Workshops Sunday Morning

We will take a look at our own stage frights and perspectives on how to overcome our fears and let the music be our guide to success and comfort. Activities will entail conversation, personal revelation, and actual demonstration. We will engage in breathing exercises, a meditation, and a group singing that creates a sense of security. You will physicalize the bonds that connect us and enjoy the freedom of movement. There will be a list of Creative Vitamins to build together. This workshop was quite successful in its last incarnation. It truly tailors itself to the people who partake – an emotional experience as we release tensions and discover our own “vulnerable strength”. What a relief to finally be back on the stage while we navigate this pandemic. If we can manage to overcome Corona, we can take on that which scares us in the performance arena. We will work in a safe environment, and inspire a supportive and positive, artistic community. More on Kim Nazarian

The Vocal Painting (VOPA) system offers an advanced set of tools to lend shape and structure to “music of the moment” in any choir. Both conductors and singers are able to implement live arranging, live composing, re-arranging, re-composing, use of contrasting elements such as shifting keys, modules and time signature etc. during a performance. It can also be used within traditional repertoire to convey details during rehearsals and live in concert.
VOPA has its roots in Soundpainting, which is the universal multidisciplinary live composing sign language for musicians, actors, dancers, and visual artists. Presently the language comprises more than 1500 gestures. The Soundpainting language was created by Walter Thompson in Woodstock, New York in 1974.
VOPA is a vocal evolution of his original music sign language, developed by professor Jim Daus Hjernøe from The Royal Academy of Music, RAMA Vocal Center, Denmark. In VOPA it has become a new language for vocal art, used to complement conventional conducting techniques of choir music. VOPA is currently consisting of 75 signals and more are in the making. The signals are easy to understand and the conductor can use them to adjust the musical expression within every desired musical parameter. Through the development of VOPA, as a pedagogical tool and an artistic methodology, the signals have shown to be surprisingly effective as an easy and fast way to create music with singers of all levels, from audience participation to the highest professional level of vocal arts.
This workshop is presented in collaboration with RAMA Vocal Center. More on Jim Daus Hjernøe

To sing is a full-body experience. This part of the workshop consists of a physical warm-up that will be tied to the teaching of our version of the tribal song ‘Trilon’; a very powerful and unifying musical experience for all participants as well as teachers. The song is about a ship that is being called to the shore by its tribe. It is originally from the stoney coast of Västra Götaland, where it is easy to imagine women communicating with each other along the coast – ‘Trilon, Trilon – there he is, there he is – close to shore’. More on Åkervinda

Developing solutions for the “in between”
– How do you elegantly get from finishing one song in your set-list to beginning the next? And how do you avoid losing the connection with the audience in this transition also known as the “in between”?
We are used to practicalities being part of the overall experience in choral performances. When a piece ends, the transition into the next musical moment may include a variety of elements such as singers moving into different positions, someone giving an introduction to the next piece, potential technical issues being dealt with (cables, microphones, stands, sheet music) and new pitches to the singers. We often neglect the fact that these actions matter in the overall experience, just like we pretend that clothing, how singers enter the stage, how the space is lit, decorated or arranged are ultimately neutral factors in regards to the musical experience. Well – they are not! In this workshop we will practically try out tools from the Concert Design Concept, by Astrid Vang-Pedersen, and solutions showing how to musically, aesthetically and dramaturgically move from piece to piece in a concert rundown. Participants will sing, move, speak and improvise, creating different versions of transitions that potentially transform our experiences as singers, performers and audiences. More on Astrid Vang-Pedersen

We will dig into some fun arrangements of groovy, sensual, and powerful hit songs from the past couple of decades.
Let’s get into the emotion, styling, and dynamics of the music and use a variety of facets within our voices.
This workshop is presented in collaboration with Kor72.
More on Morten Kjær