Flawn Williams and I will do a short set together Tuesday evening. See you there!
Flawn Williams and I will do a short set together Tuesday evening. See you there!
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Augusta Heritage Center, Davis and Elkins College, Elkins WV
I'm excited to be teaching shape-note singing this year, as well as running the morning vocal warm-ups and doing the usual organizing.
We are a small chorus singing music of the 18th-century singing-school movement, a precursor to the great American tradition of shape-note singing. May 19th is the museum's Friendship Day, when it is free for the public from 1:00 to 4:00 PM, with fascinating craft demonstrations, including spinning, weaving, and blacksmithing.
Besides the usual vocal warmups and organizing, this year I have the exciting opportunity of teaching a class in medieval songs. I'm sad that Ann Downey can't be with us but happy to have the chance to do it!
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Augusta Heritage Center, Davis and Elkins College, Elkins WV
Be sure to check out the online offerings from Augusta this summer!
Once again I have the good luck to be running the morning warm-ups for Vocal Week at the Augusta Heritage Center!
Lineup:
Raging Grannies
Sarah Bowen-Salio and Chuck Bowen
Pittsburghers for Public Transit presentation and song (Dean Mougianis)
Penny Anderson
Casa San Jose presentation (and song?)
Chie Togami and friends
Smokestack Lightning and friends
On the main stage just after Jesse Milnes and Emily Miller (gulp).
A one-hour sing with a little help for newcomers.
I'll be running vocal warm-ups again, one of my favorite things to do, the week of August 6th.
Vocal Week is August 7–12th this year. I'll be leading vocal warmups and acting as liaison for Flawn.
See the shape note page for details. All are welcome, no experience necessary!
Probably a little of me with my concertina while waiting for my friends to show up – then some shape note singing. We'll be done around 12:35. (For the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy through Calliope.)
Here are some photos of the event.
free
A crankie presentation with Annie Trimble and Ellen Gozion.
Wilkins School Community Center, 7604 Charleston Ave, Pittsburgh, PA
Not a performance! Everyone welcome to come sing from the Denson edition of the Sacred Harp. Pot-luck lunch at noon.
Free
Bach's Birthday celebration with a small choir and some instrumental music and a reception afterwards.
$15 suggested donation
I'll be leading the morning vocal warmups and running some evening jams for Augusta Heritage Center's Vocal Week.
Four 75-minute sessions Monday through Thursday of Augusta Heritage Center's week five.
In 18th-century New England a generation of self-taught composers created a new choral style. They were inspired by a grab-bag of materials including Handel’s oratorios, British “fuging tunes”, the “grave and solemne and plaine Tunes” of traditional psalmody, newfangled hymns, and their own unruly imaginations. This music truly lives at the intersection of the oral and written traditions, giving life to the vigorous voices of the working people who made it. It is fun to sing and there are many interesting texts, including William Billings’s “Chester” (arguably the first American national anthem), and the self-referential “Down Steers the Bass with Grave Majestic Air.” Too rambunctious and “incorrect” for the would-be sophisticated churches in the urbanizing northern states, the New England music gave birth to the shape-note tradition preserved in Appalachia and the deep South. We will sing some “plain” tunes, fuging tunes, anthems, and “set pieces,” in three or four-part harmony, selected from the work of Billings and his contemporaries. The ability to read music is helpful though not necessary, but students should be able to match pitch and hold a part.
Polish Hill Mayday Parade 2015, Lower Melwood Ave (past the Pittsburgh Filmmakers), Pittsburgh, PA
The still-unnamed MayDay Choir will sing Cat Jeoffrey again as part of an eclectic mix including a re-imagined shape-note hymn and a new composition by Joel Kennedy. We're also collaborating with the marching band.
Free