Take part: 'Billy Budd' audio project

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Record yourself reading from Herman Melville's classic book, for a new interpretation through stammered voices.

Composer Jamie Hamilton is looking for volunteers who stammer to take part in a new audio project. 

Working with acclaimed classical music group Phaedra Ensemble, Jamie wants to reimagine Herman Melville's classic short story Billy Budd, all about a character who stammers. He is looking for volunteers to record themselves reading (not singing), which will be edited and assembled into a chorus of stammering voices, interwoven with the work. 

What will it involve?

If you want to take part, email Jamie at stammerproject@gmail.com He'll send you text from the book to record at home on your smartphone or another recording device. 

You can record as much or as little as you like. You just need to be a person who stammers to take part. Jamie says, "This is intended to be a low-stress, non-judgemental process, in which participants can have fun exploring the spoken word — something that can be stressful for people with a stammer".

More about the project

Billy Budd is all about a sailor wrongly tried and executed for murder. Jamie tells us, "The protagonist has one of the most famous stammers in literature, and the book's climactic scene — while extremely powerful — hinges upon a clichéd and reductive interpretation of stammering".

Jamie continues, "This work is celebrating the poetry and diversity of peoples' natural, unfiltered voices; normalising the idea of 'vocal freedom', and exploring the musicality and uniqueness of every person's voice. Reinterpreting a classic piece of literature through the stammered voice is an attempt to comment on the erasure of stammering in public life, but also presents stammering as something ordinary and commonplace".

The final piece will be put online and Jamie plans to do a live performance with Phaedra Ensemble, where they'll play the audio recordings.

Please email Jamie at stammerproject@gmail.com by the end of October if you'd like to find out more or take part.