2006 Summer Camps

Bosnia and Hercegovina

June 28-July 12

Mary Cay Brass, Mark Forry, Josip Katavic, Tamara Karaca Beljak, Branka Vidovic

Village Harmony is pleased to host its first camp in Bosnia and Hercegovina. Bosnia is a country of great natural beauty —high rock mountains, deep canyons and breathtaking waterfalls with an enduring treasury of traditional arts. Since the devastating war in the early 1990’s, Bosnia has made enormous strides in reconstruction and reconciliation. We will be staying in the newly reconstructed, predominantly Muslim town of Kozarac in western Bosnia.

Participants in this camp will explore Bosnia’s rich, diverse vocal music from both village and urban traditions of the Croatian, Serbian, Muslim and Jewish peoples who live there. We will learn ancient village styles, melodies based on narrow, non-tempered tones and sung with great dynamic intensity and timbre as well as songs from the sevdalinka tradition–lyrical love songs of the urban Muslim population (often called the “Bosnian blues”). Tamara Karaca Beljak and Branka Vidovic two ethnomusicologists from Sarajevo who lead the Music Academy’s Ethno Choir will be our instructors for this repertoire. We will also study sacred music from all of Bosnia’s religious traditions with Josip (Pepe) Katavic, director of the Sarajevo-based inter-religious choir Pontanima (“spiritual bridge”) which performs the music of the Jewish, Orthodox, Catholic and Islamic traditions of Bosnia.

Veteran Village Harmony leaders Mary Cay Brass and Mark Forry--both of whom spent considerable time in the past in the former Yugoslavia and have a deep passion for the musical taditions and language--will lead this camp facilitating and translating for our Bosnian teachers and teaching American repertoire to present in our concerts. This camp is for mixed ages — primarily, older teens, college students and adults.

House of Peace, Kozerac, Bosnia

$1000

House of Peace

The Bosnia camp will be hosted by the newly constructed House of Peace (Kuca Mira) in the town of Kozarac. The House of Peace is the home of the non-governmental organization Through Hearts to Peace whose director Emsuda Mujagic will be our point person while there–-organizing traditional meals with local women, arranging outings to historic sites, and helping to organize a short series of concerts in western Bosnia during the second week. There are several dormitory style bedrooms, a large conference room for rehearsals, a kitchen and dining area, terrace and large yard looking to the nearby mountains.

For more on the House of Peace, visit: http://www.peacevox.com/spoken_music_pontamina.htm or www.faces.fi/?id=104 . For more on Through Hearts to Peace: http://adis79202.tripod.com/index.html.