common singing styles today would be that used in the pop, country, jazz and rock repertoires. Many singing experts predict that some or all of these ways of using the voice are pathological or harmful. Thus, many questions emerge: What is true? How do professional representatives of such singing styles use their voices? Do they use higher air pressure in the lungs? Do they always use pressed phonation? In this symposium, experts from both Sweden and the USA spoke on topics ranging from clinical aspects to resonance characteristics of this type of singing voice. Presentations included lectures, workshops and a masterclass given by one of the world's foremost voice coaches in the musical theatre and pop styles, Claudia Catania, USA. Other guests include Tom Cleveland and Ed Stone from Nashville, USA, the Mecca of country singing, the London-based voice teacher, Mark Meylan, and the Swedish rock singer and singing teacher, Daniel Zangger Borch.