Circlesongs! A Free Community Workshop
Date
September 7Time
10:00 am - 12:00 pmRSVP and Join Us for a Free Community Workshop
RSVP to the Free workshop on Saturday, September 7 in collaboration with Washington Improv Theatre! Everything is music if you're really listening. In CircleSongs we refine the delicate and increasingly rare art of listening. To each other, to our bodies, to our instincts. Circle singing is an approach to vocal improv developed by Bobby McFerrin and his collaborators in the Voicestra in the 90s. But it's really about more than singing. Movement, free-form storytelling, poetry or rap, beatboxing...anything can have a place in the circle. In this workshop, you'll learn the basic elements of CircleSinging, explore some small and large group expressions, and have a lot of fun.
Circle Singing is an approach to vocal improv developed by Bobby McFerrin and his collaborators in the Voicestra in the 90s. One person (or 2 or 3) stands in the middle of the group and improvises a simple idea, teaches it to a portion of the group who continues to repeat it, and then builds on that idea with a few more ideas taught to the remaining group. Elements can be rhythmic, melodic, spoken, movement based, etc., but must be simple and loop-able. When the entire group is singing together, the leader may improvise freely over what they have imagined into existence if they wish. Then another participant takes the center and develops the idea, or takes the group in a new direction.
Meet the Instructors:
Amado Ohland: Amado Ohland is an educator, vocalist, composer, and performer. He holds an MA in Music Composition from Radford University, and has completed coursework towards his DMA in Composition at West Virginia University. He has vocal experience in Jazz, Blues, Rock, a cappella, and choral music in Baltimore, D.C., Philadelphia, Orlando, Pittsburgh, and southwestern Virginia. He has songwriting experience in Prog Rock, Art Rock, and Jazz/Blues-Rock, and composing experience in choral, wind quintet, piano, and brass quintet. Amado attended Bobby McFerrin’s Circlesongs workshop in the summer of 2011, and again in 2012, 2013, and 2014. He credits these week-long retreats for re-invigorating his music-making, and for a significant transformation on both a musical and a personal level. He has been leading Community Circlesinging Events since 2012.
Amado Ohland: Amado Ohland is an educator, vocalist, composer, and performer. He holds an MA in Music Composition from Radford University, and has completed coursework towards his DMA in Composition at West Virginia University. He has vocal experience in Jazz, Blues, Rock, a cappella, and choral music in Baltimore, D.C., Philadelphia, Orlando, Pittsburgh, and southwestern Virginia. He has songwriting experience in Prog Rock, Art Rock, and Jazz/Blues-Rock, and composing experience in choral, wind quintet, piano, and brass quintet. Amado attended Bobby McFerrin’s Circlesongs workshop in the summer of 2011, and again in 2012, 2013, and 2014. He credits these week-long retreats for re-invigorating his music-making, and for a significant transformation on both a musical and a personal level. He has been leading Community Circlesinging Events since 2012.
Steve Quintilian: Steve Quintilian has been privileged to share his knowledge of voice with vocal professionals from the worlds of theatre, opera, education, voiceover, and business through Estill courses, private coaching, and courses at The Theatre Lab. He is an actor, musician and director, performing in and around Maryland, DC and Virginia, and beyond. He teaches private lessons in Takoma Park and online, and was recently awarded an artist’s development grant by Montgomery County for his voice studio. He is the co-director of Encore Theater Company in Takoma Park, MD. Training: BA in music from Towson University; Estill Voice International (Estill Master Trainer); Theatre Lab Honors Acting Conservatory.