Students practice meaningful storytelling through movement and character development, original spoken text, and exaggerated theatrical physicality. We explore authentic feelings and humor, experimenting with the most effective mediums to illustrate the content. This class is appropriate for both actors and dancers, those drawn to creating original performance, and anyone interested in self-discovery through expression. Longer…
Request ProgramMusical Performance and Workshops
Singing the Sights How do you sing a horse, or polka dots, or a sunset?
Voices communicate beyond words. Singing has a visual aspect. We’ll explore vocal tone and expression and use non-verbal aspects of singing to describe and convey elements of visual art such as color, texture, mood, and form. How does sound link to sights? We’ll draw what we hear and sing what we see.
Request ProgramCollaborative Song-making: How are songs made?
Group/collaborative song-making is a social and approachable way of exploring the craft. We’ll engage in playful aspects of the creative mind in sourcing song topics, lyrics, chord progressions, and melodies. Together we’ll create a song or songs based on a chosen theme or simply pull from the vast realm of imagination. Tools shared can easily…
Request ProgramSinging as Self-Care & Embodied Expression
Diane relates the joy of singing through experiential exercises that focus on physical sensation and personal expression. We’ll explore our unique instruments through spontaneous song-making, toning, and finding creative entryways into harmony. We’ll open up our intuitive connection to the voice, fostering a learning/sharing environment that’s encouraging, buoyant and deep. This workshop is for anyone…
Request ProgramYou Have What it Takes to Be a Performance Artist
What the heck IS performance art? Is it visual art? Theatre? Social Experiment? Performance art is expansive and seems to defy easy definition, and yet it’s the biggest movement in the art world in the last 100 years. In this introductory workshop, we will first take a video voyage through the history of the form…
Request ProgramWorld Beat Workshop
The World Beat Workshop, with drummer Robert Jospé and percussionist Kevin Davis, engages students in exploring the diaspora of West African rhythms in the Americas and their influence in current music styles. Using a map, percussion instruments and music charts, this interactive program brings musical, historical, cultural, and geographical information to life with the journey of clave. Join this musical journey from West Africa to Cuba, Trinidad/Tobago, the Dominican Republic, Brazil, and New Orleans, all the while learning about the evolution of dance through the blending of cultures.
Request ProgramThe French Perspective
The D’Amore Duo brings together the outstanding young virtuosos: American guitarist William Feasley and Russian oboist Vladimir Lande. In performances marked by the distinct coloring of their contrasting instruments and musical heritage, they play with a musical vitality that sparkles with insight and originality. Winners of the 1990 Baltimore Chamber Music Awards and the 1993 Montpelier Recitalist Competition, The D’Amore Duo is quickly gaining recognition as a popular component of many chamber music series, and their workshops, master classes, and children’s programs are renowned. This ensemble concert features Feasley on the guitars and theorbo, and Lande on the oboe and baroque oboe. This concert includes works by composers including Napoleon Coste, Robert de Vissee, Claude Debussy, Gabriel Faure, Andreas Pfloger, Jean Francaix, and Jacque Ibert.
Request ProgramMichael Jefry Stevens and Friends: What is Jazz?
This introduction to jazz, geared toward non-musicians, involves the music of well-known American jazz composers, such as Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, and Miles Davis, and a historical perspective of the music. The role of various jazz instruments is examined. In addition, discussions of music as a language, and jazz as self-expression, are featured. The workshop can easily be combined with a mini-concert.
Request ProgramKid Pan Alley
The initial inspiration for Kid Pan Alley came after a successful songwriting residency in Rappahannock County, Virginia. Since that time, Kid Pan Alley has shared the joys of songwriting with children around the country. The organization’s mission is not only to give children a hands-on opportunity to participate in the creative process, but also to help them develop a broader awareness of the world around them, including exposure to pertinent environmental, social, and political issues.
Request ProgramJazz Concert: Fonda/Stevens Group
Performing together in various ensembles for more than 20 years , this powerful acoustic New York City-based jazz ensemble features the music of bassist Joe Fonda and pianist Michael Jefry Stevens, performing with master percussionist Harvey Sorgen and the brilliant modern jazz trumpet legend Herb Robertson.
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