Workshops
Here you can learn about the
workshops currently available. Use the following links to read specific
descriptions, or scroll through this page to read them all!
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Bandemonium
Alternative
Bands for Healthier Communities |
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The project BANDEMONIUM
promotes the formation of music ensembles of wind & percussion
instruments playing a more rhythmically exciting repetoire
than is generally found in traditional bands. The project
proposes to attract more young people to this tradition, so
valuable to a communities' cohesion, thru the promotion of
a repertoire and performance ethic that better reflects modern
tastes.
BANDEMONIUM takes as its model the many alternative bands
growing throughout northern europe as well as the 'pep' bands
accompanying many atheltic events across the north american
continent. These groups play rhythmically exciting arrangements
of popular themes, often incorporate improvisational elements
and encourae original arrangements and composition. Their
presentation esthetic is colorful, entertaining & engaging
for their audiences, often times including theatrical elements.
The BANDEMONIUM workshops can be designed for any time frame
from a single session of a few hours to an intensive 2 or
3 week course. The workshops can be done with an existing
band or a mixture of players from varlous groups. Energetic
and creative arrangements of pop, rock, soul, blues and R&B
hits are presented in an ambient of 'serious fun'. Selections
of the music of various band tradtions around the world such
as Brazil, India, Africa, Serbia, Mexico, New Orleans and
Peru also make up an important part of the work material.
Pictures: [1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
[6]
Other words about
Bandemonium:
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OBJECT
- To build a small group (5 - 10) of young musicians capable
of effective street animations to accompany civic events,
theatrical street animations, markets, etc. to advertise cultural
events or simply to animate the streets with an a group of
entertaining and engaging characters playing a repertoire
of lively music.
MATERIALS - 5 - 10 musicians would be required playing
any of the following instruments:
- Trumpet
- Clarinet
- Banjo
- Trombone
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- Saxophone
- Tuba
- Accordion
- Percussion
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At least one of
these should be a bass instrument - tuba or baritone saxophone
and at least 1 other should be playing percussion instruments.
They should all be capable of reading simple musical notation
and should bring an instrument in good working order as well
as a music stand. A local brass band would seem to provide
an ideal recruitment point for such an instrumentation. Certainly
younger band musicians could benefit from the wider scope
of possible applications for their instruments presented by
the project.
A room large enough to accommodate the group comfortably would
be needed. The acoustics should be 'dry' rather than 'wet'.
A room of bare concrete walls, floors and ceilings would make
for an impossible working situation.
15 simple arrangements of a variety of lively musics:
- Folk Music
- American Jazz
- Popular Music
- Circus Music
Themes for special
events, i.e.:
- Wedding March
- Happy Birthday
- Incidental
Theatre Music: 'Ta-Da's', etc.
Work Methods
- The project would then consist of combining these musicians
and arrangements in a series of rehearsals in the space with
the goal of building a repertoire of 10 pieces to be performed
in a street animation by a group of lively, visual and confident
musicians.
Rehearsals would include an emphasis on:
- Memorization
techniques - the goal would include performing the program
from memory (without papers)
- Improvisation
- Simple stage
and theatre techniques
Rehearsals might
be arranged spread over several weeks or compressed into several
full weekends.
A final performance would provide a test as to whether the
workshop has achieved it's goal.
Other words about
Project - Street Bands:
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A World
of Bands
World Music
for Band Musicians |
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The project 'A
world of Bands' explores some of the band traditions that
have evolved around the world in former colonies where the
idea of horn and percussion ensembles what introduced by European
colonial powers.
India, Peru, Ghana, Brazil, Suriname, Bolivia, Mexico and
Serbia all are homes to exciting indigenous band traditions
radically different from the classically based western tradition.
Brass Band music around the world is almost always party music,
full of rhythm and beautiful melody played loud for religious
and secular festivals, weddings and civic events held outdoors.
'A World of Bands' provides arrangements and transcriptions
for a common band instrumentation and the opportunity for
western bandsmen to experience the repertoires of their band
colleagues around the world. History of each world tradition
is provided along with sessions listening to various recorded
examples. Screening of videos from leading researchers provide
a deeper understanding of the daily realities of various world
band traditions, how they rehearse and perform and how the
musicians live.
The 'World of Bands' workshop is available for anything from
1 or 2 day sessions to a week or more of concentrated rehearsals
directed toward a final presentation concert. Requirements
include an instrumentation reasonably balanced between the
various woodwind, brass and percussion instruments, instruments
in good working order, music stands, a comfortable rehearsal
room with reasonably dry acoustics and audio and video apparatus.
Cost: $250 p/day, travel, housing and 2 meals p/day
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Gregg
Moore and the Fanfare v.d. EersteliefdesNacht
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From 10 years
from 1983 Gregg Moore served as musical director of the Fanfare
van de Eersteliefdesnacht. The Fanfare is a 30-person ensemble
consisting of brass, saxophones and percussion instruments
regularly playing nationally and internationally at festival,
parties, in the street as well as presenting normal concerts.
During the period he conducted the weekly rehearsals he also
gained valuable experience in working with such a group. The
Fanfare is a mix of rather highhanded individualists occasionally
given to endless debate about musical details, but Gregg quickly
learned how to rein them in.
Not only did he have a wonderful didactic manner who wished
above all to fill the group with enthusiasm but he also wrote
arrangements and original compositions that we played, and
in many cases, still play with pleasure. They never sounded
easy to play. Occasionally he would give an arrangement an
unexpected turn, or instance when a traditional choral version
of Auld Lang Syne suddenly becomes a finger-popping reggae.
Or a peaceful accompaniment would suddenly become wonderfully
bombastic, or a Beatles ballad might turn into a savage tenor
saxophone solo. Gregg's pieces had a wonderful quality of
catching listeners wrong-footed but still sitting pleasantly
in the ear holding a listener's attention. Usually they included
a playful or surprising element but always carried an unmistakable
mark of originality and uniqueness. They can be wildly divergent
in style: a piece such a Beep Beep Fingers can rage along
in a punk tempo but much more complex than punk, with instruments
reacting to each other at a furious pace, leaving musicians
and public to catch their breath. And a piece such as Enter
Big Ears is slow and sensitive with many dynamic changes and
the accompanying didactic effect of requiring the ensemble
to pay close attention to intonation.
In the 10 years he was responsible for our repertoire and
rehearsals, Gregg Moore made a totally different ensemble
of the Fanfare. In 1982 we started as a group of beginning
musicians among whom few could read notation. Gregg judged
the groups' technical level carefully, but took care to push
these forward ever so slightly at each meeting. Sometimes
he would bring in a piece that some of the group thought they
would never be able to play . . . and in a few weeks . . .
or months . . .it sounded fantastic! Certainly it's thanks
for him that we've become the successful group we've become.
Love led him to Portugal but luckily he stays in touch and
brings new music to rehearse when he's in Holland.
Peter v.d. Pouw Kraan
Fanfare van de EersteliefdesNacht
Ámsterdam, Holland
Pictures: [1]
[2]
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Filarmoniko
Gregg Moore
- The Philharmonic Man |
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From an idea
of musician & composer Gregg Moore for supporting the possibilities
and traditions of World Brass Bands, the project Filarmoniko
2003 was organized by the City of Fundao and considered an
important look at the panorama of the national Brass Band
tradition.
A veteran of innumerable collaborations, Gregg Moore brought
young band musicians from bands all over Portugal into contact
with new rhythms, modern and different, in a discovery of
the potential of their instruments and a knowledge of band
traditions around the world. With a relevant musical attitude,
the composer confronted the young musicians with arrangements
of the popular music of various countries and examples of
the traditions of other cultures. These were explored in a
way that increased the understanding of the participants for
the rhythms, melodies and harmonies used in modern styles
of music.
Improvisation and creativity were necessary ingredients for
the success of the Filarmoniko project, realized for the first
time in April 2003 in the village of Peroviseu near Fundao.
The atmosphere of relaxed learning coupled with fun and holidays
encouraged important friendships between the young participants
that are sure to endure.
Miguel Rainha
Cultural Animator, City of Fundao, Portugal
Other words about
Filarmoniko:
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Community
Culture
An Inter-Disciplinary
Project |
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Project
Description - The project intends to gather all the
performing artists - musicians, actors, poets and storytellers
- of the community together in a large multi-media show of
45 - 60 min. using the songs, stories, poems and legends of
the community as performance material. As well as a presentation
of as many of the performing groups of the city as possible
the project is designed to create cooperation between the
various groups hopefully leading to an increased interest
in and respect for each groups' manner of performance &
choice of material. That a culture is made up of many and
varied forms of expression and the possibilities for expression
unique to that community should be among the objectives and
lessons of this project.
Work Methods - The first objective will be to
search out as many performers and would-be performers as possible,
to create a base of interested participants and define their
areas of interest. Contact will be made with
- Music
Schools
- Brass
Bands
- Rock
and Pop Music groups
- Folk
Music groups
- Singers
of all styles
- Instrumentalists
of all styles
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- Poets
- Dancers
- Theatre
Groups
- Multi-media
artists
- Storytellers
- Historians
and more .
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These are encouraged
to provide either traditional or original material relevant
to the community. As one of the objects of the project is
to encourage creative constructions among the population of
the community, much of the work will involve generating ideas
and possibilities for cooperation and the social engineering
of encouraging initially disparate groups to work together
in the creation of something new. A list of groups and individuals
will be drawn up along with their various rehearsal times,
they will be met with, the project explained, a recording
made of their current work, studied and suggestions for possible
co operations would be made at a later meeting. Rehearsals
between the various groups would be organized and supervised.
A site for a final presentation would be chosen, a particularly
resonant square with many terraces and windows that might
be filled with performing groups. A running order for a final
presentation would be drawn up and revised several times considering
the availability of groups, individuals and technical necessities
(sound, lights, smoke machines, projectors, etc.) and other
logistical details. The final running order would be made
and carefully explained to all the participants. Because the
scale and nature of the final presentation would prohibit
a dress rehearsal and the show itself would likely be the
only occasion the running order would happen, this explanation
of the order of events to all the participants is extremely
important. A party for all the participants after the presentation
would give everyone a chance to revel in what they had done
together and perhaps for all the various groups to play for
each other.
Requirements
- Rehearsal
spaces for all the participating groups - music schools,
primary and secondary schools, community centers, cultural
centers, theatres, gymnasiums, etc.
- 3 or 4 production
assistants to help in gathering material, maintaining
contact with participantes and facilitating the cooperation
between them
- a computer
and photocopy machine
- Cooperation
of City Government and city cultural entities
Other words about
Community Culture:
Music:
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