TILBURG, Netherlands (Top40 Charts/ Muzieklab) - The Ringtone Society (www.ringtonesociety.com), a platform initiated in the Netherlands by Muzieklab for the artistic development of the ringtone, has been invited by the Grand Canyon
Music Festival (www.grandcanyonmusicfest.org) to take part in the festival's 2007 Native American Composers Apprentice Project (NACAP), for a unique new ringtone initiative in Arizona (USA).
The Ringtone Society, in partnership with New York-based string quartet ETHEL will work with young Native American composers to produce a series of new ringtones. These new mini-compositions will be performed and recorded during the Grand Canyon Music Festival (GCMF). The Ringtone Society will also join ETHEL in workshops at several high schools on Arizona's Navajo and Hopi Reservations, where they will create and record ringtones with the students ("The Live High School Ringtone Project").
New York City's public radio station, WNYC, will present a Radio Diary of the project, featuring ETHEL's Ralph Farris and produced by noted radio personality Beth Fertig.
GCMF's NACAP is a program that teaches talented Native American high school students the art of composition. Under the guidance of Navajo composer Raven Chacon , students from the Navajo and Hopi Reservations are guided through the creative process - from thematic development to orchestration and scoring. ETHEL reads and workshops these compositions and takes the pieces from the classroom to the stage.
The objectives of The Ringtone Society are to stimulate "The Art of Ringtonism", and the investigation of the possibilities for the mobile phone as a medium for music production and distribution.
According to Theo Andriessen, initiator of The Ringtone Society, the public is fed up with terribly produced ringtones that overflow the market. "It is time for an artistic offensive. The ringtone offers a new creative challenge for musicians and composers and a chance to be heard by a new public at several different locations."
The Ringtone Society has already collected more than 500 unique ringtones, poetry tones and videotones worldwide and has been a featured presenter at the popfestival Lowlands in Holland and the Melbourne International Art Festival in Australia.
Plans are underway to make The Ringtone Society a regular collaborator with GCMF and NACAP.
All ringtones recorded during this project can be downloaded free-of-charge at: https://www.ringtonesociety.com.
