2008 Camps and Workshops
Italy
July 12-31, 2008
Rehearsal week in Belisio Solfare, Marche province, Italy
Led by Larry Gordon, Carlo Pozzoli, Matlakala Bopape
Tuition: $1500
This session returns to the site of our first Italian Village Harmony camps. We will rehearse in the village of Belisio Solfare in the scenic central eastern province of Marche, hosted by the colorful priest Don Luigi. Carlo, who has led VH sessions in Italy and in the US with Village Harmony since 1998, will lead a variety of renaissance, early baroque and traditional Italian repertoire. Matlakala, who hosts our summer camps in South Africa and who has taught at numerous Village Harmony sessions in Europe and the US, will teach an exciting set of South African songs and dances. Larry will bring a varied set of American traditional songs and a few contemporary pieces. We would like to have a band for some of the early music pieces, so we will welcome some experienced string or wind or keyboard players.
There will be the opportunity for a number of day trips during our rehearsal week—to the eastern beaches, to the hill-town of Urbino, and to the incredibly vast and beautiful grottos at Frasassi. Our concert tour itinerary will include performances in Marche province, in Bologna, in Milano and its environs, in the mountains above Lake Como, and several days in the northeastern province of Friuli.
Flights from abroad will most likely be to Milano.
Faculty
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 ad-hoc incarnations of Northern Harmony, a semi-professional
tour group made up largely of veteran Village Harmony singers. Larry
will teach traditional and contemporary shape-note music and lead dancing
at the Winter Workshop.
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 ninth year teaching with Village Harmony, after a fortuitous initial meeting at Festival 500 in Newfoundland in 1999.
CARLO POZZOLI lives and works in the Milano area. His
first musical interest was the flute, although he grew up singing with his
family. He choose to work with choral music after his experiences in university
choirs. Carlo is interested in the large amount of sacred music hidden inside
the archives of Italian churchs and in the incredible variety of national
and international folk songs still extant in the country. Since 1982 he has
conducted folk choirs, both men choir singing in the typical mountain style
of the northern Italy, and mixed. Carlo also leads school and children choirs
as well as folk and polyphonic ones. Carlo has shared many important
choral experiences, including Village Harmony, with his wife, Giulia, also
a talented singer and organizer. Carlo loves being in the mountains,
cooking and bicycle riding.