Village Harmony
Winter Camp 2012
South Africa!
January 14-February 2, 2012
Led by Matlakala Bopape, Patty Cuyler
and Suzannah Park
This will be Village Harmony’s fifth study-performance camp in South Africa since our first visit there in 2003. You will come away from the 18-day adventure with an insider's understanding of the musical and cultural diversity of South Africa as we first rehearse in a game reserve and then meet up with local choirs and dance groups and enjoy the hospitality of homestay hosts during a 10-day performance tour throughout the South Africa's northeastern quadrant.
The repertoire of the camp will focus on South African songs and dances, including traditional gospel, church chorus, folk and struggle songs. Four singers from Matlakala’s Polokwane Chorale will join in the camp, enriching the learning experience and cultural exchange. Patty and Suzannah will lead a sampling of other styles, including Eastern European and American folk arrangments to add diversity to our concert program.
The camp proper will begin with a week spent learning our concert repertoire at the D'Nyala Game Preserve in Limpopo Province on Saturday afternoon January 14. We will arrange transportation there from Johannesburg that morning. We encourage singers to arrive in Johannesburg at least a day earlier to adjust to the time change.
Our touring itinerary will include concerts in Polokwane, Haenertsburg, and Tzaneen in Limpopo Province; Pretoria and Soweto in Gauteng; and Pietermaritsburg and Durban in KwaZulu-Natal. The camp's final concert will be in Johannesburg. We will investigate various flight options and make recommendations but participants will be responsible for making their own flight bookings.
Space in the camp is limited to 25. Application is by online registration only. All applications logged by July 25, 2011 will be given equal consideration in the first round of admissions for this camp, with the caveat that we will be looking for a balance of men's and women's voices in the group. After this date singers will be admitted on a rolling basis as space allows.
Tuition includes instruction, most food, lodging and on-ground transportation during the camp period. Expect some meals out. Participants are responsible for their own transportation to and from South Africa.
$1950
Faculty
MATLAKALA BOPAPE, of Polokwane, South Africa, is the director of Polokwane Choral Society—a community-based group whose aim is nurturing musical talent in African society. As a director, Matlakala is committed to drawing out musical excellence from her singers, as well as exposing them to musical cultures of the world. Her limitless patience, careful attention to vocal technique, and rich repertoire of folk and contemporary South African choral music make her a formidable teacher. This will be Matlakala’s 12th year teaching with Village Harmony, after a fortuitous initial meeting with Patty & Larry at Festival 500 in St. John, Newfoundland in 1999.
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.
SUZANNAH PARK began participating in Village Harmony Camp when she was twelve, but has been singing virtually from the moment she could speak. She comes from a family of three generations of professional traditional musicians and singers, and has performed and taught for the past 13 years. Her intuitive teaching style, born of a lifetime of familiarity with American folk music, makes her an extremely valuable teacher. She recently moved back to North Carolina, the place of her birth, where she is making music, gardening and clogging. This is Suzannah's tenth year teaching at Village Harmony. www.suzannahpark.com.