Camps and workshops
2011 Midyear Weekend Workshops
Winter Weekend at Lake Morey
February 25-27, 2011
Hulbert Outdoor Center, Fairlee, Vermont
Tuition: $240 per person in 4-person shared bunk rooms or $320 per person for a double room. Special teen price, $180. Commuters welcome, $175.
Apply online to the Winter Weekend 2011
Led by Patty Cuyler ,Larry Gordon & Natalie Noyitski. In New England our sixth annual winter weekend will be held at the Hulbert Center in northeastern Vermont, its expansive grounds offering opportunities for cross-country skiing as well as ice skating on Lake Morey.
Join Village Harmony co-directors Larry and Patty and special guest teacher Natalie Nowytski from Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota for a rollicking weekend of song and dance. We’ll sing both as a big group and in smaller classes from the wide range of world music traditions for which Village Harmony is famed—songs from the American shape-note and gospel traditions, traditional music from the Carpathian Mountains and the Balkans, 3-part folk songs from Corsica and the Republic of Georgia, and dance-songs from South Africa. This is a well-beloved weekend—we expect up to 90 participants—and we usually have to turn away late applicants, so be sure to apply early to be assured a space.
Accommodations at Hulbert Center are largely quadruple rooms (two sets of roomy bunkbeds), with some double rooms available. Commuters are welcome. Cabins are winterized and have 3-4 bedrooms, two baths and cozy living rooms. For pictures and more, see their website: www.alohafoundation.org/hulbert.
Faculty
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.
Natalie Nowytski, a first-generation Ukrainian-American and native of Minnesota, sings in nearly 20 distinct vocal styles and plays a dozen folk and classical instruments. Classically trained by her grandmother, the legendary vocal coach Oksana Bryn, Natalie also traveled to Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, France and Ukraine to study culture and folk music from professional and village singers. In addition to a large roster of private voice students Natalie frequently teaches at vocal workshops and consults for various choirs (among them The Rose Ensemble and Kitka.) Natalie directed St. Paul's Mila Ensemble for a number of years (performing with them on A Prairie Home Companion and in Bulgaria) and currently is vocalist and instrumentalist for the east-European dance bands Orkestar Bez Ime, Traki and Seljuky--as well as performs and records with her duet partner, Reid Kruger, in the indie rock/pop ensemble AM Supper Club. www.natalien.com