2009
Camps in New England/Ontario for Teens
NEW ENGLAND III
ONTARIO/QUEBEC/VERMONT
AUGUST 1-20
Led by Patty Cuyler, Larry Gordon, Robert Bouthillier
Last summer’s inaugural VH session in Canada was a great success and this year promises to be even more exciting. We are especially thrilled to have as a co-leader Robert Bouthillier, one of the foremost collectors and teachers of Quebecois song, who will teach a set of that repertoire and provide insight into the traditional French Canadian culture. Patty and Larry will bring their wealth of South African, Balkan, Georgian, Corsican and American repertoire. Larry will also be leading lots of Balkan and English country dancing. Another treat for the group is the addition of Village Harmony veteran Will Thomas as an intern, who will teach a few of his own exciting compositions. Once again the rehearsal week will be in the spectacular setting in the Cottage Country/ Toronto area. Highlights of the tour will include picturesque rural Ontario towns, the Ottawa Folk Festival, Montreal and Quebec City, and a final few concerts in northern Vermont. Instrumentalists welcome for lots of dance band playing!
New England participants can catch a ride to camp from Montpelier in
one of the VH vans.
Rehearse in Cottage Country/ Toronto area
$1,225
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 a women’s Corsican trio 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.
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.
ROBERT BOUTHILLIER is a leading collector, teacher and performer of Quebecois traditional song. Since the 1970’s he has done extensive fieldwork recording songs of older traditional singers in Quebec and the Acadian regions of New Brunswick. He performs with the traditional mostly-acappella trio Serre, harmonizing versions of these traditional songs, with whom he has recorded three CDs. Robert has also worked in Brittany, France as director of Dastum, a cultural association that collects and diffuses Breton traditional song and dance. He presently is Director of Conseil Québécois du Patrimoine Vivant in Quebec. This will be Robert’s first time teaching with VH.
Lake Simcoe
Ontario, Canada
Our retreat center is a rustic, rambling island cottage, three minutes by boat from the south shores of a lake in the Cottage Country/ Toronto area. Its spectacular panoramic lake view offers beautiful sunsets, swimming and lots of outdoor activities on the winding path around the island. There nice areas for dancing, singing and performing. The main house has fifteen bedrooms, a wrap-around porch and several rehearsal spaces.