Traditional Balkan Singing Workshop with Carol Freeman
COLLABORATORS
Traditional Balkan Singing Workshop with Carol Freeman
Refund Policy: No refunds
with Carol Freeman
Sunday June 8, 5-7 pm
The magnificent music of the Balkans is renowned for its remarkable vocal quality as well as for its haunting melodies, intricate ornamentation, uneven rhythms, and exceptional harmonies. Participants will learn how to produce the distinctively powerful yet effortless sound of Balkan singers and will also learn songs selected from beautiful, centuries old, traditional village and urban repertoires from Bulgaria, Greece, Macedonia, and other Balkan lands, taught from original field and vintage recordings. The songs include solo, antiphonal, diaphonic, and polyphonic songs originally used to accompany women’s work in the fields, spinning and embroidering parties, rites of passage and calendar event folk rituals, and community celebrations, as well as complex free-metered songs traditionally performed to help pass the long winter nights, and lighter, Ottoman influenced songs whose seductive sounds filled urban cafes.
Sunday June 8, 5-7 pm
The magnificent music of the Balkans is renowned for its remarkable vocal quality as well as for its haunting melodies, intricate ornamentation, uneven rhythms, and exceptional harmonies. Participants will learn how to produce the distinctively powerful yet effortless sound of Balkan singers and will also learn songs selected from beautiful, centuries old, traditional village and urban repertoires from Bulgaria, Greece, Macedonia, and other Balkan lands, taught from original field and vintage recordings. The songs include solo, antiphonal, diaphonic, and polyphonic songs originally used to accompany women’s work in the fields, spinning and embroidering parties, rites of passage and calendar event folk rituals, and community celebrations, as well as complex free-metered songs traditionally performed to help pass the long winter nights, and lighter, Ottoman influenced songs whose seductive sounds filled urban cafes.
The workshop will enable students to learn the challenging vocal techniques and stylistic elements that are an essential part of singing many genres of Balkan song. Singers will learn to find the center of their natural voices, and effortlessly sing with increased comfort, clarity, and control. They will learn how to sing intricate embellishments, microtonal melodies, odd meters, and beautifully dissonant
harmonies, through a process that is fluid and fun. Students will learn how to perfectly control intonation and produce optimal tone quality, and increase vocal strength,
stamina, and flexibility. Participants will also learn how to shape a melodic line to effectively communicate a song with superb artistry and depth of expression through carefully placed emphasis and ornamentation. Though detailed and precise, the workshop will be conducted in a supportive and
relaxed atmosphere, and is open to singers of all levels. No prior knowledge of the languages or vocal styles is necessary.
Well known as a performer, researcher, and teacher of a variety of Balkan, Greek, Judaic, and other singing traditions, Carol Freeman has performed since 1970 as
vocalist for The Smyrneiki Kompania, Sevda Balkan Music Ensemble, Song of the Shtetl, Village Voices, and Zhenska Pesna, and as a solo interpreter of traditional song, and has appeared at major arts centers, festivals, museums, and universities, and on radio and television, throughout North America. A master vocal instructor, Carol Freeman has taught extensively as a private instructor and at specialized arts schools, music seminars, universities, and museums for five decades. She is a 2023, 2024, and 2025 New York State Council on the Arts Master of Folk Arts.