THE LOST VOICE: A Singer’s Story of Silence, Recovery, and Finding a New Song by Greta Morgan

A poignant, tenacious memoir by musician Greta Morgan chronicling how she rediscovered her artistic voice after losing her ability to sing.

In 2019, Greta Morgan was on the rise. She had toured with Vampire Weekend, collaborated with Jenny Lewis, and garnered critical acclaim with her own musical projects. But in March 2020, after contracting Covid-19, she was diagnosed with spasmodic dysphonia, a neurological disorder with no known cure that left her unable to sing. Her once crystalline voice now reduced to a hush, she saw her career come to an abrupt standstill.

Beyond the physical ramifications, what does it mean to cultivate a true voice? Morgan’s loss launches her into a journey of grief and self-discovery, forcing her to broaden her artistic horizons and reconstruct her sense of self. Her narrative takes us on a whirlwind tour of music studios, band buses, and celebrity-filled backstage parties, but it also takes us to the red canyons of Utah and the spacious wilderness of the American Southwest. In these vast landscapes, Morgan finds unexpected community. In the silence, she learns how to listen to parts of herself she has neglected.

Questioning the purpose of creativity and what defines artistic passion, The Lost Voice is a raw and intimate portrait of grief, self-discovery, and the choice to keep living and creating.

BIOGRAPHY COMING SOON

RECENT UPDATES

TEDX: How To Find Your Voice

What would happen if the thing that defined you disappeared overnight? Whether it’s our job, our abilities, or output—many of us meld our identities with the things we do, and often forget who we are in the process. Greta Morgan is a writer and musician whose musical projects include Vampire Weekend, Springtime Carnivore, and Gold Motel. In 2020, Greta was diagnosed with a disorder that completely changed her ability to sing. In this episode, she shares what her vocal loss and recovery taught her about her inner voice, and how we might find our voice and resilience in both art and the creative process.

I Lost Something In the Hills: A conversation with Greta Morgan about imperfection, wandering, and Why she loves the picasso quote “Give a man a mask and he’ll tell you the truth.”

NEW VOICE - Elevated Outdoors Summer 2022

Excerpt:

When you were facing this loss, what did you find out in the desert that helped you?

I would go into Zion Canyon every night—amazingly, no one, except Sarah, was there after eight o’clock–and I would just spend time with the animals, with the river, and listen. My whole life had been full of sound, of man-made sound, leading up to this moment: A record always playing. I played drums. I played guitar. I played piano. I sang. Now, my listeningbecame so powerful that when I was watching the Perseid meteor shower, I thought I could hear the stars. I would go to the wilderness areas outside the park and just wander alone for a day or two. Just being among all of the creatures of the natural world, I would see how purely they are authentically themselves. There’s no pretending to be anything else. It mirrored back to me all the ways that I had been pretending or that I had wanted to present some version of who I was.

NEW RELEASES

Contact

Please complete the form below