2008 Camps and Workshops
Teen Session: Toronto/New England III
August 3 – August 23
Snake Island, Lake Simcoe , Ontario
Led by Larry
Gordon, Alan Gasser, Dessi Stefanova
Tuition: $1200
Breaking new geographic ground, this camp will rehearse on a scenic island in Lake Simcoe north of Toronto, and then perform across Ontario, Montreal, and into northern Vermont.
Dessi Stefanova, a Bulgarian singer now living in London, is an experienced teacher of Bulgarian folk music with the marvelous ability to communicate the vocal techniques and ornamentation of the unique Bulgarian singing style. Alan Gasser, a singer and choir leader from Toronto who founded the Georgian Trio Kavkasia, will lead a variety of Georgian songs as well as contemporary and early music pieces. Village Harmony director Larry Gordon will bring shape-note and South African songs and a set of pieces by Estonian composers Veljo Tormis and Urmas Sisask.
Campers coming from New England will be able to catch a ride from Vermont to Toronto with Larry on the Village Harmony bus.
The Lighthouse
The Lighthouse, is a rustic, rambling, cottage, built on Snake Island, three minutes by boat from the south shores of Lake Simcoe and one hour north of Toronto. Its spectacular panoramic lake view offers beautiful sunsets, swimming, and lots of outdoor activities on the winding path around the island. There is also has lots of private property for dancing, singing and performing. The Lighthouse has over 15 bedrooms to sleep 30-40 people and has all the modern conveniences including a full kitchen, wrap-around deck and several rehearsal spaces.
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.
ALAN GASSER lives in Toronto, where he teaches vocal music
and sings. For more than 20 years, he has sung and taught Georgian music
in a wide variety of groups and places: from elementary schools, to university
music students and the professional recording studios or stages of the CBC,
the Caliban Quartet and Kitka. An oft-time teacher at adult
and teen camps of Village Harmony, he is also the founder of Worldsongs
Vocal Camps in Canada. He has co-led the Echo Women's Choir with
Becca Whitla since 1993, and was the founder of Trio Kavkasia and Darbazi in
Toronto. In addition to teaching hundreds of people to sing Georgian
music, he has recorded several CDs of Georgian music with his trio, Trio
Kavkasia, and various other ensembles.
DESSI STAFANOVA from the UK, moved to England in 2000
straight from the world-famous Philip Koutev National Folk Music and Dance
Ensemble in Sofia, Bulgaria. She was immediately in demand to teach the unique
Bulgarian singing style so decided to stay and set up singing workshops - a
project which quickly developed and led to the establishment of the London
Bulgarian choir. The choir which now has twenty members, meets at the Bulgarian
Embassy and trains singers not in classical but in the Bulgarian natural style "from
the chest and the heart".
Dessi was born in Stara Zagora and started her (western) classical musical training at the age of five. But the formal and restrictive style did not suit her and it was not long before she was experimenting in other creative directions at the Children's Folk Music and Dance Company, Zagorche. While at Sofia University, Dessi successfully auditioned for the Philip Koutev Ensemble and continued her career as a professional singer.
Since her arrival in London, Dessi has recorded a CD, "Wild Wind - A Course in Authentic Bulgarian Singing" and worked on two soundtracks for Warner Brothers: "The Red Planet" and Walt Disney's "Atlantis". She is currently leading the London Bulgarian Choir, singing with story-telling company "A Spell In Time", spearheading vocal trio "The Dessibelles" and bringing together renowned Balkan musicians in the Orpheya project.