Find Your Voice

“When your soul is singing in joy then you know you are doing it right.” Abira Mukherjee

This spring there are many opportunities for you to work on your vocal skills, expand your repertoire, and work with professionals.

Wesleyan University Center for the Arts will be offering Living in Song residency with Dr. Nitanju Bolade Casel, Dr. M. Louise Rovinson and Dr. Shirley Mary Childress.  Each of the three workshops will have a specific focus and attendance at all sessions is strongly recommended.

The Vocal Movement Experience
: Dr. Nitanju Bolade Casel is a composer, dancer, cultural organizer, teacher, author, producer, arranger, and singer in the nationally acclaimed a cappella ensemble Sweet Honey in the Rock. "The Vocal Movement Experience" will focus on breath as the foundation for creating a unique vocal experience. Breathing is a common denominator inclusive of all humankind, regardlessliving of race, culture, age, gender, physical ability, or social status. Beginning with a basic physical warm-up and vocalizing exercises, participants will establish a repertoire of movement that will serve as the catalyst to create the sound. Each movement has at its core a breathing technique upon which a chorus of sound will be built.
The Rhythm Ring
: Dr. M. Louise Robinson is an actress, musician, composer, producer, arranger, author, teacher, and singer in the nationally acclaimed a cappella ensemble Sweet Honey in the Rock. "The Rhythm Ring" is for all who enjoy singing. The workshop will create a musical conversation in the oral tradition of call and response. Through poetry, spoken word, storytelling, rhythm, and harmony, participants will come together and sing songs of change, challenge, celebration, peace, protest, and triumph. All that is required is the desire to explore and play.


Songs in the Way of Hand: 
Dr. Shirley Mary Childress is a skilled professional sign language interpreter and teacher who has interpreted for such stellar writers as Maya Angelou and Alice Walker, and is the sign language interpreter for the nationally acclaimed a cappella ensemble Sweet Honey in the Rock.
Songs in the Way of Hand invites people--deaf, hard of hearing, and hearing--to cultivate the art of signing songs in American Sign Language. Using demonstration, lecture and active group participation, the workshop will consider how music and singing is integral to the culture and lives of many people. Participants will develop techniques to help render visually the emotional, lyrical, and rhythmic nature of singing--culminating in an enhanced stage presence, and a conveyance of the total message of a song.
Each of these three simultaneous workshops are three days per week for three weeks. Attendance at all nine workshop sessions is preferred. Registration required, limited availability. Please call or visit the Wesleyan University Box Office at 860-685-3355. For more details, please e-mail boxoffice@wesleyan.edu.


Greater New Haven Community Chorus also has an exciting list of workshops happening this spring and into the early summer. All workshops in this series will require pre-registration in order to provide comfortable accomodations and have the necessary materials available on the evening of the workshop.  Participants who prefer not to register online with credit card information may send an email to info@gnhcc.org. Please include your name and the workshop(s) you wish to attend.  We will accept cash or a check made out to GNHCC for the member/non-member fee on the evening of the workshop at the check-in table.

Workshop I: Ritmica:  A Unique Approach to Rhythm is scheduled for April 2 at Hamden Middle School.

A great rhythm training opportunity for singers!
•    Develop a deeper concept of rhythm as a musical and choral element
•    Overcome arithmetical challenges and counting to something that is more melodic and intuitive
•    Explore the application of various types of rhythmic exercises
•    Increase your ability to concentrate while improving inner discipline
•    Improve your flexibility to feel rhythm and to internalize it in a deeper way

Chelsea Tinsler, workshop leader, has a wide variety of musical interests, having studied classical percussion, contemporary and chamber music, drum-set, steel drums, Brazilian percussion, jazz vibraphone, Middle Eastern frame drumming, and West African percussion. Chelsea freelances throughout the Connecticut area, including performances with the New Britain Symphony, Nutmeg Symphony, Valley Swing Shift Big Band, musical theater pit orchestras, and steel drum bands. She has also had the opportunity to play at venues such as Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center. In January 2013, Chelsea participated in a three-week residency in Ghana, Africa studying gyill, Kpanlogo, Kete, and Ewe drumming. She is the percussion manager for the Hartt Community Division’s Greater Hartford Youth Wind Ensemble and Connecticut Youth Symphony, and previously served as the percussion ensemble director at the Renbrook School in West Hartford, Connecticut. Chelsea is currently completing her B.M. in percussion performance and music education at The Hartt School, University of Hartford as a student of Benjamin Toth. For information and additional workshops click here.

Shoreline Soul

Shoreline Soul is back after a one-year hiatus while Music Director, Angela Clemmons, was on tour with The Rascals.

“Shoreline Soul” is a community choral gospel workshop directed by professional jingle and background singer, Angela Clemmons, of Madison, CT. The daughter of a Pentecostal preacher, Angela grew up singing and teaching gospel and wanted to share this uplifting, fun, spirited music on the Shoreline. Participants of all levels register for the five-week workshop, rehearsing on Monday nights for 2 hours. The five 2-hour workshop sessions will culminate in a hand-clapping, foot-stomping concert, where the participants perform the traditional and contemporary gospel songs they’ve learned at a free concert open to the public. Normally, there are two workshops per year, in the Spring and Fall at the First Congregational Church in Madison.

“Our weekly sessions are upbeat, fun and very user-friendly,” Angela says. “No one needs to know how to read music. All songs are taught by ear and everyone is given a practice CD. Because it’s all about the music and not a church service, we get singers from all faiths and even the faith-less. It works well. It’s amazing how much the choir learns and how confident they become in five short weeks, particularly when many have never sung gospel before.”

The spring workshops are on Monday evenings from 6:45 – 8:45pm at the First Congregational Church on the Green in Madison.  Dates are April 21, 28, May 5, 12, 19.  The concert will take place on Sunday, June 1.

If you’re interested in participating in a future Shoreline Soul gospel workshop, you may contact Angela at shorelinesoul@comcast.net or 203-245-6944.