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Old Songs Summer Camps are held at 
Old Songs Community Arts Center, 37 S Main St, Voorheesville, NY

10 miles southeast of Albany, NY

   

 July 5-9
 Fiddle & Strings
  Youth,
 
ages 6 to 18, all skill levels

Youth Camp participants

Learn to:

• find the core melody of a tune

• build style over the melody
  
and tell styles apart

• arrange tunes in medleys

• play 3/4, 2/4 and 6/8 rhythms

• find simple harmonies and chords

• use 5-note scales to compose tunes

DAILY SCHEDULE
  Morning

  9:00 . . . hall open, supervised jam
  9:30. . . .instrument class
  10:30 . . theory class
  11:30. . .instrument class
  12:30. . .Lunch

  Afternoon
  1:30. . . master class - teacher rotation
  2:30. . . band practice
  3:30. . . special event
               Thurs. 3:30: Faculty Concert
  4:30. . . potluck & jam - family invite

Lessons in:

• Beginning thru advanced fiddle, banjo, guitar, bass
• Beginning thru intermediate piano/keyboard
• Ear-training - learn the tune the easy way
• Rhythm - playing with two-bar rhythm motifs
• “Bowing 707” - controlling and maximizing your bow
• Playing in an ensemble
• Finding a common rhythm
• Recovering when you “fall off” a tune
• Improvisation - drumming new rhythms on a core tune

 

FACULTY

Max Cohen
Donna Hébert
Jane Rothfield

see bios below



August 9-13
  
Fiddling Demystified
  for Strings
  
all ages, high-intermediate
  to advanced players

Fiddling Demystified

Fiddling Demystified for Strings camp...
brings Irish fiddle luminary Liz Carroll to teach with Franco-American and contra-dance fiddler Donna Hébert and old-time fiddler and banjo babe Jane Rothfield. Using Donna's right-left hand method to teach both melody and rhythm, they authentically demonstrate how to navigate from one style to another. The focus throughout the week will be on turning simple tune phrases into experimental rhythms, mining tunes in each style for a variable pulse, stitching their phrases together. Joining them and teaching rhythm, theory and guitar is Groovemama guitarist Max Cohen.

A week of immersion in rhythm which is then applied to each genre ends in a Friday afternoon student performance celebrating the whole camp family, staff and students. All three fiddlers are highly skilled teachers, coaching students into manipulating rhythm and ornamentation authentically within as many styles as students are willing to tackle! They will jump right off the cliff with you, so no worries! You'll have a happy landing as Donna, Jane and Liz provide the ultimate journey through groove in three very rhythmically different, yet melodically linked genres.

FACULTY

Liz Carroll
Donna Hébert
Jane Rothfield
Max Cohen

Skill level - We will have a one-hour Basic Fiddle (not beginners, but players who don't learn quickly). We'll encourage them to come to jams and take part in all group activities. Other than that, classes (and all jams) are aimed at a high-intermediate to advanced level to take advantage of the focus on manipulating rhythm.

Can I play something else besides fiddle?
You bet! We welcome fiddle, violin, viola, cello, bass, guitar, banjo, mandolin, dulcimer, flute, whistle, accordion and piano players.



 August 16-20
  
French Music Week
  
Fiddling songs, step and
  social dancing, guitar,
  cello and more!

French Week Faculty

Get your French
groove on...

with Québecois musicians and teachers Pascal Gemme (fiddle, chansons/songs) and Yann Falquet (guitar, songs) from Genticorum and Marie-Soleil Pilette teaching stepdance and calls the evening’s social dances. Montreal funnyman and singer Steve Normandin teaches piano and accordion. Young Franco-American fiddler and composer Daniel Boucher teaches his unique and popular repertoire and brings his Jam Français to camp, while Donna Hébert teaches the music of Franco fiddler Louis Beaudoin.

Learn the syncopated swing and twisted tunes of Québécois and Franco fiddle music and learn to sing, dance and play with that Northern “Je ne sais quoi”. This week offers evening jam sessions and dancing Monday - Thursday at the hall with staff members.

FACULTY

Daniel Boucher
Yann Falquet
Pascal Gemme
Donna Hébert
Steve Normandin
Marie-Soleil Pilette

see bios below



 Tuition/Registration


or fax to:
518-765-4248

Week I, ages 6-18, July 5-9 $350

Week II, all ages, August 9-13
tuition fee/registration not yet available

Week III, all ages, August 16-20 $500
(Includes 9 meals: 5 lunches, 4 dinners)

 

Use our pdf application form
and print, fill out and mail or fax to Old Songs

Please register using one of the choices at left, which may be mailed or faxed (518-765-4248) or contact us by phone (518-765-2815), Mon.-Fri., 10:00 am-4:30 pm Easter Time

A non-refundable Deposit of $50 is required at time of registration to hold your place in camp. Remainder must be paid no later than 2 weeks prior to start of camp.

We recommend calling Old Songs at 518-765-2815 to confirm available space before sending your application and fee. Space is limited to 25 campers each week.



Faculty

 

 

 

2009 brochure

CLICK ABOVE FOR 2009 SUMMER CAMP BROCHURE
in pdf format

2010 BROCHURE will be available early 2010

 

Donna HebertDonna Hébert
(Weeks I, II & III) A Franco-American fiddler who was mentored in the 1970s by Acadian fiddler Gerry Robichaud and Québécois-style Franco fiddler Louis Beaudoin, Donna Hébert has taught eight Franco fiddling apprentices through the NEA’s Master-Apprenticeship in the Folk Arts program. Donna was named a 2008 Massachusetts Artists’ Fellow in the Folk Arts by the Mass. Cultural Council, which also named her Creative Teaching Partner in Fiddling in the Massachusetts schools. A national ASTA clinician and adjunct fiddle instructor at Amherst College, Donna works with school string teachers in the Northeast to develop a regional model and curriculum integrating fiddling into school string instruction.

With Groovemama, Donna directs and coaches The Great Groove Band of young musicians at both Old Songs and Philadelphia Folk Festivals every year, as well as directing the program for these four summer weeks of camp at Old Songs. Performing with Chaterelle and The Beaudoin Legacy, Donna fiddles and sings in French. Her workshops focus on incorporating French rhythms and variations into the repertoire, and on the music of the family of Louis and Julie Beaudoin. She teaches a weekly adult novice fiddle class in Amherst from Sept. – June and will teach the novice class at Adult Week II and at French Accent Week IV. Donna is the publisher of the Fiddling Demystified series of instructional materials for violin, viola and cello. Says Darol Anger in his foreword to her Practical Guide for String Players, “Donna gets it all right!”

Liz CarrollLiz Carroll
(Week II) Since she was 18, when she astounded the Celtic music world by winning the Senior All-Ireland Championship, Liz and her fiddle have been amazing audiences around the globe. Her recordings and appearances on concert stages, television and radio, have established Liz as one of traditional music's most sought after performers. It should be noted that Liz's recordings are in the majority her own compositions, and they have given her a stature equal to that of her playing. When you listen to a Liz CD, you're hearing the tunes of a composer celebrated for invigorating the traditional styles of Irish music. Her compositions have entered into the repertoire of Irish and Celtic performers throughout the world. In 1994, the National Endowment for the Arts awarded Liz a National Heritage Fellowship for her great influence on Irish music in America, as a performer and a composer. First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton presented the award which bestows national recognition on artists of international stature.

Marie-Soleil PiletteMarie-Soleil Pilette
(Week III) Choreographer, caller, traditional step and contemporary dancer, Marie-Soleil Pilette spent years specializing in Québec's own traditional stepdance. Having graduated with a bachelor's in contemporary dance from UQAM, she has performed with "La Compagnie de Danse ethnique Migration" and the "Zogma Collective", amongst other dance troupes. Nowadays, she dances with the Rapetipetam band (led by stepdancer Pierre Chartrand) and is soloing in various projects and contexts, as well as her own work, throughout North America and Europe. Founder of "SANS TEMPS danse" dance company, she has choreographed "Échos Signés", "Mémoire ", " Chaises " and " Zone Gigue ", original pieces that integrate Québec stepdancing and percussive dance to contemporary dance.

Since 2005, Marie-Soleil has also been teaching stepdancing classes of all levels within her dance company. In high demand, she has been invited to share her expertise and talents as a teacher across Canada and the United States (Alasdair Fraser's Sierra Fiddle camp and Ashokan's Northern Week amongst others).

 

Jane Rothfield
Jane (Weeks I, II) has been teaching fiddle for over 25 years, at music camps, festivals and in her home studio in Niskayuna NY. Her method utilizes concepts from the Suzuki method (she was one of the 1st Suzuki kids!) and her own approach for e-z and quick learning! Jane easily moves between Appalachian Old Time, Scottish and Irish music while maintaining the essence, rhythm and feel of each fiddle style. She teaches, performs and records solo and with her teaching partners in five-member string band Groovemama as well as with her dance band, Jane's Gang and her new concert band, Red Hen. Her tune "Too Late for the Bacon" won the coveted award for Best Non-Traditional Tune at the 2006 Clifftop Appalachian Mountain Music Festival Contest.

Max CohenMax Cohen
Max (Weeks I & II) will teach beginning-advanced guitar for standard and open tunings, flatpick and fingerstyle. Bring your own or borrow a guitar! Max covers the basics of playing for the novice and will also challenge the experienced player with advanced tunings and chord progressions, theory and arranging, accompaniment styles and rhythm patterns. An audio engineer and producer, Max will demonstrate easy digital audio editing, so bring your laptop. A master of many grooves, Max plays for the daily jam sessions and works with small groups throughout the week. Max performs and teaches with Groovemama, singer-songwriter Richard Berman and with folk singer Priscilla Herdman.

Pascal GemmePascal Gemme
(Week III) Since the completion of his degree in big-band arrangements and classical and jazz guitar, Pascal has been searching for seldom heard songs and melodies and interpreting his own compositions with a unique, unmistakable style. Inspired to take up the fiddle by the playing of his grandfather, he developed a solid technique and acquired a wide repertoire through the years. He has played with and has been inspired by many great Québécois singers and fiddlers. He gave some master classes in the USA in recent years and since 2003 has taught fiddle in a folk music school in Montreal (École des Arts de la Veillée). Pascal is also a great singer of Quebec folk songs with a rich and interesting style and repertoire, mostly learned from older singers. Pascal does most of the arrangements for Genticorum and was also the arranger/composer for the show Chantier by Zeugma, a Québécois-Celtic-World dance company. He’s also working as a producer for different musical projects and a studio musician for commercial radio and television.

Daniel BoucherDaniel Boucher
(Week III) Franco-American fiddler who grew up in the French community of Bristol, CT. A builder by trade, and a prolific tune composer and a master of crooked-metered tunes. Also a fine singer with a true gift for comic timing, his funny French songs are bringing down the house at Beaudoin Legacy concerts.

Yann FalquetYann Falquet
(Week III) Yann is a truly active and creative acoustic guitar player on the Québécois music scene. He has explored many styles of music and completed a Bachelors degree in Jazz. Since then, he has developed a personal guitar style for Québec folk music, inspired by the playing of the accompanists of different cultures (Brittany, Scandinavia, Ireland, North America, etc). His involvement in traditional French Canadian music brought Yann to perform on numerous recordings, and to tour throughout Canada, the United States, and Europe. He also toured for three years with the Edmonton based celtic/world group The McDades.



 Contact ==>

 

 

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Mail registration forms to:

Old Songs, Inc.
PO Box 466
Voorheesville, NY 12186-0466

For more information
General info: Old Songs, Inc.
phone, email below

Program questions:
Donna Hébert -

Email:
Phone: 518-765-2815 Fax: 518-765-4248