Village Harmony Week in Québec

Nicholas Williams has developed a reputation as a versatile and sought-after musician in the traditional music scenes of Québec and New England.  He is a member of the groups Genticorum (with Pascal Gemme and Yann Falquet), Traverse (with Laura Risk and Rachel Aucoin), and the Kehler - Williams duo (with Alex Kehler). 

A graduate of York University’s Fine Arts program, where he studied world music, composition, and improvisation, Nicholas has been deeply immersed in the traditional music of Québec, Ireland, Scotland, and Sweden for the last 20 years, especially interested in the intersection of song, music, and dance. 

More recently, he has turned his attention to his love of harmony singing, developing a reputation as a dynamic teacher, who easily taps into music’s power to connect and uplift.  Les Voix du Village, his thriving local singing community in the Eastern Townships of Quebec, now counts upwards of 200 weekly singers. 

Mary Cay Brass of Athens, Vermont is a long time veteran of the earliest years of Village Harmony camps. She directed the 80 -voice Greenfield Harmony for 25 years and continues to direct the wildly popular 70-voice River Singers in southern Vermont. She is also co-director of the Hallowell Hospice Singers. Mary Cay is also a dynamic contra-dance keyboardist and accordion player who focuses on Scandinavian, French Canadian and Balkan traditions. 

She spent two and a half years in the former Yugoslavia on a Fulbright Scholarship in ethnomusicology researching regional vocal traditions in Croatia and Serbia. She has published two book/CD collections of music from that region, Village Harmony, Songs of the Balkans and Balkan Bridges.

Mary Cay has also organized and led six Village Harmony trips in the Republic of North Macedonia, four in Bosnia and Hercegovina and co-led camps in Quebec and Lithuania.

Frank Watkins joined the faculty of Arizona State University in fall 2025 as Associate Professor of Music and Director of Choral Activities. Prior to his appointment at ASU, Watkins served as Director of Choral Activities at the University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire. 

Frank is in demand as guest conductor and clinician and has been active with Village Harmony, having taught workshops on Black Gospel Music in the United States, Republic of Georgia, Canada, and South Africa. 

Frank’s research interests include the intersectionality of race, class, and gender in the music of African-American Women in the 21st century and the use of intercultural music education as a catalyst for social change. In 2017, he led an International Fellows Program trip to Dakar, Senegal to study the use of hip-hop and rap as a form of non-violent political protest. In 2018, Frank led a subsequent International Fellows Program trip to Dakar, Senegal to study the use of music in the fight against colorism. In 2023, he presented workshops on Black Gospel music in Polokwane and Cape Town, South Africa.