Occitan Music Week
in Provence, France

Occitan Music Week

June 7-13, 2026

  • Leaders: Brendan Taaffe, Karine Berny, Audrey Peinado, Lorenzo Valera

  • Rehearsal Venue: Monastere de Segries, a former Cistercian monastery in Moustiers-Sainte-Marie, France, one of the most beautiful villages of Provence which has been converted into a guest house, serving organic farm-to-table meals—very much on the luxurious side for Village Harmony.

  • Price:  $1500 / $1250 youth—for twin/double room accommodations.

  • Single rooms are available for a surcharge.

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“I don't know if I can put into words the excitement you stir up with the amazing music you find and bring to us through your travels and your international contacts. We get a visceral experience of different worlds when we sing a people's music as they would sing it, as opposed to through the lens of an arranger. Over and over, I found myself exclaiming out loud at some surprising cadence, some wild harmonic digression. To be able to sing this music, to learn what the words mean, was to participate in cultures worlds away from mine --such a privilege.”
-Adult camp participant

 

Please join us for out third year of singing at the fabulously luxurious Monastère de Ségriès in the hills of upper Provence. We welcome back Karine Berny and Audrey Peinado who will share traditional Occitan repertoire. This year we will also expand the spectrum of Mediterranean harmony and get the chance to work with Lorenzo Para, who will share songs from northern Italy.

Monastère de Ségriès is a loving converted Cistercian monastery a couple of miles outside of Moustiers-Ste-Marie, an area of outstanding natural beauty. The kitchen staff will prepare gourmet meals, the jugs of wine are free-flowing, and—if we’re lucky—the lavender fields that surround the area should be on the verge of blooming. The easiest airport to fly into is Marseille. You will be able to travel by bus to Riom, where we will arrange a shuttle to get you to the monastery. You may wish to hire a car if you want to be able to explore the area around Moustiers.

Occitan (langue d’oc) is the language of the Medieval Mediterranean, the language of the troubadours, a language suppressed by the Napoleonic ideal of a unified French identity that has been resurgent in recent decades. Encompassing dialects like Provençal, Occitan is the language of the troubadors and the Cathars, once widely spoken throughout southern France but then suppressed by the language of the northern court that we know now as modern French. Despite pressure from northern France, pockets of Occitan culture and music survived.

Meet our Leaders

  • Brendan Taaffe

    Brendan Taaffe is a composer, multi-instrumentalist, and visual artist who lives outside of Brattleboro, Vermont. His most recent work, The Bucolics Project, is a long-time collaboration with Kentucky poet Maurice Manning. The project is a collection of songs based on the poems in Manning’s 2007 collection, Bucolics, a conversation between a field hand and a divine being known only as Boss. Each song references an archival field recording from the Appalachian Sound Archives at Berea College, where Brendan was awarded a research fellowship in 2017. In 2025, Brendan received a Creation Grant from the Vermont Arts Council to support this project.

    Brendan has been working with Village Harmony as a song leader since 2004. Best known for his original compositions, he is also deeply versed in traditional American harmony and has spent extensive time studying song traditions in Zimbabwe and southern France. The bulk of Brendan’s choral compositions can be heard on four albums with The Bright Wings Chorus, recorded between 2011 and 2018. Brendan is also a visual artist and a writer.  

    When not making music, Brendan lives on a small homestead in southern Vermont with his dog, Blue.

  • Karine Berny

    A founding member of Occitan super-group La Mal Coiffée, this will be Karine’s second time teaching with Village Harmony.

    Originally from the Paris area, Karine studied the trumpet at conservatory and performed with the funk band Tarace-Boulba through the '90s before she ran off to join the circus with La Cirque Désaccordé. In 2008, she helped found La Mal Coiffée, whose rhythmically compelling arrangements of traditional Occitan repertoire have taken her around the world.

    As a teacher, Karine brings a deep knowledge of Occitan song, good humored encouragement, and beautifully clear teaching.

  • Audrey Peinado

    This will be Audrey Peinado’s third time teaching with Village Harmony. A precise and encouraging teacher currently living in Arles, Audrey will share songs from her native Provençe and, with Lorenzo, will share music from northern Italy. Audrey is passionate about different modes of traditional singing—including Italian popular music—and has trained at the Glottes Trotteurs training center in Paris.

    Audrey has been exploring Occitan polyphonies for nearly 20 years. Audrey regularly performs with musicians embedded in the life of this culture—including Chouer de la Roquette, Curmaia, Chant des Grenouilles and as part of Manu Theron’s Madalena project— and gives singing courses and workshops in Occitan polyphonies and balèti singing.

  • Lorenzo Valera

    A self-taught guitarist and accordionist, Lorenzo Valera has always been passionate about about traditional singing and working with major figures of the Italian folk revival like Giovanna Marini, Ivan Della Mea, and Moni Ovadia has profoundly shaped his approach to popular repertoires.

    Lorenzo co-founded several collective singing groups—Voci Mezzo, Cantarei, Passamontagne, and Bovisaincanta. Together with Laïla Säge, he founded the Compagnie Terracanto, based in Marseille, where he serves as artistic co-director and performs as a singer and instrumentalist. The company’s latest creation, Mulaterra, focuses on Alan Lomax’s field research in Italy in the 1950s.

    As well as performing, Lorenzo conducts field research and archival work on traditional singing and produces radio documentaries. He also leads Estacanti, a community choir in Marseille. 

Le Monastère de Ségriès

Le Monastère de Ségriès is a converted Cistercian monastery just outside the Parc Naturel Régional de Verdon, an outstandingly beautiful area where the Verdon river has cut deep gorges through the limestone cliffs. It is located 6km from Moustiers-Sainte-Marie in the Parc régional du Verdon in the Provence Alpes Côte d'Azur region of France. A village ranked as one of the most beautiful in France, Moustiers’ little cobbled streets, quaint shaded squares, small bridges, and waterfalls lend this mountainside village the charm for which it is famous.

The grounds boast a large garden containing trees that are centuries old, an amphitheater, a covered colonnaded cloister that opens out onto a courtyard and fountain, a well-being and fitness area, a sauna and covered terrace, a heated swimming pool, an orchard, vegetable garden and a greenhouse.

The monastery is located 6km from the village of Moustiers-Sainte-Marie, a 45-minute drive from Manosque and a 1 hour and 15-minute drive from Aix-en-Provence. We will be making mini-buses available for participants with pick-up/drop-off in Manosque.

Remaining true to the original style, each bedroom at the monastery has been renovated soberly and elegantly. Each has a unique decor, with comfortable bedding, en-suite bath/shower room, and toilet.