2006 Summer Camps
Corsica
June 8-July 1
Frank Kane, Benoit Sarocchi, Patty Cuyler
In Corsica, for all its reputation as a Meditteranean beach mecca, one still has the opportunity to see the traditional culture and hear older singers perform in the old style.
Our second workshop in Corsica, this will be largely a study tour, with emphasis placed on working with local singers and learning about the culture of the province. We’ll still give at least a half-dozen concerts—there are any number of beautiful little churches in Corsican villages at our disposal—but we will place more importance on making ourselves available to meet with other ensembles, visit villages with traditional singers and attend festivals where we might just listen or where we might sing without calling it a concert. We will also be memorizing songs from Caucasus Georgia and a set of songs from American and other world genres for our concert program.
This camp is intended for experienced older high school and college students and adults who are ready to tackle the challenges of the Corsican folk song style with its often elaborate ornamentation and precise intonation.
I Fioretti (Convent of St Frances), Canari village, Cap Corse, Corsica
$1350
Canari, Corsica
We will use as our base the rural gite I Fioretti, a 16th-century convent renovated with 3 apartments and several dorm rooms for tourist use, in the village of Canari just inland from the Meditterranean on the western Cap Corse —the 40-km long peninsula on the island’s far northeast with mountains that plunge straight down to the sea. Rehearsals will be in the adjoining church, still used for services on Sundays. Canari is a delightful village of several hundred located in great hiking territory.