Camps and workshops
Summer 2011 Residential Adult Camps
Oregon Cascades Adult Camp
SEPTEMBER 3-10 , 2011 (7 nights)
Led by Mary Cay Brass, Shergil Pirtskhelani & Valerie Mindel
This will be our fifth annual Labor Day singing camp at St. Benedict's Lodge in the Cascades. Bounded on one side by the wild, scenic McKenzie River and on the other by national forest, the 70-acre complex is an inspiring setting for our singing retreats. Be prepared for an eclectic harmonic convergence at this camp! Mary Cay will be teaching music from the former Yugoslav states of Bosnia, Croatia, Serbia & Macedonia and leading instrumentalists in a Balkan dance band. Val Mindel will coach fiddle-players in old-time string band style and lead the group in her arrangements of southern Appalachian folk music. And Georgian singer Shergil Pirtskhelani of Zedashe Ensemble will bring the rich and haunting harmonies of his native Republic of Georgia to the camp, teaching a set of traditional folk songs and chants from the Georgian orthodox church. The week, famous among VH camps for its unique kitchen staffed with singing volunteer chef-overseers and professional bakers, will include a Georgian supra (feast) at mid-week, and will conclude with a concert in the St. Benedict's chapel.
In residence at St. Benedict’s Lodge, McKenzie, Oregon
$675 ($600 optional tuition for low income applicants)
Leaders
MARY CAY BRASS of Putney, VT Mary Cay Brass is a veteran of the early days of VH. She directs several community choirs in Vermont and Massachusetts and is the co-musical director of Hallowell Hospice Choir. Mary Cay is also a highly-sought after contra-dance keyboardist and accordion player. She spent two and a half years in the former Yugoslavia on a Fulbright Scholarship in ethnomusicology. She has published two book/CD collections of music from that region. Mary Cay has led two very successful Village Harmony camps in Bosnia as well as one in Macedonia; she is taking a VH group back to Macedonia for a second program this summer.
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.
SHERGIL PIRTSKHELANI was born and raised in the northwest highland region of Svaneti, the third of eight siblings who learned to sing and dance traditional songs from their musical father. Shergil now makes his permanent home in Sighnaghi, where he is a musician and also carves furniture and makes instruments. Shergil sings bass and middle voice in Zedashe Ensemble and performs with the Jlekha dance troupe. He plays and teaches panduri (3-stringed lute from eastern Georgia), chonguri (4-stringed lute from western Georgia), and chuniri (bowed viol from Svaneti) as well as teaches singing in our camp sessions.
AT St. Benedict's Lodge, McKenzie River, Oregon
Located on the McKenzie River at the edge of the Willamette National Forest, St. Benedicts Lodge is an inspiring setting for singing, with close encounters with Oregon's famous old-growth fir trees. Rooms are primarily singles, with a few larger rooms, as well as a handicapped-accessible cottage. Easy access to wonderful hiking, hot springs, waterfalls. A big lawn in front, perfect for volleyball, frisbee, and dancing. http://www.op.org/stbenedicts/