Camps and workshops
2009/2010 Midyear Weekend Workshops
Singing World Music:
A Two-Day Music Course for Teachers (and Singers)
Co-sponsored by Revels North
November 14-15 , 2009
Saturday 10 AM-8 PM, Sunday 10 AM-3 PM
Thetford Community Center, Thetford, VT
Open to all interested adults
and teens, but especially geared toward music teachers,
directors of school & community choirs, and those who sing in self-directed ensembles.
Tuition: $175 for adults/$100 for teens & low-income adults
($200 at the door)
A special training workshop aimed at providing music directors and ensemble singers alike with the tools and confidence to successfully teach & perform songs from selected traditional world music genres. Teachers can use this course to qualify for professional development credits towards teacher re-certification; we will be happy to provide curriculum description & verification of your participation. We will sing from and discuss a range of world polyphonic music traditions that can be performed in choral settings. These will include American shape-note singing, South African folk and gospel dance-songs, and traditional music from Caucasus Georgia, Bulgaria and ex-Yugoslavia. Particular emphasis will be placed on how to successfully take these songs and styles back to teach to your own choir.
“As an artist and educator, I was delighted to be in the presence of leaders so knowledgeable and comfortable with sharing that learning was effortless--even with the challenges of unfamiliar languages and diverse musical styles.
This aspect of Village Harmony bears great weight in our global community, as music is surely one of the best ways to connect people of
different cultures.”
Participants will receive scores, word-sheets and media files for songs taught, as well as pronunciation guides and a set of additional repertoire to take home. Singer-directors will be encouraged to test out teaching techniques for the various genres during the course of the workshop.
Participants should plan to bring pot-luck dishes to share for lunch and supper on Saturday, and for lunch on Sunday. You'll also want to bring comfortable indoor shoes that are suitable for dancing, for we will begin each day with instructional folk dancing. Instrument players are welcome to play in a pick-up dance band for which music will be provided.
Click on this link to access our ONLINE APPLICATION FORM to register for this course. You will be able to pay online (using PayPal) when you register, or you may also choose to send a check separately by mail.
The two-day workshop will take place at the Community Center, Route 113, in Thetford, VT. A Google map link will be sent to you automatically with your e-mailed registration confirmation.
Faculty
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.
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.