SOVT

SOVT (2025) is a piece by Sarah Hennies for solo prepared piano, of which nearly all strings are muted with poster putty. SOVT, or Semi-Occluded Vocal Tract, is a vocal exercise to strengthen the voice by ensuring vocal chords to vibrate more efficiently. Hennies became acquainted with the exercise in a class on "voice feminization". It is practiced by singing whilst regulating air through a straw: regulating air pressure, reducing strain on vocal folds, strengthening the voice. 

The exercise was exercised, and concepts started crystalizing. During 55-minute piece "dramatically rich sympathetic vibration occur throughout the piano similar to the way in which one feels increased vibration in the mouth and throat by singing through a straw", explains Hennies. The heavily restrained strings of the piano, and the rhythmic language of SOVT, end up at something that exists between piano and percussion. Or rather; as an amalgam of piano and percussion. Minimalist, subdued, but weighted with strength.

Sarah Hennies is a composer whose work concerns a variety of musical, sociopolitical, and psychological issues, "including queer & trans identity, psycho-acoustics, and the social and neurological conditions underlying creative thought".

The piece was recorded and will be performed by richi valitutto; solo pianist, chamber musician, vocal accompanist, founding member of the ensemble Wild Up and Julius Eastman scholar. Sensitively and considerately, they can act as vessel to reverberate others. Yet, charismatic and personal, richi carries "a crystalline lyricism very much their own" (The New Yorker).

In collaboration with the Amsterdam concert initiative van Horen Zeggen