Thanks for joining us for Vocal Week 2008! We’ve assembled a great community of teachers for this summer’s session. And we’re eager to help you learn, enjoy, and feel a part of Augusta, whether this will be your first visit with us or you are a long-time stalwart.

In this letter I'm including brief descriptions of the classes, and a tentative daily schedule, to help you begin to plan your singing days at Augusta. There are brand new singing classes and teachers in this year’s Vocal Week, as well as several returning favorites.

Vocal Week gets started right after the 7:00 pm general Augusta Orientation on Sunday evening August 3. Head over to the Chapel for the Vocal Week Convocation, to meet your instructors and learn more about their classes.  The singing also starts there, and runs through Friday evening August 8. This segues nicely into the Augusta Festival that happens August 8-10 with concerts, participatory workshops, and a Sunday morning Gospel Sing.

Vocal Week has three 70-minute class periods each day Monday through Friday: two sessions with a beverage break in between in the mornings, and one more in the mid afternoons. During each period you'll find half a dozen classes running concurrently. There's also a full Vocal Week gathering right after lunch before the afternoon classes.

In the late afternoons, from 4 to 5 pm, you'll find a wide variety of special one-day workshops each day!  And then there are more good singing opportunities, both in “mini classes” and in informal jams, from dinnertime into the "round midnight" hours each night.

Here’s the tentative schedule of classes for the week:

8:30 to 9:00 am:  Vocal Warmups:  open to all!  with Emily Eagen

9:10 to 10:20am

Charles Williams: Care of the Voice (offered twice)
Gail Hatton: Baptists to Ballads--Appalachian singing
Elise Witt: Singing for Everyone
Rhiannon Giddens: Blues, Spirituals, & Black String Bands
Brian Peters: British folk songs and singers
Kate Long: Songwriting

10:40-11:50am

Charles Williams: Care of the Voice (offered twice)
Flawn Williams: Ad Hoc Harmonies
Val Mindel: Honky Tonkin' Hits
Rhiannon Giddens: Songs from Vaudeville
Ethel Caffie Austin: Soloing with a Gospel Choir
Brian Peters: The Child Ballads

2:30 to 3:40pm

Val Mindel and Joe Newberry: Brothers and Sisters--Country Duets
Elise Witt: World Harmony Chorus
Gail Hatton: Maggie Hammons ballads
Ethel Caffie Austin: African American Gospel Chorus
Emily Eagen:  A Banquet of Medieval Songs
Kate Long: Singing for the Confidence Impaired

4:00 to 5:00PM – Late afternoon sessions

These feature a different mix of topics each day, led by Vocal Week instructors and students! Here you’ll find Scots Mouth Music taught by Rhiannon Giddens, whistling with Emily Eagen, rounds, “intervals decent and otherwise,” song circles with Judy Cook, and more. There’s also room in the schedule to add more of these informal sessions during the week, so bring your suggestions if there’s a workshop you’d like to lead or a topic you’d like to see included! (On Friday the Vocal Week final full-group roundup starts at 2:30PM and will run past four o’clock, so no 4PM sessions will be scheduled that day.

Nighttime

Jams typically start after the main evening concerts or other events, and will be led by Judy Cook, Flawn Williams, and others.  Plus there are plenty of places around campus to create your own singing circle!

Class Guidelines

There’s no enrollment limit and no advance signup for any of this year’s individual Vocal Week classes. You can choose one class for each period when you arrive on campus, based on these notes and on the instructors’ presentations you'll hear at our Sunday evening convocation.

All of the Vocal Week classes (except the 4-5PM single-day workshops) build through the week on material covered the day before. We realize that it’s tempting to drop in and sample as many classes as possible, but making class choices and sticking with them through the week can provide more in-depth learning and more fun. You can adjust your class choices after Monday’s sessions if a class is not what you expected it to be. If you do switch classes, please check in with the instructor of the class you want to join about what you missed in earlier sessions.

Augusta's Vocal Week this year shares the campus with both Old Time Week and Dance Week, plus several other smaller individual classes. In the afternoons students from all three Theme Weeks are welcome to take classes in the other theme week programs. You can stick with one of our Vocal Week afternoon classes, or take a class in Dance Week or Old Time Week. Check the Augusta website for more details of class offerings in those theme weeks. In past years this combination of themes has been very popular!

If you want to make audio recordings in class, please ask your teacher. Each instructor decides if his or her class can be audio recorded or not.  Bring your recorder (unwrap any media before class, please!), bring headphones or mute your speaker so it doesn’t disrupt the class, and don’t forget batteries or an extension cord. Video recording in any Augusta classes requires prior written permission from the Augusta office as well as the instructor's OK.

Things you’ll be glad you brought: a fan for your dorm room, earplugs for more peaceful sleeping, a hooded sweatshirt or scarf for chilly outdoor late night singing, a water bottle, throat soothers, notebooks, song books, comfortable clothes and -- most of all -- an open heart for trying new ways of singing!

If you have questions about Vocal Week after poring over this packet, send an email or a letter with stamped self-addressed envelope.  Before July 20, write to Flawn Williams, 4100 Gallatin Street, Hyattsville MD 20781; after July 20 write to Flawn in care of Augusta Heritage Center, Davis & Elkins College, Elkins WV 26241.  Email can be sent anytime to VocalWeek@flawn.org .

Gatherings for everyone include:

Morning Vocal Warm-Ups with Emily Eagen - Between breakfast and the start of your first period classes, this is a chance to limber up gently and learn some ways to treat those vocal cords with care.  Athletes and dancers warm their muscles before exerting themselves.  So do wise singers!

Vocal Week Roundup - Each day right after lunch, all Vocal Week folks gather to sing together in the Chapel, hear updates about the week's activities, and learn more of what’s going on in other classes. Sign up before the session if you’d like to lead the group in a song.

A few of these daily group sessions will also include informal visits with some of our instructors…it’s your chance to hear them and ask them questions about their music and their lives. 

On Friday we’ll reverse the afternoon schedule: classes which have met through the week at 2:30 PM  will be held right after lunch from 1:15 to 2:15, and the group roundup will be from 2:30 to 4:30 PM in the Chapel as students share something of what they've been doing in their classes!

Whistling! from 4 to 5pm on a couple of afternoons during the week, Emily Eagen will be hosting a Whistling Summit, open to all whistlers and would-be whistlers of any age and level. Emily is a two-time winner at the International Whistling Convention; she'll be able to give you pointers on your whistling, as well as demonstrating some techniques you might not have thought possible!

"If you have never whistled, this is your chance to learn how! Anyone can whistle. . .If you like to whistle and want to try your lips as a soloist, here is your moment to stand up and perform! If you are an advanced whistler, you will finally have the occasion you've been waiting for to meet other whistlers and whistle in rounds and harmony. And if you are whistle-shy but curious, come for the history and cultural background about whistling so that you can find out what this unique art is all about. Whistlers unite! Chapstick recommended." -EE

Evening Mini-Classes - In addition to the daytime Vocal Week classes, for a small extra fee you can also join in Mini-Classes right after dinner each evening, from 6:30 to 7:45pm.

After Hours Singing - for Everyone! - The Chapel will be open every night; feel free to enjoy the conducive acoustics there, or find some of the many other campus singing spots, such as the entry stairwell of the dining hall, the center of the Library Bridge, the outdoor porches of Halliehurst mansion and the Science Center, the friendly confines of the Ice House campus pub, and the fire circle at secluded Inspiration Point. Most jams are impromptu, but there will also be some evening singings primed by Judy Cook, a great songleader and singer of American and English songs and ballads.  Find them - they’re fun! Just keep the loud choruses away from the dorms after midnight…..

One final general note: While some of the classes may include pointers on performance and presentation, the most important experience Vocal Week can offer you is a taste of the joy of sharing singing with other people in informal, non-stressful settings. Set those performance anxieties aside, step into the circle, relax and sing!

Now, on to the good stuff! Here are some particulars on the individual classes.

9:10 to 10:20am

Brian Peters: British folk songs and singers

This is Brian Peters’ first visit to Augusta, but he is well known in the English folk music world as a singer and reviver of traditional ballads and songs. He's also a leading English squeezebox player, doubling on melodeon (button accordion) and anglo concertina, and a fine guitarist well-versed in open tunings. The British folk magazine Rock'n'Reel said of Brian: "No singer outside Nic Jones and Martin Carthy has embraced the tradition and used its wellsprings in as vivid and ingenious a way."

‘This class will cover the often forgotten period of African American music -the music of rural life after slavery but before the exodus to the cities in the late 1800's.  We will cover ballads, worksongs, black string band tunes and country blues, and talk a little about life for black folk during this time.  In "Run, Jimmy, Run", who is he running from?  And was it originally "Jimmy" or another word?  Modern political correctness must be left at the door in this class.’ – RG

A product of the Carolina Piedmont, Rhiannon Giddens grew up with bluegrass from one side of her family and classic blues and jazz on the other. After graduating from Oberlin’s Conservatory of Music (and burning out from opera), she discovered Round Peak and Piedmont Old Time music and helped found the phenomenal African-American string band the Carolina Chocolate Drops, who are mentored by 88-year-old black fiddler Joe Thompson.  She has also explored other vocal and cultural styles: she has toured with Native American pow-wow drum Southern Sun, won Scottish-Gaelic singing competitions, studied banjo-akonting connections in the Gambia, and sung and taught African-American music and dance from Minnesota to Edinburgh. 

Gail Hatton: Baptists to Ballads--Appalachian singing

“I was raised in Kentucky, with much of my time spent in the steep Appalachian mountains of southeastern Kentucky, in the coalfield region. My musical influence was rich--grandparents on both sides were incredible singers, mostly in church, however my maternal grandmother did sing ballads.  I come from a Baptist heritage: there was Southern Baptist on one side of the family, and on the other side my paternal grandfather was a songleader in the Old Regular Baptist church we attended. I learned "lining out" by listening to him. As I grew up I continued to listen to the old singers from the region singing the ballads and songs.  I learned to sing them as well and added to my repertoire of songs I had learned as a youngster.” --GH

Gail Hatton now lives in Delaware but visits West Virginia very frequently. In this class she’ll share music both sacred and secular of the Appalachian region.  She taught with Dwight Diller at Augusta's Vocal Week in 2004, and has also been teaching banjo and voice at Dwight's own music camps.

Kate Long:  Songwriting

“This is a class for people who love songs, can't seem to keep from writing them, and want to make their songs better. 

Interested in songwriting as storytelling, finding ideas and managing the creative process, language and word choice, integrating melody & lyrics, or instrumentation and arrangement? We can do that! There will be some practical information on the songwriting business as well --copyright, publishing, mechanical licensing, recording demos, writing on commission, etc.

Daily group workshops to encourage and critique students' partial or complete songs will be the backbone of this class. We'll learn that editing your song is not actually torture, it is liberating! Beginners and closet songwriters – don't be scared. Come ready to participate in a lively and supportive environment.”  -KL

Kate Long is an award-winning songwriter, an inspiring teacher, and a great singer/storyteller/journalist.  Her song, “Who Will Watch the  Homeplace,” took the International Bluegrass Music Association “Song  of the Year" title, and has been a favorite around late-night Augusta singing circles.

Rooted in Appalachian traditional music, she is equally at home with swing, blues and jazz. Her voice - which Rambles Magazine called "a rich, deep force" - is instantly recognizable, full of emotion and humor.

Kate creates insightful glimpses of ordinary people dealing with life's dilemmas. She wants her songs to do four things: help listeners see the extraordinary in the ordinary, make them laugh, make them cry, and stir them spiritually. A West Virginia native, she has developed a musical following all over the country, and her songs have been recorded on four continents. And her gentle teaching manner for singers and songwriters has drawn rave reviews from previous students at Augusta and other venues.

Elise Witt: Singing for Everyone

“This is both a forum for individuals to learn more about their own voice, and a way to build community through group singing. The workshop includes a thorough warm up, breathing and relaxation techniques, exercises combining vocal and physical activities, and a cornucopia of songs from around the world. Songs might include a Brazilian samba, a Congolese storysong, an Italian round, or four-part harmonies from Zimbabwe.  There are also lots of songs in English, including songs from the African American tradition, quirky rounds, food songs, and lots more! All of the songs are broken down into easily  learnable parts and become thrilling to sing in a group. Even people who think they "can't carry a tune in a bucket" in no time find themselves part of a glorious choir. Music reading is not a prerequisite.”-EW

Elise Witt sang in some of the early Augusta Vocal Week programs in the 1980s, and it’s been too long since we’ve seen her here. But she’s been up to a lot in the meantime! Elise was born in Switzerland, raised in North Carolina, and since 1977 has made her home in Atlanta. She sings in at least a dozen languages and is active in causes for social change. Elise travels extensively as a singer, guitarist, educator, and resident artist around the United States, Latin America, and Europe. Her list of performances include many of the world’s most famous stages, to small folk clubs, coffee houses, and cafes. Her classes draw on her theater and dance backgrounds as well as from 20 years of choral singing with Robert Shaw, making her living as a "folk" singer, and studying vocal improvisation with Bobby McFerrin, Rhiannon, and David Darling.

Charles Williams: Care of the Voice

Whether you want to sing traditional folk, opera, pop, gospel or blues, your instrument is your voice, your body, your intelligence, and your soul.  Learn how to produce a free and effortless tone to bring out the music that is unique in you!    

This is a single period class, offered in both morning time slots.

Charles Williams is an acclaimed singer, actor, griot, and vocal coach who has worked with Sweet Honey in the Rock, taught at Washington DC's Levine School of Music, and sung in numerous tours of Europe and more recently Australia! He toured Down Under in a production of Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon and Robert Wilson’s “The Temptation of St. Anthony.”

His collaboration with percussionist Tom Teasley as “Word Beat” draws on powerful and inspirational texts of Langston Hughes, Nelson Mandela, African folk songs and more, accompanied by colorful, inventive percussive rhythms. Together they achieve a true marriage of ancient to the future, of Africa and the West: timeless world rhythms evoked by ethnic percussion and cutting edge electronics, and traditional African and Afro-American verse delivered in spirited performance art mode by Williams. 

As a voice coach, Charles’ visits to Augusta have brought rave reviews from students. He can help singers find new ways to support their singing, no matter what the musical style or ethnic tradition. His own singing has delighted listeners in settings from the operatic stage to casual circles of friends.

10:40 to 11:50am

Charles Williams: Care of the Voice

See the class description and biography in 9:10AM class list.

Ethel Caffie Austin: Soloing with a Gospel Choir

Ethel Caffie Austin has been a favorite Augusta instructor and inspiration since the founding of our program. In this class, students will have the opportunity to sing solos with coaching from Ethel, and also to sing congregational support for other soloists from the class.  This is a reprise of a very popular class from several summers ago. Ethel will be assisted in her classes by Delnora Roberts, who tours with Ethel as a member of the quartet the Ethel Caffie Austin Singers.

Ethel is a pastor, vocalist, choir leader, and formidable pianist who is steeped in the traditions of the African American church. Acclaimed as West Virginia's "First Lady of Gospel Music," she has been the recipient of the Jefferson Award for Humanity, West Virginia's Brotherhood Award, and many other prestigious honors.

Brian Peters, who is making his Augusta debut at this year’s Vocal Week, has been both researching and singing Child Ballads for quite some time. David Kleiman, editor of the recently released Digital Edition of the Child Ballads, credits Brian with "the best set of Child ballads I've ever heard, both in terms of repertoire and performance". This year Brian is releasing a CD of Child Ballads, and he offers a preview that should excite ballad afficianados and neophytes alike:

‘We won't have the dim lights and thick smoke, but we will have the songs that were the soundtrack for life in a 1950s-era honky-tonk roadhouse. We'll be focusing on such singing greats as Kitty Wells, Ray Price and Webb Pierce. Experience in singing harmony is a plus, as well as a willingness to lay it all on the line.’ -VM

Valerie Mindel has many years of experience as a singer, guitarist, fiddler and music teacher. She currently has home bases in Vermont and Japan--when she’s not on the road making music!

She specializes in tightly harmonized parlor, early-country, honky-tonk and swing songs, but her repertoire reaches far beyond that. Val’s musical credentials include recording on the Arhoolie and Bay record labels, most prominently with the Any Old Time String Band, a popular Bay Area group that recorded and toured nationally in the 1970s and 1980s. More recently she has been performing, teaching, and recording with her daughter, Emily Miller. They released a duet CD in 2007.

In addition Val has led folk choirs, including the touring group Village Harmony, which performs throughout the US, Canada, the UK, Europe and Eastern Europe. Val taught at Chicago’s Old Town School of Folk Music, and has been a long-time stalwart at many Augusta programs.

Flawn Williams: Ad Hoc Harmonies

“In this class you'll sing closely with one another, listen closely to one another, and feel what it’s like to improvise while you harmonize.  You won't be learning whole songs, nor will we be teaching parts individually to make harmony. We’ll do a series of games and exercises, sometimes using songs or song fragments, to explore pitch matching, tone matching, and percussive qualities of vocalizing.

'Ad Hoc Harmonies' touches on textures from Gregorian chant to doowop, and draws on the traditions, styles and techniques you’re learning in your other Vocal Week classes as well. Some of the harmonies will be simple, satisfying and utterly predictable…but some will strain the bounds of decency.

This is a time for experiment and exploration. We’ll get silly with some nonsense songs, and wallow in rich drawn out chords and interminable drones. Some notes and phrases will get repeated to push you to the threshold of boredom, because it’s right at that precipice that your creativity will kick in to provide relief.”  –FW

Flawn Williams started out singing with his parents and sister, around their South Carolina home and on long road trips in the ’54 Ford. Along the way, his influences included church choirs, singing along with Doowop classics on the radio, classical choral works, and the Folk Scare of the 1960s. A deepening interest in traditional musical forms growing out of singing those “popular folk songs” brought him to Augusta in the early 1980s, and he’s been working with the many types of music Augusta presents ever since. 

He’s led workshops in Sacred Harp hymnal singing, vocal improvisation, Doowop, gospel singing, parodies, and other topics from his eclectic repertoire, for the Folklore Society of Greater Washington (DC), the Baltimore Folk Music Society, Chicago’s Old Town School of Folk Music, and other venues, as well as at Augusta.  And he’s sung and danced in many productions of the Washington Christmas Revels.

Flawn’s singing credits include harmony vocals on CDs by Bryan Bowers, John McCutcheon, Madeline MacNeil, Pete Kennedy, Jennifer Armstrong, Ginny Hawker & Kay Justice, and others.

2:30 to 3:40pm

Gail Hatton: Maggie Hammons ballads

Maggie Hammons was born at the turn of the 20^th Century in Pocahontas County, in the southeastern highlands of West Virginia. Her family had lived in various parts of Appalachia for generations. And although Maggie would live part of her life in Cleveland, Ohio, before returning to West Virginia, she and her kin carried forward an earlier pioneer culture, with its own musical, agricultural, and other traditions. Dwight Diller and others learned from the Hammons family, and documented their music and a wealth of other lore, starting in the late 1960’s. 

Gail Hatton has spent a lot of time learning and singing the traditional songs which were collected from the Hammons family, particularly the ballads of Maggie Hammons. With Dwight Diller, her husband Russ Hatton, and others, she has been working on "The Hammons Legacy," a project aimed at making Hammons family music more accessible. She taught with Dwight at Augusta's Vocal Week in 2004 and has also been teaching banjo and voice at Dwight's own music camps. Gail has recently recorded a CD of Maggie Hammons' ballads.

Ethel Caffie Austin: African American Gospel Chorus

Ethel Caffie Austin’s gospel chorus classes have the ability to make even a stone sing, and to raise good singers to even greater heights. This class is among our perennially most requested! This year, for the first time, Ethel will also be bringing Delnora Roberts--one of the members of her touring quartet, the Ethel Caffie Austin Singers--with her to Elkins to help lead and inspire the chorus classes.

See biographical note for Ethel in 10:40AM class listings.

Emily Eagen:  A Banquet of Medieval and Renaissance Songs 

“This class delves into early French, Latin, English and Italian songs which can be learned by ear and involve harmony parts when appropriate. You'll get a broad introduction to some of the most enduring and versatile tunes of pre-17th century music, found in manuscripts as notated music and/or passed down through oral tradition. This will include Gregorian chant, chansons de toile (French spinning/work songs), troubadour solos and simple multi-part pieces.

Topics to be covered include modes, drones, harmonizing, languages, and multiple versions of the same tune. The class will give you an exposure to the vast and rich field of Early Music, and provide a practical result - a handful of tunes useful for spicing up any folk music concert and showing where it all began. Come one, come all! Instruments (recorders, guitars, percussion, hurdy-gurdys. . .) are welcome! No knowledge of musical notation is required.” -EE

Emily Eagen is a specialist in both early and contemporary music, who enjoys finding and stretching the boundaries between those more formal musics and traditional folk music. A native of Cincinnati, Emily recently moved to New York City after spending five years performing, studying, and teaching in the Netherlands. She studied at the Royal Conservatory of the Hague after receiving a Fulbright Fellowship.

Since moving to New York, Emily has quickly become a part of the contemporary music scene there, participating in a workshop for singers and composers with Dawn Upshaw and Osvaldo Golijov at Carnegie Hall, premiering works by composers at NYU and Princeton, and continuing to learn and perform the music of Meredith Monk. Emily is also on staff at the Amherst Early Music Festival (CT), where she performs and teaches Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque music.

A professional whistler and two-time International Whistling Champion, Emily creates and performs original songs for voice, whistling, and viola da gamba with her ensemble EARL. At Augusta she’ll be leading whistling workshops and morning warmups as well.

Val Mindel and Joe Newberry:  Brothers and Sisters

"The advent of radio had a profound effect on the harmony acts of the early country period. Working close to a microphone really changed harmony singing styles into something much more intimate and carefully blended than what had been popular. This can be heard in the singing of the Blue Sky Boys, the Delmore Brothers, the Carter Family, the Louvins, Lula Belle and Scotty, and many groups that don't get as much recognition... Karl and Harty, for example, and The Girls of the Golden West.

In this class we'll learn the specific harmonies of a variety of different groups. You'll come away with several duets that you can sing both parts to in an appropriate style, plus another five or six songs that we'll touch on in less depth. The emphasis will definitely be on singing, although we'll also be listening to original material. And we'll move away from the ones everyone already knows to unearth some gems that are less familiar."  - VM

Joe Newberry started out in Missouri, then reversed the historic migration by heading to North Carolina as a young man.  Over the years he has immersed himself in the singing traditions of the upland South and Appalachian region as well as the Ozarks. His grandfather was a hunting and fishing companion of the great folk song collector Vance Randolph, and Joe grew up singing the old songs he learned from his family. 

Joe is also known for his powerful and innovative banjo playing.  He plays and sings with the band Big Medicine, with Rafe Stefanini and Jim Collier as the Grey Eagles, and with original Red Clay Ramblers Jim Watson, Mike Craver, and Bill Hicks. At this year’s Augusta he’ll be teaching in the Old Time Week and Vocal Week programs.

See biographical note for Val in 10:40AM class listings.

Elise Witt: World Harmony Chorus

“Harmony in the world can be defined as people of many different cultures, customs, and beliefs recognizing and celebrating each others' differences while also identifying with and sharing the traits common to us all as one human family. Likewise in music, harmony is the celebration of different sounds that, blended together, are pleasing to the ear and the spirit. However "pleasing" to one ear may be strange to another. Harmony is subjective and cultural. In this class, we will explore harmonies from many different cultures and traditions - from the familiar Triad Harmonies of folk, blues, bluegrass, spirituals, country, and gospel, to vibration unifying chants from Africa and the Middle East, to the exciting tight harmonies of the Balkans and the Appalachians. Beginning with the concept "there are no wrong notes," we will experiment with creating different kinds of harmonies to become confident and creative harmony singers. Music reading is not a prerequisite.” –EW

See biographical note for Elise in 9:10AM class listings.

Kate Long: Singing for the Confidence Impaired

Sing in the shower and car, but not in front of others? Just want to sing with more confidence in jams? Join Kate Long for a laugh-filled week of singing for fun. In the process, you'll learn new ways to improve your singing, practice ways to use singing as a healing tool, get a taste of songwriting, consider attitudes toward singing from other cultures, and learn new songs you can add to your repertoire.

See biographical note for Kate in 9:10AM class listings.

How to choose?

Our classes give you the opportunity to sample a wide variety of singing experiences, or to specialize in one category with several related classes. Many offerings can fit more than one category, spanning repertoire and technique within one class for instance, but following are some examples of what you could take if you want to focus on one area or subject:

Basic Singing Techniques track:

9:10 to 10:20               Charles Williams: Care of the Voice

                                    Elise Witt: Singing for Everyone

10:40 to 11:50             Charles Williams: Care of the Voice

                                    Flawn Williams: Ad Hoc Harmonies

Val Mindel: Honky Tonkin' Hits

2:30 to 3:40                 Val Mindel and Joe Newberry: Brothers and Sisters

Elise Witt: World Harmony Chorus

Kate Long: Singing for the Confidence Impaired

                                    Ethel Caffie Austin: African American Gospel Chorus
 

Intermediate/Advanced Techniques track:

9:10 to 10:20               Rhiannon Giddens: Blues, Spirituals, & Black String Bands

Brian Peters: British folk songs and singers

Kate Long: Songwriting

10:40 to 11:50             Ad Hoc Harmonies

Ethel Caffie Austin: Soloing with a Gospel Choir

2:30 to 3:40                 Emily Eagen:  A Banquet of Medieval Songs

                                    Ethel Caffie Austin: African American Gospel Chorus

Val Mindel and Joe Newberry: Brothers and Sisters—Country Duets
 

Repertoire track - International:

9:10 to 10:20               Brian Peters: British folk songs and singers

                                    Elise Witt: Singing for Everyone

10:40 to 11:50             Brian Peters: The Child Ballads

2:30 to 3:40                 Elise Witt: World Harmony Chorus

Emily Eagen:  A Banquet of Medieval Songs
 

Repertoire track - Appalachian:

9:10 to 10:20               Gail Hatton: Baptists to Ballads--Appalachian singing

Rhiannon Giddens: Blues, Spirituals, & Black String Bands

10:40 to 11:50             Ethel Caffie Austin: Soloing with a Gospel Choir

Brian Peters: The Child Ballads

2:30 to 3:40                 Gail Hatton: Maggie Hammons ballads

Val Mindel and Joe Newberry: Brothers and Sisters—Country Duets

                                    Ethel Caffie Austin: African American Gospel Chorus
 

Repertoire track - Americana:

9:10 to 10:20               Gail Hatton: Baptists to Ballads--Appalachian singing

Rhiannon Giddens: Blues, Spirituals, & Black String Bands

10:40 to 11:50             Rhiannon Giddens: Songs from Vaudeville

Val Mindel: Honky Tonkin' Hits

Brian Peters: The Child Ballads

2:30 to 3:40                 Gail Hatton: Maggie Hammons ballads

Val Mindel and Joe Newberry: Brothers and Sisters—Country Duets

                                    Ethel Caffie Austin: African American Gospel Chorus