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A Sound of Teaching—with Sophie Delphis and Houman Harouni—Mezzo-soprano Sophie Delphis rehearsing an aria alongside Houman Harouni, a practice-based philosopher of education, who knows little to nothing about opera and looks for a way to teach. Originally performed on Zoom, in conjunction with the exhibition 'Teachers Monarchs and a sound of teaching' at Cathouse Proper recorded Friday, April 30, 2021.
 
Tongue and Cheek is voiced and led by Timmy Simonds, Aaron Lehman, and Emma McCormick-Goodhart.
 
Joined by Sophie Delphis and Houman Harouni
 
Franco-American mezzo-soprano Sophie Delphis has performed with the SongFest as a Stern Fellow, iSING Festival, UMS (University Musical Society), National Sawdust, the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, the Tianjin Symphony Orchestra, Bronx Opera, Opera on the James and Bare Opera, among others. As a recitalist, she has performed programs for numerous musical and cultural organizations in the United States and China. In addition to traditional repertoire, she enjoys collaborating with composers, improvisers and theatre artists on new works. She is a soloist on the original English cast recording of Matti Kovler’s Ami and Tami and on the Grammy-nominated Naxos recording of Milhaud’s Oresteia trilogy.
https://www.sophiedelphis.com
 
Houman Harouni studies the philosophy and practice of education. His work expands the limits of what is possible in pedagogy, and how these possibilities help preserve or transform social relations. He is a full-time lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and his writings on art, theory, history, politics and science have been published in various academic and popular venues. His new book project, The Year of (Not) Learning concerns the ways we do (not) absorb the impact of the pandemic. 
https://www.gse.harvard.edu/faculty/houman-harouni

First broadcast on Montez Press Radio as Tongue and Cheek- Ep29: A Sound of Teaching—with Sophie Delphis and Houman Harouni- Saturday, July 31st, 2021 11AM-12:00

A radio series of proprioceptive exercises, interviews about practices of communication, and archival sound. A routine for warming up our means of communication. Presented monthly as a combination of live and prerecorded sessions.

Lend me your ears!
-- Shakespeare, Julius Caesar

There are messages primarily serving to establish, to prolong, or to discontinue communication, to check whether the channel works… Dorothy Parker caught eloquent examples: "'Well!' the young man said. 'Well!' she said. 'Well, here we are' he said. 'Here we are' she said, 'Aren't we?' 'I should say we were' he said, 'Eeyop! Here we are.' 'Well!' she said. 'Well!' he said, 'well.' "
-- Roman Jakobson, “Linguistics and Poetics”

To reach an arm out of one’s mouth, peek through one’s ear, and speak out of one’s eye. Communication happens by any means possible. It is the different ways bodies extend themselves, as limbs that bridge things—reaching out, stretching and sometimes touching, with a light tap, “Marco!”

How we voice, how we gesture, how we manner, how we empathize.
Exercises to find all ways of thinking of language, and to exercise them as their own paths of communication.

To empathize over radio. Invite to do the same—feel, mimic, echo. “Polo”
The sound of leading, of following, of teaching speaking.
And learning to make a body of a limb.

Tongue and Cheek was first developed and aired on Montez Press Radio beginning in the summer of 2018. Montez Press Radio is an experimental radio station and commissioning platform for unexpected works from artists and other creative voices. MPR continues to air new episodes of Tongue and Cheek during its monthly live broadcast at 46 Canal St in Chinatown, New York.