Camps and workshops
2010 Midyear Weekend Workshops
Winter Weekend at Lake Morey
February 26-28, 2010
Hulbert Outdoor Center, Fairlee, Vermont
Tuition: $225 per person in 4-person shared bunk rooms or $300 per person for a double room. Commuters, $155
Led by Larry Gordon, Patty Cuyler, Mary Sherhart. In New England our sixth annual winter weekend will be held at the Hulbert Center in northeastern Vermont, its expansive grounds offering opportunities for cross-country skiing as well as ice skating on Lake Morey.
Patty and Larry will be joined by Seattle singer Mary Sherhart, one of the country’s leading teachers of Balkan singing, and Northern Harmony instrumentalists for a rollicking weekend of song and dance. We’ll sing both as a big group and in smaller classes from the wide range of world music traditions for which Village Harmony is famed—songs from the American shape-note and gospel traditions, South African songs and dances, traditional and arranged music from Bulgaria and Bosnia, music from Georgia, and more. This is a well-beloved weekend—we expect up to 90 participants—and we usually have to turn away late applicants, so be sure to apply early to be assured a space.
Accommodations at Hulbert Center are largely quadruple rooms, with some double rooms available. Commuters are welcome. Cabins are winterized and have 3-4 bedrooms, two baths and cozy living rooms. For pictures and more, see their website: www.alohafoundation.org/hulbert.
Faculty
Village Harmony founder and director 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 adhoc incarnations of Northern Harmony, a semi-professional tour group made up largely of veteran Village Harmony singers.
Co-director 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. 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.
MARY SHERHART of Seattle is one of America's leading teachers of Balkan singing and one of the few non-native artists to be recognized and loved by ethnic audiences. She is the first president of the Sevdah North America, a nonprofit educational organization formed to promote and preserve the traditional urban music of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Mary lived in Bulgaria for fifteen months in 1984-85, when she performed and toured with the choir of the professional folklore ensemble Varna, and studied with traditional artists throughout the country. Mary teaches Balkan singing and culture in workshops with ethnic communities, choirs and general public, and at festivals throughout the country. Along with singing, Mary's workshops include a strong message of finding one's passion in life and the well of joy that music offers. www.marysherhart.com