2009
Camps and Workshops
Village Harmony Summer Camps
The concert is about to end. Twenty-three mostly barefoot teenagers grab at each others’ hands and bow, sweaty and tired, intensely pleased with themselves. They grin broadly as New Englanders of every age rise to their feet in the old wooden church building, applauding, whistling, ululating. A note is sounded above the din and the young singers launch into a South African dance song, stilling the crowd long enough to allow them to make their way down the aisles to take a final ovation from the back of the building. As the young people, unleashed, dive into the crowd or escape outside, you remain rooted in your pew a bit longer, shaken to the core by what you’ve just witnessed. Where did that conviction come from, that powerful centered sound you never expected to hear from an amateur—let alone a teenage—choir. Look around; other moist eyes and stunned expressions tell you that you aren’t the the only one who sensed that something life-changing has just happened among the singers—and has been shared with the audience.
This scenario is played out with up to a dozen groups—teens, adults, mixed ages—and sixty or more times each summer. Since 1990 the singers and instrumentalists of Village Harmony summer camps have been traveling and performing throughout an ever-widening swath of the globe, participating in cultural exchanges and delighting audiences with their heart-felt renditions of world folk music. Nineteen years on, Village Harmony’s recipe has withstood the test of time.
Start out with almost 300 self-selected amateur singers between the ages of 11 and 80, and divide into groups of 25-50 each. Sift in some two dozen well-seasoned music leaders gathered from around the world. Sprinkle in a variety of languages and exotic cultures, and then saturate with vital and honest music chosen from among the world’s most powerful harmony singing traditions. Blend well during a week of intense singing—always in a retreat center in some unique location— taking care to treat the music with respect, and the participants with high expectations. To finish off, subject the entire mixture to the myriad challenges of a concert tour, ensuring that performances are polished to the highest sheen. The result? Harmony in infinite shades of the meaning of the word; comradeship, exhilaration, heartfelt art of an extraordinarily high order.
We run camps just for teenagers, camps primarily for adults, and camps for mixed age groups. Each camp session is headed by a trio of music leaders, highly experienced as teachers and fluent in a wide range of singing traditions, including American shape-note, Appalachian and gospel music; West and South African dance-songs; genres from all over eastern and western Europe, including Bosnia, Bulgaria, Georgia, Ukraine, and Corsica; and baroque and renaissance music. Village Harmony camp locations vary each year. This coming year our camps will be held in New England, Oregon and Ontario, in the UK, in Sweden and in Bosnia. Over the years we’ve also held camps in Caucasus Georgia, in Corsica, South Africa, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Russia, Ghana, and in many locations in western Europe.
During the rehearsal week, singers get to know one another and their music to the nth degree. We rapidly absorb the basics of new vocal styles and prepare a concert program. Rehearsals are focused and intense, usually six or more hours each day. We offer individual voice coaching and small ensemble and instrumental work between the group sessions.
Reading music, while advantageous, is not required for any of the sessions. Written music is distributed for a lot of the repertoire, but many songs are taught solely by ear; virtually everything is taught by example. Emphasis is placed on authenticity—on absorbing the spirit ofeach musical genre, not just on its replication. Above all, we strive for total conviction, and singing with joy.
Intense as this description may seem, Village Harmony groups tend to be extremely relaxed, non-competitive and democratic in nature. The supportive and inclusive community at our camps is such that no one is afraid to give their all in performance and sing from the deepest place in their hearts. The framework of each residency is communal, with everyone pitching in to help cook and clean. The menu is primarily vegetarian, responsive to the tastes, needs and culinary talents of camp participants. We make time for playing soccer or frisbee, dancing, and searching out swimming holes. During the rehearsal week we often find time for an evening cabaret, with music routines, recitations and comic routines, and the display of many a random talent.
The shorter adult and teen residential workshops wrap up with one or two concerts to finish their sessions. For singers in the teen and international traveling camps, however, a different kind of adventure begins as they launch into a concert tour. Usually the groups change location nearly every day while on tour, performing in a different venue each night; the communities that sponsor our concerts and make up our audiences provide us with meals and overnight housing. Concerts are held in small-town community halls, in village churches, at folk festivals.
We make a point of meeting and collaborating with local folk musicians, especially overseas,. Foreign audiences in particular are thrilled and gratified to see foreigners learning and performing their traditional music with so much care and respect.
Regardless of whether one attends a shorter residential camp or one of the traveling ones, the intense immersion in new repertoires and the many challenges of preparing for the concert performances is exhilarating.