Category Archives: Camp Instructors

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Georgian Polyphony & Young Voices of Toronto

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Sunday June 5 2016 3:30 PM
Jeanne Lamon Hall in Trinity-St. Paul’s United Church, Toronto
Colour Me Spring Concert
by Young Voices of Toronto featuring Georgian Polyphony.

 
For months now, MusiCamp has been workshopping Georgian Polyphony with one of Toronto’s best children’s choruses, Young Voices of Toronto (YVT). And on June 5, they team up with ZARI and the Makharashvili family to present a set of traditional Georgian polyphony.

YVT, formerly known as High Park Choirs, is the Children’s Choir-in-Residence at the University of Toronto. Under the artistic directorship of Zimfira Poloz, YVT is known for its professional, diverse and unique choral programs.

ZARI is a trio that exclusively sings Georgian polyphony and features MusiCamp director Andrea Kuzmich. The Markharashvili Family is Andrea Kuzmich’s family singing Georgian songs. You can hear them singing with Basiani, one of Georgia’s acclaimed state folk ensembles here.

YVT

 
Doors Open at 3 pm.

Show starts at 3:30 pm and runs approximately 2 hours

$25 adults, $15 youth and seniors, children 5 and under free

Tickets can be purchased here

 

 

Haivky: Kosa Kolektiv’s Spring Festival Revives More than Tradition…

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Kosa’s Festival Revives the True Meaning of a Festival.

Preamble: this post is part of a larger discussion on the traditional uses of art to empower, foster community, and resolve conflict – a driving force to MusiCamp’s programming. Also note that while this post is from 2015, the date, location and egg-decorating workshops listed at the bottom of the page are updated for 2016

 

When one mentions “festival” in this part of the world, people immediately think of it in commercial terms – big stages, sound systems, visiting artists, official schedules, ticket sales, wrist bands, CDs and many other forms of merchandising – from specialty foods to cultural wares. But this is not the sort of festival Kosa Kolektiv will be bringing to Trinity Bellwoods Park this Sunday. There will be no stage. No sound systems. No vendors trying to sell you food. No money will ever cross hands. In contrast, this is a true community celebration to welcome Spring back to Toronto!

Haivky is a traditional Ukrainian community celebration of renewal that occurs in the days after Easter. Kosa Kolektiv, the host organizer for this event, is comprised of a group of young women of Ukrainian heritage who are determined to make folk forms relevant to our contemporary urban existence. And true to their word, this event, while based on a Ukrainian peasant tradition, has been re-learned and revitalized for not just a pan-Slavic experience but for a multi-cultural Toronto experience. Ancient songs from Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, Bulgaria and Georgia will be calling forth spring. Rituals of washing away the crustiness of winter and children’s weaving dances and games played under the open sky will welcome the onset of longer days, the warmth of the sun, and regeneration that’s on the way. And adults will be entertained with fiddlers, a bassist, accordion and woodwind players from the Lemon Bucket Orkestra and Balfolk Toronto, who will be leading village-styled dancing from France, Briton and other parts of Western Europe and America.

Best of all, the festival will offer a pure acoustic experience, free of electronic mediation or amplification. This in itself should be celebrated as it is a rarity in our age of connectivity! It is this sense of community building through artistic forms, especially music, that I admire. This, in part, is the motivating force of my own professional and personal development, including MusiCamp. I’ll be at the festivities with my children, singing songs and dancing, and I encourage you all to come too, to experience the collective magic of song and dance in the beautiful outdoors of Trinity Bellwoods park, smack in the middle of Downtown Toronto. But be warned, no vendors will be there! This is a true festival– a community celebration – so come prepared with your own picnic basket and blanket to join in on and extend the fun!

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Haivky is on Sunday, May 1, 2016
3:00 – 6:00 pm at Trinity Bellwoods Park
790 Queen St W Toronto, ON

Visit Kosa Kolektiv Hailky for more information.

In lead up to the festival Kosa Kolektiv also runs traditional easter egg decorating workshops.

Guest Host AnnA Melnikoff

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Anna Melnikoff is a gifted teacher and perpetually grateful student of traditional Mande music from West Africa who has been performing and teaching in the GTA for 15 years. She has studied with many master drummers and visits West Africa as often as possible. Currently she teaches djembe at York University, and is also the founder of an all-female performing ensemble, Moussoufolila. She is also a certified teacher of transformational healing and meditation with the Training in Power Academy.

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AnnA with fellow djembefola Salimata Diabate

About Andrea

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KuznKidz

Andrea Kuzmich is an award singer, a teacher, an ethnomusicologist (PhD candidate at York University), and mother of 2 boys (5 and 10 years). Her eclectic musical activities defy her conventional classical beginnings. Besides grade 8 piano RCM, choral singing, and performances in four different Canadian Opera Company productions and as a cellist with the McMaster Symphony by the age of 16, Andrea has: sung in a Congolese Gospel Choir; studied Balkan folk music, South Indian singing and drumming, and West African drumming; performed in Big Bands, small jazz combos, as well as contemporary new music ensembles; and specializes in the haunting and ancient harmonies of Caucasus Georgia.

Her PhD in ethnomusicology bridges all this diversity into a cohesive cross-cultural understanding of how musical practice is essential for spiritual, social, and personal well being. Andrea extends this understanding practically in MusiCamp where campers get a chance to explore the wonders and ecstatic moments of music through fun and interactive activities that overcome inhibition and intuitively develop a host of cognitive and social skills associated with music making.

MUSIC IN JUNE 2013

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In case you want to meet Andrea in person and hear her in some of her eclectic musical projects, there are a number of opportunities – from Traditional Georgian polyphony, to solo jazz (voice and guitar), to more contemporary jazz-oriented improvisation. All events are free unless otherwise noted.

Thursday June 13 2:30 pm 2013 the Cake Walk Game at the  Dewson Festival SOLO GUITAR AND VOICE

It’s festival time at Dewson Public School and I’ll be providing the music for the Cake Walk game — Ooooo what fun! And such awesome cakes to be won.

Friday June 14 6pm 2013 Help Us Help the Children Fundraiser with KOSA KOLEKTIV $$$/person

The womens’ Kosa Kolektiv aims to revitalize and reinterpret the entire web of peasant folklore in an urban context. In this case, the Kosa Kolektiv and Lemon Bucket Orchestra are providing the traditional unamplified entertainment for a high brow fundraiser for HUHTC, A Project of Children of Chernobyl Canadian Fund. More info can be read here http://www.huhtc.ca/houseminglefundraiser.htm.

Saturday June 15 2013 11am-1pm Main Street Farmer’s Market SOLO GUITAR AND VOICE

Andrea Kuzmich performs solo voice and guitar. 132 Robinson Street (Markham Road, 2 lights north of Hwy 7 on Robinson street)

Sunday June 16 2-5 pm Day of Delight in Dufferin Grove Park with BROULALA

Produced by Clay and Paper Theatre, Day of Delight: A Toronto celebration of Love, Courtship and Desire is a inter-disciplinary mixed media event in Dufferin Grove park. Broulala, is an a cappella collective improvising ensemble that features 4-6 singers. At Day of Delight Broulala will metaphorically extend the roots of jazz and wander the parklands of Dufferin Grove to create intimate spaces of vocal improvisation based on reinterpretations of standard love songs.

Sunday June 23 3 pm Waterfront Festival at Ontario Square, Harbourfront Centre with DARBAZI

Darbazi is a 10-member chorus that sings the ancient and haunting harmonies of Caucasus Georgia http://www.Darbazi.com. For more information on the Waterfront Festival, visit  http://www.harbourfrontcentre.com/summer/waterfrontfestival/

Tuesday June 25 3:30 – 7:30 pm CityPlace Farmer’s Market SOLO GUITAR AND VOICE

Andrea Kuzmich performs solo voice and guitar at Canoe Landing Park (N or Lakeshore, E of Bathurst) http://www.my-market.ca/cityplace.html.

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MUSIC IN MAY 2013

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In case you want to meet Andrea in person and hear her in some of her eclectic musical projects, there are a number of opportunities – from Traditional Georgian polyphony, to solo jazz (voice and guitar), to all out contemporary improvisation. (All events are free unless otherwise noted.)

Sunday May 5 4pm Trinity Bellwood Park with KOSA KOLEKTIV

The womens’ Kosa Kolektiv aims to revitalize and reinterpret the entire web of peasant folklore in an urban context and such an opportunity is open to the public on Sunday May 5 at 4pm in Trinity Belwood’s park (starting at St Nicholas Church, 4 Bellwood Ave).

Members of the Kosa Kolektiv and Lemon Bucket Orkestra will be folk singing and leading traditional haivky and village folk dancing. All ages, family friendly free community event. Communal picnic. Bring a blanket, your easter baskets and any goodies to liven up the party! Dances will be called in Ukr. & Eng. http://kosakolektiv.com/

Read the write up in The Wholenote Magazine http://issuu.com/thewholenote/docs/1808-may2013/22

Thursday May 9 9pm SING! Harboufront with ZARI and ELEMENT CHOIR

Classic National Film Board of Canada shorts will be set to music by featured SING! Artists as part of this innovative and interactive event. These timeless films include masterworks by Norman McLaren, John Weldon, Arthur Lipsett, and Ishu Patel, and will feature the creative voices of FreePlay Duo, Patricia Green, JerJosh & the SteveCams, Zari, and The Element Choir. Don’t miss the sing-along finale of The Log Driver’s Waltz!

http://www.singtoronto.com/concerts/nfb-sings/

Saturday May 11 11:20am Community Asian Arts Fusion Festival Palmerston Library with DARBAZI

http://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp?Entt=RDMEVT132909&R=EVT132909

(Note the start time is listed wrong on the website)

Saturday May 11 3pm SING! Harboufront with ZARI

$20.00

SING! World Collaborations Concert is a celebration of music and vocal styles from across the globe. The concert will feature five inspiring World vocalists/ensembles, each paired with and accompanied by a local choir. In the spirit of inclusive creation and innovation, this high-energy concert will open your ears to new sounds and transport you to Europe, Asia, Africa, and back. Featured world artists include: Lizzy Mahashe (Music of South Africa), Aviva Chernick (Music of Judeo-Spanish tradition), Suba Sankaran (Music of South India), Scott Peterson (Music of Tuva/Mongolia), and Zari (Music of Georgia).

http://www.singtoronto.com/concerts/sing-world-collaborations/

Sunday May 12 3pm SING! Harbourfront, Lakeside Terrace with DARBAZI

https://www.facebook.com/events/183455161807335/

Saturday May 18 11am-1pm Main Street Farmer’s Market SOLO GUITAR AND VOICE

Andrea Kuzmich performs solo voice and guitar. 132 Robinson Street (Markham Road, 2 lights north of Hwy 7 on Robinson street)

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