Archives: 2009
Camps in New England/Ontario for Teens
This session is full. You may ask to be put on a wait-list.
NEW ENGLAND TRAVELING II:
VERMONT/NEW HAMPSHIRE/MAINE
JULY 10-29
Led by Larry Gordon, Matlakala Bopape, Suzannah Park
This camp returns for our rehearsal week to Sky Meadow in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom, with its beautiful ponds, and walking trails and spectacular sunsets. In her first New England visit in four years, Matlakala Bopape, from Polokwane, South Africa, will bring us a wealth of South African songs and dances, enriched by her deep knowledge of
the cultural background of the music. Suzannah will lead a selection of Appalachian and contemporary American harmony songs, assisted by husband/Village Harmony alum Nathan with his jazz and gospel keyboard skills and beautiful tenor voice. Larry will provide a typical-forhim mix of traditional and contemporary shape-note, Bulgarian, and
Georgian songs, and perhaps some unusual medieval or renaissance works, as well as leading English country and Balkan dancing. The tour will begin in northern Vermont, cross into Maine, then back through Massachusetts, New Hampshire and southern Vermont before ending in Montpelier.
Rehearse at Sky Meadow Retreat Center, Stannard, Vermont
$1,225
Leaders
Village Harmony founder and 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 adhoc incarnations of Northern Harmony, a semi-professional tour group made up largely of veteran Village Harmony singers.
MATLAKALA BOPAPE, of Polokwane, South Africa, is the director of Polokwane Choral Society—a community-based group whose aim is nurturing musical talent in African society. As a director, Matlakala is committed to drawing out musical excellence from her singers, as well as exposing them to musical cultures of the world. Her limitless patience, careful attention to vocal technique, and rich repertoire of folk and contemporary South African choral music make her a formidable teacher. This will be Matlakala’s ninth year teaching with Village Harmony, after a fortuitous initial meeting with Larry and Patty at Festival 500 in St. John, Newfoundland in 1999.
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.
Sky Meadow Retreat Center
Stannard, Vermont
With its beautifully renovated 100-year old dairy barn-turned-retreat center, Sky Meadow is located on an old Vermont homestead at the end of a dirt road in the Northeast Kingdom. Over 120 acres of land include open fields, forests with trails, ponds for swimming, an organic vegetable garden. Shared dorm rooms with large beds, fully equipped kitchen, outdoor gazebo and other structures. Village Harmony’s favorite space for smaller sessions.