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February 25, 2016
VANCOUVER DID IT AGAIN
Another rendition of
the Complaints Choir took place in New
Westminster which I believe is a part of the
Greater Vancouver region. Thus the Complaints
Choir density in Vancouver and surroundings -
already the highest worldwide - was increased to
new record levels. The Choir performed during a
VIBE evening that was dedicated to complaints
culture in general. The
Anvil Community Choir, led by Shane Raman,
set to music complaints received by the city.
|
April 1, 2016
VOICES OF WASHINGTON
Looking at the current
presidential election madness in the US it is
appropriate to point once more to the great
Complaints Choir version done by the Voices
of Washington. The performers wear masks
due to the compromising content of the song. And
the conductor fittingly wears a Darth Vader
mask. But their complaints seem so
sweet and innocent against the viciousness of
this times.
|
January 5, 2016
COMPLAINTS CHOIR TALLIN
A complaints choir in
Tallin was formed for the exhibtion DOings &
kNOts organized by Margit Säde & Tallinna
Kunstihoone. For your information, In Estonian
Complaints Choir means Kaebekoor.
|
February 11, 2015
CC FEATURED AT L'OEIL DE LINKS
Complaints Choir was
featured on the French program L'Oeil de Links,
hopefully this will spark new complaining
activity in France. Here
is the link to the program.
|
April 1, 2014
COMPLAINTS CHOIR OF KHURVALEHTI AND SHAVSHEBI
We have now completed
the Complaints Choir project in two settlements
for Internally Displaced People (IDP) in
Georgia. The performances took place in the
settlemets and we made a glorious bus trip to
Tblissi. See more details on the blog: studiokalleinen.net
|
December 24, 2013
A FEATURE ON CC IN VICE MAGAZINE
Nadja Sayej wrote a short piece about CC for the
Vice magazin. Check
it out here.
She was especially interested in the political
aspects of complaints choir.
|
November 27, 2013
PERFORMANCES BY BERLIN AND DRESDEN COMPLAINTS
CHOIRS!
Both Dresden and Berlin finally got their own
rendition of the Complaints Choir. In both city
ca. 30 complaints activists went out into public
to confront the audience with the result of 4
weeks of hard complaining and rehearsing. The
song contains - as always - a great snapshot of
private and civic life in those cities. The
choirs were prominently featured in the German
news, allowing the choir members still amplify
their concerns to a wider audience.
image: CC Berlin conducted by Miss Le Bomb aka
Catriona Shaw on November 27 at HAU. |
November 1, 2013
COMPLAINTS CHOIR FOR BEGINNERS - ANIMATION VIDEO
The people from DON Berlin put a lot of effort
into a short
video animation
that explains the basics about complaints choir
for newbies. It was made for the Nordwind
festival to encourage citizens of Berlin and
Dresden to sign up. Unfortunately it is only in
German, but do not complain, you can always try
the automatic captions (click CAPTION beside the
gear wheel in the play bar), it is always good
for some hilarous misunderstandings. |
October 5, 2013
COMPLAINTS CHOIRS IN DRESDEN AND BERLIN (at the
same time)!
The Nordwind Festival
has invited the Complaints Choir project to
coordinate two choirs that will rehearse at the
same time in Berlin and Dresden. Complainers are
needed in both cities. Join us!
More details on the
choir in Dresden: here
More details on the choir in Berlin: here
|
April 5, 2013
BEALTAINE COMPLAINTS CHOIRS FORMED ALL OVER
IRELAND
The Bealtaine
Festival has
organized complaints choirs in various
communities in Ireland. They will all join on
May 1 to perform their gripes collectively. The
Bealtaine Festival is dedicated to support
creative expression of people of age 50+. The
Waterford Complaints Choir for example has an
average age of 75. The music for the song was
composed by Conor Linehan of the Royal Irish
Academy. Dominic Campbell, Artistic Director of
Bealtaine, says, “Irish people are supposed to
be world class at complaining – here’s the
chance to prove it! “ (as reported in the
Irish Times)
|
November 27, 2013
FIRST COMPLAINTS CHOIR OF MEXICO PERFORMS TODAY!
The Complaints Choir of Mexico (aka Coro de
Quejas de la ciudad de México) performes today
at 12 local time at the Monumento a la Madre.
The brave complainers of Mexico city have all
our sympathies; we imagine that the list of
complaints is rather extensive and probably a
symphony of complaints would be the appropriate
format. (A similar approach was taken in
Hongkong). The choir was organized by the Museo
Experimental El Eco.
For further information youc can download the flyer
of the choir.
|
July 9, 2011
TEUTONIA COMPLAINS!
Ca. 45 brave citizens of the small town of
Teutonia in Southern Brasil came to the workshop
on July 9 and produced ca. 500 complaints for
their song. Complains ranged form social
injustice in Brasil to the fact that the
firetruck of Teutonia can only drive 40 km per
hour. (The truck was a present from Germany).
Teutonia has a large population of decendents of
immigrants of German origin. Local musician
Lucas Brolese is now at task to compose the
selected complaints into a song.
The first public
performance of the Teutonia Complaints Choir aka
Coro de Queixas de Teutonia will take place on
July 23 at 2 pm at the Adminstrative Town
Centre, an
interesting building mimicking German Fachwerk
architecture.
|
June 2011
FIRST COMPLAINTS CHOIR OF SOUTH AMERICA IN
TEUTONIA
The small town of
Teutonia in Southern Brasil will host the first
Complaints Choir of South America. The choir is
part of a travelling program of the 2011
Mercosul Bienal in Porto Alegre. Below you find
the call for participants. Download
the flyer in Portugese.
JOIN THE COMPLAINTS CHOIR OF TEUTONIA aka Coro
de Queixas de Teutonia !
Your neighbor is learning to play drums?
Her boss decided to pick on her clothes?
And politicians, what do you think?
If you have something to complain about, join
us!
The 8th Biennial of Mercosul Visual Arts invites
all citizens of Teutônia to participate in the
first chorus of complaints from South America,
to be held in Teutônia. The project of artists
Tellervo Kalleinen and Oliver kocht-Kalleinen
conduct by musician Luke Brolese will turn their
complaints in an impressive chorus.
HOW TO PARTICIPATE
Send as many complaints by e-mail or regular
mail by the 08th of July. Any topic is allowed!
coraldequeixas@bienalmercosul.art.br
Foundation Visual Arts Biennial of Mercosul
Rua Bento Martins, 24, room 1201, Centro - Porto
Alegre, RS
CEP: 90010-080
Participation is free and no need for prior
knowledge about singing. *
FIRST MEETING OF THE COMPLAINTS CHOIR OF
Teutônia
Date: 09 JULY 2011
Hours: 14hrs to 18hrs
Espaço das Artes
• There will be four tests between the 16 and 22
July.
• The performance will be held July 23 (in
Teutônia) and July 24 (in Montenegro).
• There will be a final performace on 11
September in Porto Alegre.
|
March 21, 2011
CANADA PROBABLY TAKING THE LEAD!
Canada is now in a
close race to take the lead of being the country
with most complaints choirs; a position
currently held by Sweden. But with the new
Toronto Complaints Choir rehearsing this might
change. Look out for impromptu performances
throughout the downtown area starting next week
- March 21-26, with the final performance at
Harbourfront on the 26th. The choir is part of
World Stage festival. It is directed by Bryce
Kulak
|
March 3, 2011
SAD AND ENCOURAGIN NEWS FROM EGYPT
Sad news reached us today when we learned that
one of the members of the Cairo Complaints Choir
was killed during the recent clashes in Cairo.
"On 28 January 2011 (the Friday of Anger), when
state security forces and hired thugs violently
confronted pro-democracy protestors in the Upper
Egyptian governorate of Sohag, 23-year-old Sally
Magdy Zahran passed away after thugs beat her on
the head with bludgeons." source:
almasryalyoum.com
On a more positive note the Cairo Complaints
Choir has developed into a larger community art
project. It recently featured the fourth
performance of the choir that was renamed
appropriately Utopian Choir. “The idea was
originally to find alternative ways to critique
the status quo by imagining a different future,
despite the constraints at the time,” explained
Salam Yousry, artistic director of the Choir
Project. The Utopian theme was conceived by
choir members in early January, before the
uprising began. The Choir Project will as well
conduct a workshop in Jordan and perform at the
Music Freedom Day in March. (this information
was gathered from an article: "Choir captures
Tahrir revolution's Utopian vibe" by Mai
El-Wakil published at almasryalyoum.com) |
October 5
FIRST COMPLAINTS CHOIR OF SPAIN LAUNCHED IN
SEVILLA
After long years of
silence the Souther parts of Europe are picking
up the Complaints Choir idea. Spain will feature
the Complaints Choir of Sevilla during the
autumn time. Initiator Carmen Herrera wrote: "We
decided to set up Seville’s choir when we
noticed there were no Spanish choirs yet. It’s
not as if there’s nothing to complain about in
Spain, even if it’s only that there’s too much
sun and that siesta time’s too long.
It was a private initiative, an idea by Carmen
Herrera who put a call out for our choir on the
internet. She was joined straight away by Fatima
Herrero and Isabel Sanchez, and the three
pioneer complainers began to distribute
propaganda to attract more followers.
Within a short time they had collected some 400
complaints and could start to get a song
together. Jose Marquez volunteered as
composer/conductor and the initiative met with
great enthusiasm and a 20-strong choir, many of
whom were quite new to this kind of activity.
The Seville Perfo-Poetry Festival held in
October 2010 offered a stage, an avid audience
and matching yellow t-shirts for our première.
Next will come the María Luisa Park, then the
world, and after that who knows, outer space
perhaps. Anywhere they’ll listen to us really."
You
can follow them on their own blog.
or check out this
news report.
By pure
concidence the Centro
Andaluz de Arte Contemporaneo - CAAC
in Sevilla has included the Complaints Choir
video installation in their recently opened new
exhibtion "Publics and Counter-Publics" |
September 2
PERFORMANCE OF REPAIR CHOIR AT ARS ELECTRONICA
On Thursday September 2
the 70 person strong "Repair" Choir performed to
a puzzled Ars Electronica opening public.
Following an experimental noise/vj set -
something more to be expect at a festival like
ars - the choir entered the festivals main stage
to produce a traditional upper-austrian folk
song in sharp contrast to the previous show.
Unfortunately it was hard to comprehend the
complaints sung by the choir since they were
expressed through 4-liners in local dialect.
Nevertheless the unexpected folk song
performance of 70 people mostly aged above 50
within the context of the electronic arts
festival created a comical or even unnerving
effect and left not a few people wondering:
What's going on? |
June 30
COMPLAINTS CHOIR MANIA AT ARS ELECTRONICA IN
LINZ!
Ars Electronica 2010 in Linz will be under heavy
influence of the Complaints Choir project. The
newly build Ars Electronic Centre (itself an
object of a number of complaints) will show a
video installation with choir videos from around
the globe. The opening will be on July 29 and
the piece can be seen until end of September
2010.
But Linzer complainers don't have to just
passively watch people from other cities
joyfully complain. Ars Electronica will together
with ORF coordinate a special complaints choir
that will perform during the Ars Electronica
Festival. Beside disgruntled media artists
anybody can take part. In a noble twist, the
Linzer Choir will not only complain, but provide
solutions as well, therefore the slighly
misleading renaming of the choir into Repair
Choir aka Reparatur Chor. (By conicidence this
years festival theme is REPAIR - Sind Wir Noch
Zu Retten).
Anybody in the region is welcome to join. For
more detail check ORF's website
or download the flyer. |
June
30
ULTIMATE PERFORMANCE OF HONGKONG COMPLAINTS
CHOIR
The Complaints Choir of Hongkong will hold its
ultimate perfromance: a complete symphony of
complaints with the great title "Our City, Our
Bittersweet Symphony." |
June 10
COMPLAINTS CHOIR VIRUS REACHED TASMANIA!
The fellow moaners of Tasmania are tuning up
local complaints in for their highly anticipated
appearance at the Festival
of Voices from
July 7 - 11. This festival of choirs celebrates
the power of the voice and community spirit.
Australian artist and songwriter, Kavisha
Mazzella is coming to Hobart to lead the
enthusiastic choir. - "We are really excited to
be able to have a Complaints Choir", says Skye
Targett from the choir. |
May
25
UPLIFTING (or DIVINE) GRUMBLING IN A COLUMBIAN
CHURCH
The Complaints Choir of Columbus had its first
performance in the majestic First Congregational
Church. By the initiative of the Columbus Museum
of Art a 25-person group was gathered to give
voice to the most current mutterings of Columbus
citizens.
The museum collected the complaints, which then
were transformed into music by local songwriter
David Holm. The piece was settled on a
percussive approach that would reflect the act
of complaining. A video from the reheasals will
be soon on view at the Museum.
"There is something about complaining - when you
sing about it - that almost makes you feel
happy," says Lisa Dent, associate curator for
contemporary art at the museum. The choir
complained about broccoli, gum in the hair,
texting while driving and empty milk cartons in
the refrigerator.
The
Columbus Dispatch has more on the story.
|
May 23, 2010
CAIRO COMPLAINTS CHOIR PERFORMS 4 SONGS!
Cairo celebrated the
first Complaimts Choir in an African city on May
23. (The first Complaints Choir organized in
Africa was only open for employees of Roche
Diagnostics in Randburg /Johannesburg).
“There’s a lot of repression in Cairo, so
instead of taking it out on each other, it’s
better to join a Complaints Choir,” said Suzan
Radwan, an actress and member of the choir.
Sarah Rifky, a curator at Townhouse Gallery,
initiated the choir and invited people to join a
complaints workshop. Particpants of the workshop
spent six days preparing and rehearsing under
the guidance of theater director and writer
Salam Yousry and standup comedian Moataz
Attallah. Accompanied by the oud and tabla, the
chorus managed to turn almost all of their
complaints into four uplifting songs.
The four songs comprised different themes,
ranging from the political — extension of the
emergency law in Egypt, civil rights and
bureaucracy — to the personal and the trivial —
bad TV shows, annoying neighbors and petty
behaviors. The songs also criticized government
officials’ abuse of power, with a particular
emphasis on police officers. Aly Sobhy, an actor
and member of the choir whose long hair seems to
attract unwanted attention wherever he goes,
told Daily News Egypt, “Policemen always stop me
in the street and tell me to cut my hair, why do
they think they have a say over what I do with
my hair.”
(as reported in www.thedailynewsegypt.com by
Heba Fahmy)
|
April 12, 2010
COLUMBUS COMPLAINTS CHOIR LAUNCHED!
The Columbus Museum of Art is currently
gathering complaints from the community in
preparation for Columbus' first Complaints Choir
performance on June 5. Musician David Holm will
compose original music for the Choir and a
rehearsal schedule is in the works. The
Columbus Dispatch has more on the strory. |
March 20, 2010
VIENNA COMPLAINTS CHOIR WILL HIT THE STREETS
SOON!
The Vienna Complaints
Choir aka Wiener Beschwerdechor will have it's
first public performance at a secret location in
Vienna in the middle of April. The choir was
initiated by Oliver Hangl and has more than 50
members. Viennese are particular proud of their
local complaints culture. They boast more then
10 different synonymous words for complaining :
raunzen, motschkern, keppeln, granteln, nörgeln,
kritteln, meckern, jammern etc. For more info
check: www.wienerbeschwerdechor.at
(Photo by P.A. Knope) |
March 2, 2010
ROTTERDAM COMPLAINTS CHOIR READY TO PERFORM
Rotterdam is special: the city has two
Complaints Choir at he same time: one from the
North and one from the South. Both Choirs will
perform tomorrow March 3. For further
information please check the organizers website:
http://sensationalmix.blogspot.com/ |
January 7, 2010
ZURICH COMPLAINTS CHOIR STARTS WORKING
The Complaints Choir of
Zurich met for the first time on last Saturday
for a complaints workshop. The Choir is
organizied by Shedhalle in the framework of the
excellent exhibition IM/POSSIBLE COMMUNITY. The
choir will perform for the finisage on January
30, at 8pm. For further information check the
website of Shedhalle.
|
November 30
PREVIEW OF TOKYO COMPLAINTS CHOIR ONLINE.
Here is an online
sneak preview of
the Complaints Choir of Tokyo music video.
|
November 30
WESTCOAST CANADA HAS NOW FOUR COMPLAINTS CHOIRS.
After successful
Complaints Choir projects in Gabriola, Sointula
and Vancouver the area is stepping up it's
complaints efforts with a new choir established
at Port Coquitlam in British Columbia. By rough
estimation the area could have the highest
density of complaints choir worldwide. The Port
Coquitlam Complaints Choir was initiated by Judy
Johnson. In an article by the TriCityNews
she tells about the choir:
" 'We complained a
lot,' Johnson laughed. 'We wrote down all the
complaints and then we wrote the lyrics and
composer Wayne Sawyer put it to music. We had so
much fun with this.' The result is an
eight-minute piece with about five different
songs in it.
After looking at the rather long list of
complaints Johnson said they discovered some
emerged with their own rhythm, like the story of
a bear climbing into a garbage bin, 'which
everyone in PoCo can relate to.' That piece is
called the Bear Bin Boogie.
'We complained about taxes of course, about
traffic, about bridges, about bears and garbage,
the underpass, the traffic around Safeway...
everyday PoCo stuff,' Johnson said. The brief
songs are like a series of excursions around the
city — and the challenges people encounter in
each unique area."
|
November 15
PARTICIPANTS WANTED - ISTANBUL COMPLAINTS CHOIR.
Complainers in Istanbul will have the
opportunity to get their vocies heard at the end
of this turbulent year. Certainly there were
enough issues in 2009 providing material for a
whole complaints opera. The appropriately named
non-profit organisation Contemporary
Utopia Management
will organize the Choir. Sign up to the choir
until December 3.
|
November 10
PREMIERE FOR COMPLAINTS CHOIR OF TOKYO ANNOUNCED
While the Complaints Choir of Tokyo is
rehearsing with great enthusiams, we already can
announced the location for the choirs grand
premiere. It will be held at the ARENA on
Roppongi Hills below the Mori Tower on Friday
November 13 at 19:00. The choir will perform its
10 minute long complaints song for everybody
that shows up - for free... Please invite
everybody to hear our complaints.
There will be further performances on Saturday
November 14th, for example at Zojo-ji Temple at
15:00 and at Ometosando hills at 19:30. You can
find more details on the Tokyo Complaints Choir.at
the officila blog
of the choir or at Mori
Art Museum website. |
October 30
PREMIERE OF COMPLAINTS CHOIR MOVIE AT COPENHAGEN
DOC-FILMFESTIVAL
Moaners of all nations, unite in song!
"What are you complaining about? This is the
question that two Finnish artists have journeyed
out to ask people in all four corners of the
world in
documentary director Ada Bligaard Søby's
docu-musical.
Their aim is not to pour salt in the wounds of
the world's grumpy complainers, but to let
everyone vent their dissatisfaction about
everything from parking fines to climate change
in a liberating chorus of whining harmonies. We
are taken to places such as Chicago and
Singapore, and even if the cultures vary, it's
obvious that complaining is a basic human trait,
and it is tackled with a deadpan approach by the
two Finns. Ada Bligaard Søby has, in a short
space of time, made her mark as an original new
name in the Danish film world, among other
things with last year's poetic New York postcard
'Black Heart'. With 'Complaints Choir' she is
adding a promising first feature to her resume."
Director: Ada Bligaard Søby, Danmark 2009, 56
min.
CHECK
OUT THE COOL MOVIE-TRAILER !!! |
October 22
COMPLAINTS CHOIR OF TOKIO STARTED ITS WORK
The Tokio Complaints
Choir finally came
together for the first meeting at the Mori
tower. 90 people showed up and complained. In
the first meeting the lyrics for the upcoming
choir song were pre-selected. Also a great
number of new complaints were created. They
ranged from the national debt to "My Grandmother
thinks she is an American"! One popular topic
was work with more than 300 complaints
submitted. For example: "I don't liek to take
care of my boss when we go out drinking." More
details at the blog
of the Tokyo Complaints Choir. |
September 1
COMPLAINTS CHOIR OF TOKIO SEARCHES FOR
PARTICIPANTS
The Tokio Complaints
Choir searches for participants. No singing
skills required; the only thing you need is a
complaint. Please send your complaints –
anything between 1 and 100 (or more) – together
with your contact details to kochta@nexgo.de.
There will be altogether 5 rehearsals and two
days with performances. The first rehearsal is
on Friday October 23 at Mori Art Museum.The
video of the Tokio choir performance will be
shown together with Complaints Choirs from other
cities at the Mori Art Museum starting November
28. (photo by rinzewind)
The Tokyo Complaints Choir has now an own
blog were you
can closely follow their activities. |
August 23, 2009
PREMIERE OF COMPLAINTS CHOIR OF KANAZAWA
The first Complaints Choir organized in Japan
will hold live performances on 23rd of August in
the 21st Century
Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa.
The Composer of the song is Tatsuhiko Maki and
the choir is conducted by Genie (presumably a
pseudony). The choir has 21 members.
"We held on several occasions of workshop and
completed to write the lyrics with complaints.
We collected more than 200 complaints through
the workshops. Someone complaints that our
economical situation is so disaster, and other
complaints why we have a lot of rain in
Kanazawa, and so on. Also, the young Japanese
people make conversation bristling with
abbreviations is also complained by older
generation."
|
July 20, 2009
FIRST ONE MAN COMPLAINTS CHOIR
Check out this great music video by the worlds
first one man complaints choir aka
I
COMPLAINT CHOIR.
It originates from British Columbia and the song
is called "Come to Canada". Around 1:50 into the
song it reminds kind of Nick Cave. The song is
produced by the Canadian Complaints Commission
and aparently you can send in your complaints:
canadacomplaintcommission@live.ca |
July 1, 2009
COMPLAINTS CHOIR OF HONGKONG CELEBRATES FIRST
PERFOMANCE - AND THE HACKING OF THEIR WEBSITE
The choir's inaugural performance took place
during the annual July 1 pro-democracy
demonstration, when tens of thousands of people
marked the anniversary of Hong Kong's 1997
return to Chinese sovereignty. According to an AFP
story, that
reported on the Hongkong choir: "In an ironic
twist, the choir received a complaint on its
website from mainland China -- where freedom of
speech is not a fundamental right -- when a
hacker wrote "silence is golden" and then for
good measure added a virus that blocked the site
to other users." Find out more about the
HongKong Complaints Choir in this docu
video. |
June 20, 2009
COMPLAINTS CHOIR OF GDANSK LAMENTS IN FIVE SONGS
Magdalena Zakrzewska-Duda informed about the
activities of the Gdansk Complaint Choir: "The
first rehersal took place on June 3rd. The grand
premiere was held on June 20th at 6 p.m. local
time, i.e. on the first day of summer holidays
in Poland. The Choir was initiated by the The
Baltic Sea Cultural Centre
in Gdansk, Poland within the cultural project
"Radunia - Along the Art Current". We collected
the complaints of Gdansk inhabitants over a few
weeks in April and May via e-mails and via
interviews made by a local radio station ESKA.
Then those complaints were transformed by the
jazz musician Cezary Paciorek and the poet
Bozena Ptak into complaints songs.
Yes, we are proud to announce the Gdansk
Complaints Choir performed five different songs
- each presenting a different music influence
ranging from Polish folk to reaggee . All of
them, however, express the longings,
disappointments and worries of Gdansk citizens.
The tunes are very catchy and we hope that at
least one of them will become a summer hit.
Gdansk Complaints Choir consists of two
"regular" choirs: Non Serio and Chor Mieszczan
Gdanskich as well as of many Gdansk citizens who
volunteered to join in." |
May 1, 2009
FIRST ACADEMIC COMPLAINTS SONG CONTAINS 20
VERSES
Tapio Rissanen - chief shop steward of the Tampere
University Association of Researchers and
Teachers -
passed on the latest information on the First
Academic Complaints Choir that was formed in
Tampere. He writes: "Complaining is
unfashionable. It has never been fashionable and
it is even less fashionable at the present as
the ethos of hyper briskness and success reigns.
Now changes are "opportunities", academics face
the "pressures of opportunities" placed in front
of them from the outside of the academy, and
scholars are more exhausted from work than ever
before.
Complainers are often thought as whiners for
nothing. It would be more honourable to be
silent about difficult matters. Yet, complaining
is important. It is therapeutic for the
complainers to have their say about what
irritates, annoys or makes one angry.
Complaining out loud cleans up the atmosphere in
the workplace. Shared common experiences join
complainers together. Furthermore, every
complaint includes a sprout for resistance and
change.
Since 2005 the complaint choir movement has
spread around the world. However, no-one had
made a complaint song of academics until Tatte
decided to carry out its own complaint choir
production. The premier of the academics'
complaint choir was in the May Day party 2009 in
Tampere, Finland.
In Tatte,
we collected issues for complaints from the
academics during the spring. And we received a
lot of these, indeed! Joel Kuortti wrote the
lyrics for the song trying to include all of the
suggested issues. He could not manage it, and
yet the original lyrics contained over 20
verses! Jarno Laaksonen from the Conservatory of
Tampere composed the fine music. A talented
group of enthusiastic academic teachers and
researchers were recruited for the choir. They
arranged the music and lyrics together with
theater music student Emmi Uimonen in an
incomprehensibly short time - in only a week!
Emmi Uimonen conducted and accompanied the choir
with excellent expertise. Ville Erkkilä and Pepe
Lempinen recorded the choir performance. The
video was edited by Hannu Nieminen and Tapio
Rissanen, who also produced the choir project.
Thanks to the Finnish Union of University
Researchers and Teachers for financial support,
which made the project possible."
Check their video Part
1 and Part
2. |
May1, 2009
SCHEDULE FOR HONGKONG COMPLAINTS CHOIR
According to the schedule of the Hongkong Choir
you have still the chance to catch one of the 3
last performances. It is recommended to check
out also the show at 1a Space which will feature
Complaints Choir videos from around the globe. |
April 25, 2009
COMPLAINTS CHOIR OF HONGKONG DESIGNED OWN CREST
Hongkong Complaints
Choir came up with an interesting design for
their Crest showing a broken wall, a (dead)
banana, a few notes and the motto "BELIVE IN
SOCIAL ORDER - COMPLAIN, COMPLAIN, COMPLAIN"
Here you can read the full explanation (thanks
Thompson):  |
March 30, 2009
COMPLAINTS CHOIR OF ÅLAND
The demitiralized
autonomous province of Åland - a beautiful
archipelago comprised of more then 6500 islands
- joins the international complaints choir
movement. Although the islands' motto is
"Islands' of Peace" it seems there is enough
material for a complaints song. The first
submitted complaints by local citizens range
from the sad "Ticks make me hate nature", the
angry "I am not allowed to pee in the sea, but
Cruising-ferries can shit in the Baltic" to the
tragic "I can´t drink as much as when I was
young" to the existential "Why do all the girls
fall in love with me?". Lykke Portförs, the
coordinator of the choir, send me following
update on the activities of the choir:
"The announced time for our first performance
will be at the official opening of the Åland
culture/congress house Alandica on the 4th of
April. The time for our performance will be
19.45. The first shooting of the choir is also
taking place then. The filming is done by a
professional documentary filmer here on Åland,
Per-Ove Högnäs.
We still have one rehersal incoming Friday but
so far everything has gone really smoothly and I
am having great fun with a group of great
people. Around 30 people are participating in
the choir but unfortunately only 2 men."
Since the Åland Choir will sing in Swedish, it
will be the 8th Swedish singing Complaints
Choir! World Record! |
March 15, 2009
COMPLAINTS CHOIR OF HONGKONG STARTS REHEARSING
Thompson from PEP
collective
informed about the latest developements on the
Hongkong Complaints Choir: "We have set up a blog
for Hong Kong Complaints Choir
and design a crest for the choir. We have just
done a road-side exhibition in Mong Kok, showing
the short video clip you have prepared for us.
People are often seen watching it with a wide
smile on their face. They are sticking
complaints slips onto our cart until very late
at night. We have uploaded some photos onto flickr
about this event.
We are going to have our lyric composing session
very soon, on 6/6. After that we have planned to
do 4 rehearsals. On 1/7 on our National Holiday,
we are going to march on the street and sing our
complaints!" (Image from complaints collection
at Mong Kok, courtesy of workandworkshop.com
|
March 1, 2009
COMPLAINTS CHOIR OF AUCKLAND / NEW ZEALAND
Below you will find the call for participation
for the Auckland Complaints Choir:
CALLING ALL
COMPLAINANTS OF AUCKLAND
Are you tired of hearing other people complain
about the economy, the traffic, peoples
irritating phone ring? Now it’s your time to
whine, you can complain about anything you want,
you can even complain about other people
complaining. And we will turn your gripes into
beautiful music. Founded by Finnish/German
couple Tellervo Kalleinen and Oliver Kochta-
Kalleinen the first choir was held in
Birmingham, UK, so it is fitting The British
Council are supporting the concept here in the
South Pacific shores of Auckland City. See
www.complaintschoir.org for more information and
videos.
Following the initial selection of both unique
and common complaints, musician SJD will then
create a song and choir members will rehearse
for public performances on Sunday the 26th of
April. The Living Room project is aimed at
bringing art into the city’s centre, or its
‘living room’ and includes a wide variety of
visual art and musical performances. The
Complaints Choir of Auckland City one of many of
The British Council’s contributions to Living
Room 09.
“The Complaints Choir is a fantastic way
of showing how interactive public art can serve
as a catalyst for giving new perspective to how
we view the world, our cities, and our
problems,” says British Council Country Director
Ingrid Leary.
Please join us in this wonderful opportunity to
release the frustrations of daily life and
transform them into song. Email: complaintschoir@rocketmail.com
Rehearsals held at the Conference Room, Ellen
Melville Hall, City Centre at following dates:
1.) Tuesday April 14th
7-9pm
2.) Thursday April 16th 7-9pm
3.) Tuesday April 21 7-9pm
4.) Thursday April 23 7-9pm
There will be 3 performances of 5 minutes during
Sunday 26 at Freyberg Place, or in Ellen
Melville Hall.
Contact Anna Wild 021 037 9668 for more
information.
|
February 23, 2009
COMPLAINTS CHOIR OF VANCOUVER
The Vancouver version of the Complaints Choir is
completed and had a successful day of three
performances in public spaces around Vancouver,
Canada. The video is currently being edited and
is on its way to join the worldwide Complaints
Choir family! Press on the group and events can
be found here.
|
February 5, 2009
COMPLAINTS CHOIR OF HONGKONG KICKS OFF
Read below a statement of the organizers:
"Complaints Choir of Hong Kong – A Real Dialogue
between ART and SOCIETY
We would sing especially when we feel happy,
excited and sad. It is kind of relaxation for
everyone. Could you imagine how wonderful it
will be if we can sing a song to voice our
dissatisfaction with a group of people having
the same feelings about the city we live?
Complaints Choir opportunely plays as a platform
for people in sympathy to express, share,
exchange, discuss and compose a song for
preparing their performance. We assure that this
project will catch the public’s attention and
receive big echo, because everyone needs humor,
sympathy and a way to release.
Complaints Choir of Hong Kong is a diversified
art project, including workshop, performance,
exhibition and forum. Though different medium,
we aim to induce real dialogue between ART and
SOCIETY by approaching public from different
stratifications.
Three phrases of the Choir:
1. Prelude exhibition (Jan - Apr 2009)
2. Workshop and Performance (May - July 2009)
3. Exhibition and Forum (Aug 2009)
Organized by: Pep!
In Partnership with: 1a space
Supporting Organization: Katterwall
Pep! is a non-profit arts events group striving
to create a platform for communication between
units and individuals inside or outside the
field. We take “Pep” as the short form for
“pepper”, which connotes meanings like ‘lively
spirit’, ‘passion’, ‘energy’. “Pep!” would work
as a ‘seasoning’ to local art scene by
encouraging cross-cultural inter-medium and
inter-disciplinary dialogues."
Contact: complaintschoir@peppeppep.org
or via Online
Application Form
|
February 1, 2009
COMPLAINTS CHOIR OF MILAN IS REHEARSING NOW
Ivan and Lorenzo from TheTune are proud to
announce the birth of the First Milan Complaints
Choir.
The choir is currently rehearsing. For further
information and for the rehearsal schedule go to
the website: www.lamentami.wordpress.com
Photo by Tommaso
Bianchi. |
January 20, 2009
COMPLAINTS CHOIR OF JUNEAU/ALASKA IS SOLICITING
COMPLAINTS
I received following
update on the Complaints Choir of Juneau from
Nancy DeCherney:
"The Juneau Skunk Cabbage Complaint Choral is
soliciting complaints for this year's Choral.
Complaints are due on Feb. 15, rehearsals begin
Mar 1, performance on Mar 14 or 15. Not sure how
to add that to the Complaint Choir website -
forgot my password etc. I have a complaint about
passwords actually."
The Choir was established in 2007 and hopefully
will become a fixture in the cultural life of
Juneau. |
January 15, 2009
COMPLAINTS CHOIR INSTALLATION SHOWN IN LUDWIG
MUSEUM, BUDAPEST
The complaints choir
video installation is shown as part of the Arctic
Hysteria exhibition
in Budapest. We are optimistic that the work
will receive positive responses since the
Hungarians take pride in being the World
Champions in Complaining. The Budapest
Complaints Choir organized by Daniel Fazekas and
Andrea Vido is among the most popular on this
website.
|
October 20, 2008
COMPLAINTS CHOIR OF MARIBOR (SLOVENIA)
Katka from Bunker
swent the following info on the newly formed
Complaints Choir of Maribor:
"We are proud to tell you that the second
Slovenian complaints choir has been born in
Maribor. I'm sending you the recording
from one of the rehearsals (we singers are
really proud for the song having such a nice
melody, it's almost like partizans coming out of
the woods;)"
The choir will be performing this Saturday, 25th
October, at 17.00 in Europark - the biggest
shopping centre in Maribor - and at 18.30 in
front of the National Theatre Maribor.
|
October 9, 2008
COMPLAINTS CHOIR FESTIVAL HELD IN KOREA
The
Hope Institute
organized a Grand Complaints Choir Festival with
8 choirs from Seoul, Jinju, Iksan and Kunsan
taking part. The festival was held on Saturday
October 11 from 6 to 8 pm at Korea Buddhism
Memorial Centre. The evening was a blast with a
cheering audience and amazing choir
performances. Mayor TV station MBC plans to have
a own show dedicated to Complaints Choir. The
pilot has been produced and will air on October
24th. The idea is to organize a weekly
complaints choir, always comprised of different
people and about different subjects. Picture:
Kwanak Hanullim Complaints Choir
|
October 1, 2008
UPDATE ON COMPLAINTS CHOIR OF SEOUL
Hyeyeon from The
Hope Institute
sent the following update on the Seoul
Complaints Choir:
On the 17th September, Complaints choir members
got together for making lyrics at Hope
Institute. They already got 217 complaints from
first meeting and 200 complaints from online
event. So lots of complaints should be deleted
in the list and only few of them can survive.
All the complaints were checked out by choir
members in three groups and choose 30 best
complaints for each group.
Then they had Traffic Light Game. TLG is a kind
of civil participation method. When one line of
complaints is said, they raise their cards.
Green Card means I like it. Red is I don't
agree, Yellow, I am not sure. Each person was
asked why they chose that color. When a
complaint line got more than half of green
cards, it's accepted for the lyrics. In result,
46 complaints are chosen for the complaints
lyrics. 3 lines are to be disscussed next time.
100 percent agreed complaint is "what they do
with my tax money?" "I'm not lazy but I just
like doing nothing" "why are people so lonely
even in groups"
|
September 21, 2008
COMPLAINTS CHOIR
OF STOCKHOLM-SUNDBYBERG LAUNCHED
Marabouparken ansluter sig till den
världsomspännande klagokörsrörelsen och bildar
en lokal klagokör. Behöver du ett mer kreativt
utlopp för ditt vardagsgnäll? Gå med i
Sundbybergs Klagokör. Det kostar ingenting och
ingen sångerfarenhet krävs! Repetitionerna
påbörjas i oktober med körledaren Sophie Eklöf.
Klagokören kommer att ha premiär på Marabouparken
annex i Gamla
Betlehemskyrkan i Sundbyberg den 14/11. För mer
information / anmälan ring tel: 08-29 45 90
eller skriv till oss på klaga@marabouparken.se
|
September 5, 2008
COPENHAGEN COMPLAINTS CHOIR PERFORMS AT U-TURN
OPENING AND AROUND THE CITY
The Complaints Choir of
Copenhagen made several appearances in town
during the last days. The choir opened the
U-Turn exhibition at the Carlsberg Brewery and
performed in the meat packing district for a few
happy party drinkers and on the main town hall
square for a stunned audience. |
September 6, 2008
KOREA IN COMPLAINTS CHOIR FEVER
The Complaints Choir
movement has reached South Korea. At the moment
11 (ELEVEN) Complaints Choirs are organized in
Korea. They will all perform on October 9 in
Seoul during a conference on social innovation
hosted by the HOPE
institute. |
August 15, 2008
COMPLAINTS CHOIR OF COPENHAGEN COMPLAINS ABOUT
THE LACK OF MEN IN THE CHOIR!
The Complaints Choir of
Copenhagen met last Wednesday for the first
time. Twenty-seven women and two men of
different ages gathered together in order to
turn their daily complaints into an impressive
choir song. The participants had responded to a
flyer distributed around Copenhagen encouraging
them to "Sing out your complaints!"
During the meeting the participants held a
20-minute complaining session and later decided
in small "expert teams" on the complaints that
should be part of the song. The complaints
ranged from: "Alle priser ender på 95 øre, men
vi har ingen 95 øre mønt, alting preller af
regeringen og hvorfor er jeg ikke en alpha han."
Another popular complaint was: "Why aren´t there
more men joining the Complaints Choir of
Copenhagen?" The musician Esben Bladbjerg is
currently setting the 200 most favourite
complaints to music.
The next rehearsal of the choir takes place
August 20 at 6pm in the Art Academy (Kongens
Nytorv 1). This is the last opportunity to join
the choir. Everybody is welcome, especially bass
complainers - no singing skills required.
The Complaints Choir of Copenhagen performs for
the public September 6, 2008. |
August 5, 2008
COMPLAINTS CHOIR OF HELSINKI FEATURED AT OSCON
2008
In the beginning of her
keynote adress "Stop whinging and start doing."
Danese Cooper, secretary and treasurer of the
Open Source Initiative, introduced the
Complaints Choir of Helsinki to the open source
community, The video clip of the choir was
received with spontanous applause. The
complaints choir, Cooper explained, began when
TWO WOMEN got tired of their own kvetching and
decided that hmm, maybe they could use that
energy in a better way.
Danese
Cooper, Open Source Initiative and Intel
Corporation: "Why Whinging Doesn't Work"
Keynote address from Danese Cooper of the Open
Source Initiative and Intel Corporation. From
O'Reilly Open Source Convention, Portland, OR,
July 24, 2008.
OSCON is the crossroads of all things open
source, bringing together the best, brightest,
and most interesting people to explore what's
new, and to champion the cause of open
principles and open source adoption across the
computing industry. |
August 1, 2008
LAUNCH OF COMPLAINTS CHOIR OF COPENHAGEN
Finally the complaints
choir project has reached Denmark, the country
with the most happy citizens in Europe,
according to some statistics. Anybody living in
and around Copenhagen can join the Complaints
Choir of Copenhagen. Participation is free, No
singing skills required!
Register for participation:
- Send in your complaints by email
(tijana@uturn-copenhagen.dk) until August 10,
2008. Any topic allowed.
- Join the complaints workshop at The Royal
Danish Academy of Fine Arts
- Meal served at each rehearsal
- Each participant receives a DVD of the
performance
First meeting 12. August 2008 at 18.00 at Royal
Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Kongens Nytorv 1
(the following 4 rehearsal dates will be decided
in the first meeting). Grand performance 5.
September 2008 in Carlsberg Brewery at the
opening of U-TURN Quadrennial.
DOWNLOAD
the Flyer (In Danish)
|
July 30, 2008
COMPLAINTS CHOIR OF COLOGNE WITH MORE THEN 150
MEMBERS
The Complaints Choir of
Cologne aka Beschwerdechor Köln started its
rehearsels. More then 150 complainers wanted to
join the choir which will perform an ambitious
30 minute piece at Rathaus Köln on September 9.
For details see the website
of the Köln Choir.
|
July 11, 2008
COMPLAINTS CHOIR OF LUXEMBOURG
The latest rendition of the Complaints Choir
idea will take place in Luxembourg on the
occasion of the opening of the Ars Baltica
exhibition "Don’t Worry - Be Curious!" at Casino
Luxembourg - Forum d'art contemporain.
Food Corner and musical programme on Rue
Notre-Dame until midnight with HGH
(Hagfors/Gebbardt/Hello!), Girl from Saskatoon
and the « Souerchouer »
|
June 8, 2008
NEW YORK WILL FINALLY JOIN THE COMPLAINT CHOIR
MOVEMENT
New Yorkers with complaints from noisy neighbors
and inaudible subway announcements to workaholic
spouses and overcrowded elementary schools can
air their grievances as members of the first
“NYC Complaints Choir” when the international
project comes to New York City on Sunday, June
8. Composer and conductor of the project in New
York is Alan Licht., an American guitarist and
composer, whose work combines elements of pop,
free jazz and minimalism. The choir is organized
by The
New Wilderness Foundation
in collaboration with FRAME (Finnish Fund for
Art Exchange), supported by the New York-based
Finnish Cultural Institute.
Videos of Complaints Choirs from six countries
are being shown as part of “Arctic Hysteria”
exhibition at P.S.1 from June 1 through
September 15. Check
out the ComplaintsChoir of Chicago!
|
May 20, 2008
Uppsala, Sweden has a lot to complain about, so
it was necesssary to start the Complaints Choir
of Upsala. It is planned to surprise people in
official places, like trainstation,
shopping-centers and so on. The choir is also
invited to sing in a choirefestival at Wik June
8. Conductor and composer for the project is
Gina van Dam. Visit www.kroppsmusikalen.se/complaintchoir
for more info.
Fribourg (Switzerland) will now also have its
own Complaints Choir. The Fribourg population
will be able to sing, whisper or cry out its
complaints. People can send their complaints to:
complaints@belluard.ch.
|
May 18, 2008
The Complaints Choir of
Kallio - Kallio is one of the most legendary
districts of Helsinki - had it's grand premier
today. The choir presented local complaints in
the form of a spoken chorus to ca. 200 fellow
complainers at the Kallio Kukka festival. The
Choir was organised by Katja Kiuru-Miller. |
April 12, 2008
Join the Demonstration
"9 Easy Steps to Create a Complaints Chor" in
Berlin! The initiators of the worldwide
complaints choir movement Tellervo Kalleinen and
Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen will demonstrate how YOU
can organise a Complaints Choir too. An evening
full of complaints, video clips of choirs around
the world and an ad-hoc complaints choir
conducted by Miss Le Bomb. Free entry!
April 12, 2008 at 8 pm at KW
Institute for Contemporary Art,
Auguststrasse 69, Berlin Mitte
This event will take
place in the framework of the night program »Mes
nuits sont plus belles ques vos jours« of the 5th
berlin biennial for contemporary art at
the |
April 4, 2008
The
Complaints Choir of Wroclaw
is rehearsing: "Exactly 57 persons, ten men
included, are creating our Complaints Choir.
Wroclaw as the first city in Poland will
complain for bad roads, watered-down beer, dogs'
pooh on the streets, and for thieves who steal
our dwarves. The song is ready now and the Choir
is practicing regularly. There are more youth,
but also elderly people in the Choir. Together
they are bravely making out with the musical
challenge. The music of the first Polish
Complaints Choir was written by Rafa
Karasiewicz, while the lyrics were created under
the supervision of the careful ears and eyes of
Konrad Imiela.
The premiere will take place on 13th of April,
as a closing concert of a festival called The
Review of Stage Songs. more info at www.ppa.art.pl |
March 15, 2008
The
Complaints Choir of Ljubljana aka ZBOR PRITOSB –
LJUBLJANA is now rehearsing. The grand
performance will be on April 24. The choir is
organized by Obrat - non-profit organization for
art and culture. (coproducer: Bunker
Productions, Partner: P.A.R.A.S.I.T.E. Institut)
For more details check their website.
Also the Complaints Choir of Paris is now
starting to rehearse.
If you stil want to join:
terhi.toivonen@institut-finlandais.asso.fr |
March 3, 2008
The Complaints Choir of Umeå is now taking your
complaints. Have you anything to complain about?
You can file your complaints at this website
until March 24. The Choir is organized by MADE
festival. Mats Larsson Gothe will write the
music and Kjell Oscarsson will be the choir
master. |
March 1, 2008
Today the Complaints
Choir of Florence was announced. It will be the
first Complaints Choir in Italy. It is organised
by Associazione Start. The composer is
Alessandro di Puccio.
Info: www.associazionestart.org
or brigua@gmail.com You can download the flyer
from here. |
January 28, 2007
All public performances
of the Complaints
Choir of Singapore
have been cancelled. The Singaporean authorities
did not want to issue a permission for public
performances if foreign choir members wouldn't
leave the choir. The choir has few members who
are permanently living in Singapore but who are
not Citizens. The Malaysian born choir conductor
and the artists Tellervo Kalleinen & Oliver
Kochta-Kalleinen weren´t given a permission to
perform either.
The choir decided that they did not want to
perform under these circumstances and hence all
public performances were cancelled. This is the
first time the Complaints Choir project created
negative attention due to the reactions of
authorities. The lyrics contain mostly daily
irritations like "People put on fake accents to
sound posh" and "My neighbour sings KTV all
night". The relation between daily complaints
and political ones were in average the same than
in other countries where the project has been
realised. The authorities did not come to follow
the rehearsals before making their decision.
It was a strong provocation for us to hear that
the authorities wanted the Non-Singaporean choir
members to be excluded from the choir
performances. This would have spoilt the
project's intention to create a strong sense of
community, a community that is based on shared
complaints about life in Singapore here and now.
We are disappointed
that our prejudices against Singapore have been
affirmed. We find it irritating that foreigners
- people that built this city, nurse Singaporean
kids and bring in their knowledge - are not
allowed to complain." – Tellervo + Oliver
Kalleinen
But judge by yourself: read the lyrics
(scroll down) and watch the video 
|
January 8, 2007
The Complaints Choir of
Singapore came together for the very first time
today. The rehearsal took place in the Old
Parliament House right in the chamber in which
many decision affecting the lives of all
Singaporeans were made. After a short complaints
warm up people went into full gear and produced
ca. 1000 complaints in 10 minutes. That is a
world record, but for those Singaporeans that
complain about Singapore always needs to be
No.1, we can confirm, that Helsinki produced 3
times more complaints in total, placing
Singapore into 2nd best only.
The Complaints Choir
project and its Singaporean section is featured
on Channel
NewsAsia. The Sinagporean Complaints Choir
has attracted a number of Media responses, e.g.
from the Straits Times and Channel5 News among
many others. |
  
November 3+4, 2007
The Complaints Choir of
Chicago performed for all Chicagoans on Sunday
November 4 at the Cloud Gate aka The Bean at
Millenium Park in the heart of Chicago. On
Saturday November 3 the Choir was the biggest
band ever to have performed at the legendary
Empty Bottle Club. The Chicago Complaint Choir
was conducted by Jeremy
Jacobson aka the lonesome organist
and organized by Frank and Lisa Mauceri of Smog
Veill Records (in collaboration with MCA
and SAIC and Humanities Festival). All
photos by Clare Britt.
Check
lyrics and live footage from the Chicago
Complaints Choir. |
November 25, 2007
The Complaints Choir
project is featured on CBS
Sunday Morning,
November 25. Correspondent Bill Geist covered
the story and even contributed a complaint that
is now a part of the Chicago Complaints Choir
song. |
November 1, 2007
The
BBC One Show
ripped off the Complaints Choir project! We are
dissappointed that exactly BBC utilizes the idea
of the Complaints Choir for their show without
crediting anybody that has made this project a
success around the globe and created an
international community. They even pretend to be
the first ones who organize a complaints choir
in the UK while in fact the project was started
in Birmingham, UK. They even have reported on
the BBC about the Bimringham choir. Thats just
bad journalism and bad style. And the worst
part: when submitting a complain to the official
complaints website of the BBC you can tick a box
saying" I want an answer to my complaint". We
certainly ticked that box, still they did not
reply to us. Write to BBC and complain about
them! |
November 3+4, 2007
The Complaints
Choir of Chicago
performed this weekend
at a packed house at the MCA and in various
locations around the city. Our thanks goes out
to all complainers of Chicago, all choir
members, the organizers and of course to choir
leader, composer and conductor Jeremy Jacobson! |
October 22, 2007
The Complaints
Choir of Chicago
is rehearsing now. More then 400 complaints were
filed. A third of the complaints had to do with
the traffic, only one complaint was about
relationships. Jeremy
Jacobson, the
composer and choir conductor set them to music.
The challenging piece will be now rehearsed
during the next two weeks. The choir will perform
on November 3 at the Museum of Contemporary Art
(2 performances: 1 p.m. and 3 p.m.) and at the
Empty Bottle Club 8 PM. On November 4 the Choir
will perform on various locations in Chicago
without prior notice. So watch out for a bunch
of complainers that day! |
October 1, 2007
After sweeping
successes in Europe the complaints choir
movement has now finally reached the heart of
America (by detour of Canada and Alaska). We
proudly announce the Complaints
Choir of Chicago.
It comes just in time
to save the country from the unscrupulous
mission of Rev. Will Bowen of Christ Church
Unity to create a COMPLAINTS FREE WORLD. To
complain is a basic human right. Even in
Paradise people complained. Why pretend that
things are okay when they are not. Complainers
of Chicago, we count on you to stop the "tyranny
of the positive attitude in America!" (Barbara
S. Held "Stop
Smiling and Start Kvetching"). View
the trailer on YouTube. |
August 22, 2007
The Complaints Choir of
Malmö aka Malmö Klagokör celebrated a great
premier last week during Malmöfestivalen. On
Sunday 19 the choir performed also on the main
stage of the festival in front of 2.000 people.
The choir was organized by Malmöfestivalen
(Karin Larsson & Lotta Ström) in cooperation
with Signal Gallery. The choir was conducted by
Mattias Leesment Bergh. |
August 7, 2007
The complaints choir
project will be shown at KUMU
(Art Museum of Estonia) in Tallin and at SIGNAL
Gallery in Malmö. Today also the Budapest
Complaints Choir has been added to the site.
Check out their great video and the fantastic
song. Our favourite complaint is: "My neighbour
gives folk dance classes above my bedroom." |
July 28, 2007
Heidi Soltau reported
today about the Complaints Choir of Sointula:
"We, the hearty souls of Sointula, have joined
the ranks of "connoisseurs of complaining" and
organized a Complaints Choir. Since we are an
island community of only 800 people, it was
pretty easy to get the word out and organize (we
even got some fellow complainers from across the
water).
We just put up a poster and a "Complaints Box"
in our local Coop Store and in two weeks we had
more than enough material to work with. (The
hardest part was keeping the complaints from
getting too personal,,,,,,,,since this is a
small island and we all tend to know each
other's business.)
We held our first "workshop" meeting the first
week in July and are now rehearsing the final
version (hopefully) of the song called "History
Always Trumps Common Sense" (that was one of the
complaints we just couldn't find a place for in
the song!) We will be performing our
"Complaints" on Saturday, July 28 at "Artopia",
our summer arts festival." |
June 2, 2007
Basel is organizing a
Complaints Choir as well. Daniel Hagmann took
the initiative. It will be the first one in
Switzerland. The Complaint Choir of Basel is
searching now for participants and complaints.
Please join if you live in Basel and have
anything to complain about. Rehearsals will take
place in September. All further information can
be found on the choir web-site: baselklagt.ch |
May 29, 2007
Finally the Complaints
Choir of Gabriola is online. Check the latest
contribution to the worldwide phenomena of
complaints choirs! This site includes now also
an option to vote for your favourite complaint
choir. This is not a representative survey and
it is not about who complains better, it is just
to see which video people favour most. Thanks
for voting. |
May 18, 2007
Today Sivan Shenhav
informed me that she had organized the
Complaints Choir of Jerusalem. It will be added
to the site as soon as the video is edited and
subtitled. |
April 18, 2007
Now it is official. Budapest
will get its own complaints choir. Daniel
Fazekas took the initiative. The Budapest
Complaints Choir aka Budapesti Panaszkórus is
growing already rapidly: 75 Members, 1300
complaints. Check here
for more (and here). |
April 17, 2007
Three more Complaints
Choirs have been added to the site: The Penn
State Complaints Choir (organized by Craig
Upton), the All Canadian/As It Happens
Complaints Choir (organized by CBS radio) and
the Juneau Complaints Choir AKA Skunk Cabbage
Complaints Chorale (by Nancy DeCherny). Check
the Choir section. |
March 11, 2007
The London Complaints Choir is searching for
complainers and complaints. If you live in
London and you always wanted to complaint
together with a whole choir you should consider
joining. The choir is initiated by Benjamin
Nolan and Mawgen Beattie. Visit the web-site of
the London
Complaints Choir
for further info. |
March 8, 2007
Gail Lund informed about the recently founded
Gabriola Island Complaints Choir. The choir has
45 members and has already recorded a song and
is working now on a video clip. As soon as the
video is ready it will be available on this
site. Gabriola
is a small island off Vancouver Island near
Nanaimo with a population of around 4000.
|
March 6, 2007
The Penn State Complaints Choir music video is
finished and will be posted soon on the site.
The choir was initiated by Craig Thomas Upton
and PSU ECO INNOVATION at Penn State University
in the USA. The choir is "tackling global issues
as well as local issues in a rhapsody parody
song format." |
February 27, 2007
The Juneau Complaints Choir was announced today:
"We are forming, as part of an annual Cabin
Fever Spring Arts Fest, a Skunk Cabbage
Complaint Chorale. We will perform on Mar. 9 at
12 pm noon on the Capitol Steps in Juneau
(Alaska). The weather will be miserable. Our
complaint song is composed by Patricia Hull and
Tony Tengs, and will move from a whiny fussy
minor key filled with complaining and
lamentations to a melodic and uplifting major
key singing out of the wonderful reasons to live
in this dark rainy and magnificent place. Spring
is just around the corner, none too soon, I
might add." |
February 23, 2007
The Complaints Choir
videos are shown until March 10 at Sparwasser
HQ in Berlin
and from April 1 at Kunsthalle Kiel as part of
the Ars
Baltica Triennale. |
February 22, 2007
The CBC radio show "As
It Happens" organised a Canadian
Complaints Choir with
the complaints provided by listeners of the
show. The choir was formed by volunteers from
Toronto. It had its debut at the Glenn Gould
theatre last night. |
January 31, 2007
Gilles Roy wrote a long, excellent and very
insightful review of the Complaints Choir
project. You can read it at his site Amateurmusicians.net. |
JANUARY 29, 2007
A new complaints choir
was submitted! Check out the ultimate complaints
of the citizens of Bodø in Northern Norway in
the CHOIR
section of this
site. Watch the Mayor of Bodø being the hardest
complainer. Thanks to Kari Koksvik. |
JANUARY 23, 2007
Rehearsals for the Pittsburgh Complaints Choir -
organized by Jen and Ray Strobel - have been
set! There will be six rehearsals beginning the
week of February 6th. Reherasals will be held in
the parlor of First United Methodist Church, on
the corner of Centre Ave. and South Aiken in the
East End of Pittsburgh. If you are interested in
singing and can attend all six rehearsals, or if
you have a complaint to suggest, please send
email to the following address: complaintschoir
[dot] pgh [at] gmail [dot] com. |
JANUARY 9, 2007
A new complaints choir
was submitted! Check the fantastic song and
great performance of the Poikkilaakso Complaints
Choir in the CHOIR
section of this
site. The chorus of the song is magnificient.
Poikkilaakso is part of Helsinki city. Thanks to
Matti Salo. |
DECEMBER 23, 2006
The Complaints Choirs of Hamburg
(aka Beschwerde Chor zu Hamburg-Wilhelmsburg)
and St. Petersburg went online today. Merry
Christmas! |
|
DECEMBER 12, 2006
The Complaints Choir
Project is featured today on BBC
Global Hits:
"For today's Global Hit, the subject is
complaints. Complaints about the weather, the
neighbors, the government. All set to music.
The World's Patrick Cox has more."
|
DECEMBER 3, 2006
The Complaints Choirs of Helsinki and Birmingham
will be shown at the
Dreamlands
Burn exhibition
at Kunsthalle Budapest. The exhibiton is open
from 7th December 06 - 28th February 2007. There
are also discussions about a Complaints Choir of
Budapest. |
DECEMBER 1, 2006
The Complaints Choirs of Helsinki, Birmingham,
Wilhelmsburg and St.Petersburg will be shown at
the
Lost
and Found
exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele
Kunst, SMAK, in Ghent in Belgium.
The exhibition runs from 2nd December 2006 until
11th February 2007. |
NOVEMBER 30, 2006
Today the Complaints Choir Website Worldwide
went online. |
NOVEMBER 24, 2006
Today the Complaints Choir of Birmingham was
featured on YouTube. One member of the
Birmingham Choir was recognized at his local
Farmers Market: "I have seen you on YouTube". |
NOVEMBER 23, 2006
The Complaints Choirs of Helsinki, Birmingham,
Wilhelmsburg and St.Petersburg will be shown at
the
5
Tage Bis zum Ende der Kunst – Fremd bin ich
eingezogen
exhibition at Kunsthalle Fridericianum in
Kassel. The exhibition, the last one curated by
Rene Block for Fridericianium, runs only from
23rd - 26th November 2006. |
NOVEMBER 2, 2006
Today the Complaints
Choir of Bodø had it's premier. It was the
second complaints choir that was organized
completely independent from the initiators of
the Complaints Choir project. |
OCTOBER 6, 2006
The Complaints Choirs of Helsinki, Birmingham,
Wilhelmsburg and St.Petersburg will be shown at
the
Art
Link exhibition
at Göteborg Konsthall in Sweden.
The exhibition runs from 6th October 2006 - 7th
January 2007. |
SEPTEMBER 7, 2006
The Complaints
Choir of St. Petersburg
was formed today. The choir met for the first
time at Pro Arte Institute to work on the
complaints song. The public performances will be
on September 28th and 29th. |
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