Leeds Beckett University’s Dr Oliver Bray publishes article on performance and voice, coinciding with World Voice Day

Dr Oliver Bray, Dean of Leeds School of Arts at Leeds Beckett University, both researches and performs in the area of voice and speech and has just had an article published on the subject in the Routledge journal, Voice and Speech Review.

The article, titled The Unapproved Orator, builds on the keynote presentation delivered by Oliver at the Voice and Speech Trainers Association (VASTA) symposium held at the university in October 2024. Free to read, the piece ties in nicely with many of the key themes of World Voice Day, touching on the importance of voice in contemporary political culture, speechmaking in the post-truth era and performance practice.

Key to this is the decline in the significance and trust placed in speech, from the time of the ancients when the spoken word was sacrosanct to the modern era where audiences are truly cynical about what they hear - especially when it's from the mouths of prominent politicians.

Oliver has striven to reassert trust and confidence in speech, performing his ever-changing sound poem Ursonate Post-Truth to various audiences, standing in Leeds city square in December 2023 to read Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol as part of the Leeds 2023 year of culture, as well as a 12-hour performance at the Compass Festival of Live Art titled The Speechmaker.

Oliver said: "World Voice Day is a wonderful way to celebrate and understand the power of the voice, to dig deeper into the way speechmaking has changed and how it reflects significant societal shifts."