THE BIRDS – 5 Day Vocal Workshop

Shed your human form and take musical flight! Join Loré Lixenberg to experiment with sound, breath and song in a bold and immersive workshop inspired by Aristophanes’ play The Birds.

About The Birds

Following on from LETHE, vocalist and composer Loré Lixenberg’s new project LETHE2 – The Birds tells the story of Aristophanes’ ancient Greek comedy of the same name, where the birds are tasked with founding Cloud Cuckoo Land in order to intercept sacrificial offerings from mere mortals to mount Olympus, causing a siege-famine of the gods.

Taking place at Queen Mary University London from Wednesday 15 – Sunday 19 October 2025, we invite you to stop being human for a while, and start becoming birds. Not metaphorically. Actually.

What will we do?

Through a series of vocal workshops and live-action role-playing we’ll experiment with sound, breath, and song until our throats betray us, our bodies forget themselves, and we edge closer to the strange, chaotic community of birds.

Over five days, we’ll explore:

• Vocal and improv workshops – learning to sing like birds, squawk like parliament, and call across imagined skies through aural scores.

• Observation – one day we’ll migrate together to a birding spot, to witness autumn birds mid-journey, taking field notes with our ears.

• Transformation – you’ll develop your own bird-character, your Cloud Cuckoo Land citizen, halfway between myth and ecology.

You can join us for all five days, or choose the days that suit you as some workshop days are also workdays, but please tell us in advance, because even Cloud Cuckoo Land needs a headcount.

This is not a polite choral workshop. It’s noisy, messy, funny, and serious all at once. Think Aristophanes meets Attenborough; Frankie Boyle caught in a dawn chorus with Loré Lixenberg. Think of yourself as a migratory being, perched briefly in a room with strangers, deciding together what it means to build a world in the air. 

Key info

The Birds
Wednesday 15 – Sunday 19 October 2025, 11am-5pm each day
Music Room, People's Palace Building, QMUL
If you plan to attend for the full five-day workshop, select the 'Full 5-day workshop' ticket option. If you are attending single days, please select a ticket for each date that you want to attend.
Pay what you can - recommended £50 for full 5 days, or £10 per day