2008 Camps and Workshops
Caucasus Georgia Residential Session
May 24-June 7
Sighnaghi, Republic of Georgia
Ketevan Mindorashvili & members of Ensemble Zedashe,
Patty Cuyler
Tuition: $1150
This will be Village Harmony’s ninth singing workshop in the Republic of Georgia. Set in a small mountainous country with one of the world’s most exciting polyphonic singing traditions, our music exchanges with Georgian singers, like this coming camp, will arguably prove to be Village Harmony’s most important and lasting contribution to the understanding between world cultures.
The two-week long residential camp will be held in Sighnaghi, Kakheti, a historic walled hill-town with a breathtaking view of the Alazani Valley and the Caucasus Mountains about two hours’ drive east of Tbilisi, Georgia’s capital. Rehearsal will take place at Patty’s house—Village Harmony Central/East—on a sidestreet near the historic center of town, amidst winding cobbled and dirt streets and hillsides flecked with persimmon, walnut, fig and pomegranate trees.
Georgia has one of the world’s most ancient polyphonic singing traditions, with a dark, sonorous vocal quality, untempered intervals and striking harmonic convergences unlike anything in European music. Participants will work on tuning, ornamentation and vocal projection under the instruction of Ensemble Zedashe director Ketevan Mindorashvili and other members of the ensemble. We will study folk and sacred songs from the different Georgian regions, with most music taught by ear. Folk dancing and instrumental instruction will also be offered. Singers will be housed with local host families.
During the workshop there will be time to explore our host town and we will take group outings to monasteries and other historic sites. Plans are afoot for several days in the high Caucasus region to end our stay.
Sighnaghi has seen considerable renovation of its streets and houses recently, with designation as a world heritage location and with can infusion of governmental and EU funding. However, this session is not for those absolutely needing a daily hot shower. The tolls of over a decade and a half of post-Soviet economic depression are still manifest in Sighnaghi and elsewhere in the country, and western-style amenities—such as hot water (or running water at all) and electricity are still somewhat sporadic. While smooth roads, indoor plumbing and working lights may be in short supply, however, Georgia’s famed hospitality is a constant—and is unforgettable.
Sighnaghi, Republic of Georgia
A medieval fort-town and 19th-century administrative center, Sighnaghi is a beautiful and deceptively quiet hill-town perched at the edge of the lower Caucasus mountains in eastern Georgia. Sighnaghi has long been a hot-bed of cultural activity, home to ancient Bodbe Monastery, an adjunct campus of Tbilisi University, its own music college, and a dance school, as well being as a refuge for artists and artisans of all sorts. We will use Village Harmony’s own ‘retreat center’ in Sighnaghi (Patty has owned a house here since 2001) for rehearsals, and will take meals both there and at the home of one the Zedashe singers. Participants will be housed with local families.
Faculty
Ketevan Mindorashvili, director of the Zedashe ensemble, was raised in a traditional singing family in her home of Sighnaghi, eastern Georgia. She has become well known as a singer and teacher of Georgian folk music, particularly the fluid ornamentation of eastern folk songs. She has a deep knowledge church chant, and is a master of the panduri, a three stringed lute from the region. Ketevan is also a solo dancer in the Jleha dance troop based in Sighnaghi, and brings the Zedashe Ensemble on their second tour to the United States with a new repertoire of folk dances.
The Zedashe Ensemble is based in the medieval fortress city of Sighnaghi, Eastern Georgia, which has been home to the Kiziqian wine growers and warriors since ancient times. Directed by Ketevan Mindorashvili, the current incarnation of the ensemble was founded in the mid 1990s to sing repertoire largely lost during the Communist era. Their repertoire consists of ancient three-part harmony chants from the Orthodox Christian liturgy, folk songs from the Kiziqian region as collected from village song-masters and old publications, and folk dances from the region.
The Zedashe Ensemble also sings repertoire from other regions in Georgia, particularly the high North-Eastern mountain province of Svanetia, where time seems to stand still and the traditional, non-tempered tunings of the old Georgians remain alive in current practice. Folk song genres include field-songs, love songs, historical ballads, war dance songs, and ritual circle dances, and are accompanied by the chunir (Svan lute), panduri (Kiziq lute), chonguri (Gurian lute), doli (drum), chiboni (goat-skin bagpipes), and accordion.
The group's name is taken from the special earthenware jugs — zedashes — that were buried under the family home for the purpose of making wine. The wine made in zedashes was especially for the veneration of ancestors and the tapping of the zedashe every year carried great ritual significance.
For more information, visit their website at http://www.zedashe.org
PATTY CUYLER of Marshfield, Vermont, is an energetic, dynamic workshop leader and director with special expertise in teaching Corsican, Georgian and South African singing and dance music. Her passion for honest, direct music coaxes fierce, forthright singing out of even the most timid singers. An instrumentalist from an early age, Patty is a brass player and self-taught accordion player. Since 1995 she has co-directed Village Harmony and Northern Harmony with Larry; in 2002 she founded the women’s Corsican trio Eccuci, and began the Montpelier World Music Chorus and Boston Harmony in 2004. Patty has edited a number of song books of South African, Georgian and Bulgarian folk music and has a large library of her own transcriptions. Patty will be teaching South African dance-songs and Georgian and Corsican a cappella singing at the Winter Workshop.