Archives: 2009
Camps in New England/Ontario for Teens
TEEN RESIDENTIAL SESSION
WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS
JULY 10-19
Led by Patty Cuyler, Val Mindel, Mollie Stone
This 9-day camp is geared for teenagers new to Village Harmony, as well as for those who can’t yet commit three weeks to a traveling camp. Joining us for the first time as a leader is long-time Village Harmony fan Mollie Stone of the Chicago Children’s Choir. Mollie will teach us a number of great dance-songs from South Africa. Village Harmony codirector Patty Cuyler will lead American shape-note songs, folk harmonies of eastern Europe and music of the Italian renaissance period. Val Mindel, long a favorite VH teacher, will lead the group in close-harmony arrangements of traditional Appalachian songs and gospel quartets. Instrumentalists can learn fiddle tunes with Val or play in a Balkan dance band with Patty. The session will culminate with Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon concert performances.
Rehearsal week at Stump Sprouts, West Hawley, Massachusetts
$675
Leaders
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.
VAL MINDEL, a veteran teacher at Village Harmony, is a versatile teacher, singer and instrumentalist. She focuses on teaching the mechanics of creating harmonies and arrangements as well as singing in small groups, using early American country, Appalachian, gospel and bluegrass repertory. She lives in southern Vermont and leads adult harmony workshops there and around the country, often with daughter and fellow Village Harmony leader Emily Miller. She was a member of the 1970s string band, Any Old Time, has performed and taught in Hong Kong, Canada, Scotland and England, and was a long-time instructor at Chicago’s Old Town School of Folk Music.
MOLLIE STONE grew up singing in the Chicago Children's Choir, where she experienced how powerfully music can bridge gaps between people of different racial, religious, and socioeconomic backgrounds. Mollie now serves as the associate conductor of the Chicago Children's Choir, having received her bachelor's degree from Amherst College in 2001 and her
master's degree in conducting from Westminster Choir College in 2004. In 2001, she received a grant from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation to create a DVD,"Vela, Vela," to help educators learn and teach black South African choral music in the oral tradition. In 2006, Mollie received another grant enabling her to work with a number of South African choirs and musicians to study how they are using choral music in the struggle against HIV. Mollie leads workshops on black South African choral music across the country, and is currently pursuing her doctorate in conducting at Northwestern University.
Stump Sprouts Retreat Center
West Hawley, Massachusetts
Situated in rural northwest Massachusetts, Stump Sprouts is a rustic multi-season resort and retreat facility. The center of activity is our hand crafted guest lodge, converted dairy barn, and 200 year old farmhouse. Located on 450 acres of woods and meadows, featuring splendid vistas and hiking trails, and organic gardens that will provide vegetables for the kitchen, these unspoiled lands set the stage for two Village Harmony teen retreats this year.