Camps and Workshops
2011 Midyear Weekend Workshops
Columbia River Gorge Weekend
June 3-5, 2011
Menucha Retreat & Conference Center, Corbett, Oregon
$240 per person in shared bunk rooms or $320 per person for a double room. Special teen price, $185. Commuters welcome, $175. The weekend begins with supper at 6 pm on Friday (you are welcome to arrive anytime after 4 pm) and ends with a review of the songs learned on Sunday, finishing at 3 pm.
Apply online to the Columbia River Gorge Weekend 2011
Village Harmony’s annual west coast world music singing weekend at the Menucha Center, located on the south side of the scenic Columbia River Gorge. Led by Village Harmony co-director Patty Cuyler, Seattle Balkan singer Mary Sherhart and VH alumna Aurelia Shrenker of the folk duo, AE.
Come sing American traditional shape-note and Appalachian songs, traditional and arranged folk songs from the Balkans and Georgia, music from the island of Corsica, and South African songs and dances. Bring your dancing shoes for Balkan line-dancing and English country dancing. Instrumentalists will be welcome to join in forming an ad-hoc workshop dance band.
Accommodations are largely in rooms for six to eight, with a limited number of double rooms available. Commuters are welcome. A 100-acre ecumenical sanctuary in Oregon’s Columbia River Gorge, Menucha Center is high above the Columbia River with walking trails, old-growth trees and perennial springs. The workshop will take place in Wright Hall, with it’s Great Hall, keeping cozy at night with its huge stone fireplace. For more information about Menucha, go to: www.menucha.org.
Faculty
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. With Matlakala, 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.
MARY SHERHART of Seattle is one of America's leading teachers of Balkan singing and one of the few non-native artists to be recognized and loved by ethnic audiences. She is the first president of the Sevdah North America, a nonprofit educational organization formed to promote and preserve the traditional urban music of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Mary lived in Bulgaria for fifteen months in 1984-85, when she performed and toured with the choir of the professional folklore ensemble Varna, and studied with traditional artists throughout the country. Mary teaches Balkan singing and culture in workshops with ethnic communities, choirs and general public, and at festivals throughout the country. Along with singing, Mary's workshops include a strong message of finding one's passion in life and the well of joy that music offers. www.marysherhart.com
AURELIA SHRENKER With a foundation in classical voice, Aurelia has sung traditional music from around the world since she was thirteen. Originally from Massachusetts, Aurelia has traveled extensively, touring Europe and the United States with Village Harmony & Northern Harmony. A former student of ethnomusicology at UCLA and NYU, Aurelia currently lives in Brooklyn. Aurelia has studied Georgian music for eight years and has visited the Republic several times as a musician, volunteer, and tour-guide. She currently performs as a soloist and with Æ, singing repertoire which blends traditional music from Appalachia, the Balkans, Caucasus Georgia, and Corsica with a special twist. In addition to their album, Æ is featured in the soundtrack of "The Great Soviet Eclipse", the newest film produced under the auspices of the Museum of Jurassic Technology.