2009
Mid-year Workshops for Teens and Adults
Two Mid-Year Weekend Workshops
Led by Larry Gordon, Patty Cuyler, Suzannah Park, Nathan Morrison
- February 27-March 1—Winter Weekend at Lake Morey
Hulbert Outdoor Center, Fairlee, Vermont - March 20-22—Weekend at the Columbia River Gorge
Menucha Retreat & Conference Center, Corbett, Oregon - Download the Midyear Workshops Application Form (doc)
Village Harmony’s mid-year weekend workshops will provide opportunities for warm mid-winter and early spring gatherings of old friends and new acquaintances., with dancing and singing and instrument playing—sure bets to fire up a lot more than just your voice.
In New England our fifth annual winter weekend will be held at the Hulbert Center in northeastern Vermont, its expansive grounds offering opportunities for cross-country skiing as well as ice skating on Lake Morey. This year sees the inauguration of a west coast weekend at the Menucha Center, located on the south side of the scenic Columbia River Gorge, 22 miles east of Portland. This weekend will be part of Larry, Patty, Suzannah and Nathan's west coast tour.
Each workshop will begin with supper on Friday night and close with a review session after lunch on Sunday. We’ll sing from a wide range of traditions, including South African, Georgian, Corsican, Appalachian, gospel and American shape-note singing. There will be plenty of dancing, too—Balkan and English country dancing before and after the singing sessions will keep us warm in the late winter cold!
Accommodations at Hulbert Center are largely quadruple rooms; at Menucha, in rooms for six. A limited number of double rooms are available at both locations.
Cost for each weekend is $220 per person in shared bunk rooms or $300 per person for a double room. The price includes six meals. Full tuition is due at the time of application. Up to 60 participants.
Teacher bios:
VILLAGE HARMONY FOUNDER & DIRECTOR LARRY GORDON has been making community music in Vermont since the early 1970s. He founded Village Harmony in 1988. Though his first love was medieval and renaissance music, he is a vital figure in New England shape-note singing. Larry is an inspired organizer with an unerring eye for good repertoire and a unique knack of pulling together interesting combinations of singers and letting them shine. His patient and relaxed, yet demanding, teaching style and collaborative approach have shaped the welcoming atmosphere of the Village Harmony community since the beginning. Larry has led Onion River Chorus in Montpelier since the late 1970s, and is well known across the US and internationally for leading stunning periodic ad-hoc incarnations of Northern Harmony, a semi-professional tour group made up largely of veteran Village Harmony singers.
VILLAGE HARMONY CO-DIRECTOR 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 and published two volumes of The Folk Rhythm South African songbook series, as well as three books of Georgian folk and sacred songs. She has also compiled a large collection of her own arrangements of old gospel-quartet music.
NATHAN MORRISON hails from the mountains of Vermont where he grew up exploring the woods and music of all kinds. His parents sang with Larry Gordon in the late 80’s, thereby influencing the styles of singing Nathan would come to love in high school while singing with Village Harmony. He managed to escape high school a year early to sing with Northern Harmony in Europe and across the US before heading to Hampshire College. After deciding definitely not to study music, he designed a major combining jazz and religious experiences. Always ready to play with new varieties of music, Nathan is thrilled to be singing with Village Harmony once again, with the added bonus of traveling through New England in the summer.
SUZANNAH PARK began participating in Village Harmony Camp when she was twelve, but has been singing virtually from the moment she could speak. She comes from a family of three generations of professional traditional musicians and singers, and has performed and taught for the past 13 years. Her intuitive teaching style, born of a lifetime of familiarity with American folk music, makes her an extremely valuable teacher. She recently moved back to North Carolina, the place of her birth, where she is making music, gardening and clogging. This is Suzannah's eighth year teaching at Village Harmony. www.suzannahpark.com.
FACILITIES:
Hulbert Outdoor Center, Fairlee, Vermont
Located on the shores of Lake Morey in Vermont. The main building is a traditional farmhouse, with attached kitchen, dining, meeting and living room. Accommodations include winterized cabins, each with three or four bedrooms, two baths and cozy living rooms. Winter facilities include cross-country skiing and snow-shoeing trails, and a lighted ice-skating area on the lake.
http://www.alohafoundation.org/hulbert/
Menucha Retreat & Conference Center, Corbette, Oregon
A 100-acre ecumenical sanctuary in Oregon’s Columbia River Gorge, situated 700 feet above the river with plenty of walking trails among old-growth conifers, heirloom gardens and perennial springs. We will have use of Wright Hall, where we will rehearse in the Great Hall, keeping cozy at night with its huge stone fireplace; the hall also has a recreation area and several smaller meeting/rehearsal rooms.