Mark van Tongeren
Sound artist
- Started in
- 2005
- Finished PhD in
- 2013
- Musician type
- Sound artist
- Host institution
- Leiden University
- Personal website
- www.fusica.nl
- Nationality
- The Netherlands

Mark van Tongeren is a sound explorer and performance artist with a PhD in artistic research from Leiden University. He did ground-breaking research and vocal experiments in the field of overtone singing, which he began studying around 1990. He feels equally at home ‘in the field’ to study and practice indigenous vocal techniques, as in experimental performance art, using voice, small instruments and/or electronics.
He received his M.A. in ethnomusicology from the University of Amsterdam and has taught world music at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. His PhD from the Academy of Creative and Performing Arts at Leiden University explores the boundaries of science and art and is entitled Thresholds of the Audible: about the Polyphony of the Body.
His docARTES doctoral defense took place on March 13, 2013 at Leiden University.
Related
Project
Thresholds of the Audible
About the Multiphony of the Body
In our culture, vocal harmonics fuction as independent musical elements since only a few decades. Thresholds of the audible explores the changing relationship between singers, listeners and harmonics. As a research method a series of compositions (Nulpunten/’Zeropoints’) has been developed, which attempt to make a fresh approach to overtone singing and to the sonic source material of the human body.
Related events
March 13th, 2013 (13h45)
Mark van Tongeren’s PhD Defense
Leiden University
Mark van Tongeren defended his thesis Grenzen van het hoorbare; over de meerstemmigheid van het lichaam.
March 10 & 12, 2013 (18h30)
Mark van Tongeren’s doctoral concert part 1
Incognito Ergo Sum
Mark van Tongeren presented the outcomes of his doctoral research during this concert.
March 11, 2013 (13h30-16h30)
Mark van Tongeren’s doctoral concert part 2
0…: een boventoonzangmarathon voor twee zangers
Mark van Tongeren demonstrated his findings of his doctoral research project during a 3-hour singing marathon.
Author: tranquanghai1944
Ethnomusicologist, composer and vietnamese traditional musician View all posts by tranquanghai1944