Northern Harmony Weekend at Magdalen Farm – February 18-20, 2022

Date: February 18-20, 2022
Venue: Magdalen Farm
Leaders: Patty Cuyler, Bongani Magatyana, Northern Harmony
Price: £190/£230/£130

A wonderful UK weekend of inspiring world music and dance at beautiful Magdalen Farm in Somerset, UK.

The workshop, led by Village Harmony director Patty Cuyler, singer-composer Bongani Magatyana from Cape Town, and members of Northern Harmony.

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, music from world polyphonic traditions, and dance-songs from South Africa. With Northern Harmony singers supporting each vocal part, the teaching and learning is particularly efficient and gratifying.

Shared accommodations at Magdalen Farm are comfortable and spacious, meals are convivial, and the food is excellent. There are a few double rooms (first come first served), for those desiring more privacy, and there are shared rooms with three or four persons. Those desiring more privacy can also choose the commuter price and book B&B accommodations locally.

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Leaders

Patty Cuyler

PATTY CUYLER, born in California, educated at Princeton University, long-time resident of Vermont and currently living in Chicago, IL, is an energetic, dynamic workshop leader and choral director and is internationally-renowned for her expertise in teaching Corsican, Georgian and South African music. She has been co-director of Village Harmony since 1995 and over the years spear-headed the expansion of the organization’s reach into the four corners of the globe. It was primarily Patty’s vision and labor that shaped Village Harmony’s response to the pandemic year.

Patty has co-led Village Harmony’s community world music choir Boston Harmony (which she founded) since 2005 as well as the Chicago World Music Chorus (2013) closer to home.

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Bongani Magatyana

BONGANI MAGATYANA is a professional singer /music director /composer /theatrical producer living in Gugulethu Township in Cape Town, South Africa.

He was born in Cape Town in a township called Old Crossroads; his father was a self-taught choir conductor in the Old Apostolic Church. Bongani’s father taught him how to read and write tonic solfa music notation at a young age, and young Bongani dreamt of becoming a church choir conductor, too. Today he conducts a 120-voice OAC choir himself, as well as a community male choir.

Bongani’s folk-inspired choral compositions—popular pieces for South Africa’s major choral competitions—are sung by choirs around South Africa and internationally. Currently Bongani teaches at the Zolani Centre in Langa Township, leads an educational musical theatre company, and continues to compose music in a variety of genres, bringing vibrant performances to communities across Cape Town.

Bongani has been teaching with Village Harmony since 2012, co-leading annual study-performance camps and workshops in South Africa, the US and the EU. A dancer as well as singer, and he is particularly adept at communicating the elusive rhythms of South African songs.

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Northern Harmony

Northern Harmony’s brilliant young singers always share in the teaching at workshops. Many of them have participated in Village Harmony and Northern Harmony tours since their young teens, and many have studied traditional vocal styles first hand in Georgia, South Africa, Corsica and the Balkans.

Venue

Magdalen Farm

Set in the beautiful Somerset countryside along the River Axe, Magdalen Farm is a residential center converted from old stone farm buildings around a landscaped courtyard. There are 14 bedrooms with 2 to six beds in each, with shared bathrooms. The center is at the heart of a working farm and visitors are welcome to wander through the kitchen gardens and visit the farm animals.

Winsham, Maudlin
Chard, Somerset TA20 4PA
http://magdalenfarm.org.uk/

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