RPI Director of Institute Ensembles Robert Whalen will discuss his collaboration with librettists Mark Steidl, Katherine Skovira and Sara Pyszka and Opera Saratoga on a new opera for synthetic and acoustic voice THE OTHER SIDE OF SILENCE written by and for people who use Alternative Assistive Communication.

Inspired by Pyszka’s “Inside My Outside: An Independent Mind in a Dependent Body” and unfolding in a series of interwoven storylines, THE OTHER SIDE OF SILENCE explores what it means to be our true self, and which of our voices—our inner or outer voice—most directly represents our identity. This new opera examines technology’s role in the fabric of human society, and what role it plays in promoting and diminishing our autonomy, as seen through the lens of an AAC user - someone who uses a synthetic voice to communicate the world.