Tag Archives: singing

2021 SPRING BODY PERCUSSION WORKSHOPS

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A fun, physically active, movement and rhythm workshop, and a great workout for the brain…

With workshops for the Ontario Womyn’s Winter Drum Camp and our own zoom classes, we had a great go of winter. But spring is here now, so no matter your level, no matter your experience, we invite you to join us online and make music with your bodies.

Body Percussion Tuesdays!!
Next workshop is TUESDAY MAY 25
and every other Tuesday
7:00-7:45ish PM EST on ZOOM!!

$10-15 for employed, PWYC for underemployed (per Tuesday class)

Sign up with our PAY PAL link (be sure to grab the zoom link when you do) or use our Contact Us Page for more info.

A PHYSICALLY FUN AND ACTIVE WORKSHOP FOR BODY AND BRAIN
These are physically active workshops, where layers of rhythm are overlapped to make some serious groove. A singing component involves vocalizing rhythms as well as singing songs and riffs, sometimes in harmony. With all these layers, we’ll challenge your brain but in such a fun way! Without realizing it, you’ll develop a stronger sense of rhythm but also experience the pure joy of making music solely with your body.
Below is a fun arrangement based on a Ukrainian new year carol.

BEGINNER and INTERMEDIATE
Because we start with simple patterns and build upon them, our workshops accommodate both beginner and intermediate levels. Those who are more adept are given more challenging rhythms to layer on top of a basic rhythm. Alternatively, those challenged by the more demanding rhythms can practice holding the simpler rhythmic pattern. Vocals, like singing or vocalizing rhythms, are another layer that can be added.

IN EACH WORKSHOP: DRILLS, SONGS and ARRANGEMENTS
Each workshop will usually start with drilling some rhythm rudiments to develop and strengthen your technique – all in a fun and accessible way. But within the span of a 2-4 workshops, we’ll also be working on a single arrangement, that way people can take the time to learn the choreography while developing their skill.

For the end of March through April we’ll be working on a piece based on a West African Song called Baga Gine. You can see a bit of the song in the video below, but we’ll also be including a break and something of a coda, the latter which you can hear in the videos below (note, one of them is a funny sped up video from one of our past workshops).

Around the spring of 2014, MusiCamp’s director and founder, Andrea Kuzmich, started exploring ways to use body percussion in our kid’s summer camps. It not only functioned as a pedagogical tool to help with rhythm and arranging, but also heightened the excitement of any song – and really was inspired by Andrea’s interest to instantaneously make a party-like atmosphere, any where, any time, without instruments, but through the body alone!

In the spring of 2019, she was honoured to lead workshops on body percussion at the Ontario Womyn’s Drum Camp. In prep to do so, she started hosting informal body percussion sessions with adults at the MusiCamp studio. These eventually evolved to online workshops in 2020, but…

Since body percussion can be done, outside, and in a socially-distanced responsible way, Andrea will be hosting workshops again outside in Toronto’s West End as soon as the stay at home order lightens. Visit back for more dates and/or let us know if you are interested.

Body Percussion Festival 2018

Body Percussion from our kids’ summer camps

2021 WINTER BODY PERCUSSION WORKSHOPS

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A fun, physically active, movement and rhythm workshop, and a great workout for the brain…


SUNDAY FEBRUARY 7 at 1 PM EST
with the Ontario Womyn’s Winter Drum Camp

AND EVERY OTHER TUESDAY 7-7:45ish PM EST on ZOOM!!
$10-15 for employed, PWYC for underemployed (per Tuesday class)

Sign up with our PAY PAL link or use our Contact Us Page for more info.

Participants in this workshop will be introduced to cool rhythms that can be performed with the body and voice. This is a physically active music workshop, where layers of rhythm are overlapped to make some serious groove. The singing component involves vocalizing rhythms as well as singing songs and riffs, sometimes in harmony. Participants will come out with a stronger sense of rhythm and the pure joy of making music solely your body.

Starting with simple patterns and building upon them, the workshops present material to accommodate varying skills. Those who are more adept are given more challenging rhythms to layer on top of a basic rhythm. Alternatively, those challenged with the more demanding rhythms can practice holding the simpler rhythmic pattern. Vocals, like singing or vocalizing rhythms, are another layer that can be added. A component of drilling certain movements/rhythms will allow some room for individual variation, giving the student more of a chance to express individuality, which in turn makes it more interesting and musically alive!

From 2020 Virtual Drum Camp

Around the spring of 2014, MusiCamp’s director and founder, Andrea Kuzmich, started exploring ways to use body percussion in our kid’s summer camps. It not only functioned as a pedagogical tool to help with rhythm and arranging, but also heightened the excitement of any song – and really was inspired by Andrea’s interest to instantaneously make a party-like atmosphere, any where, any time, without instruments, but through the body alone!

In the spring of 2019, she was honoured to lead workshops on body percussion at the Ontario Womyn’s Drum Camp. In prep to do so, she started hosting informal body percussion sessions with adults at the MusiCamp studio. These eventually evolved to online workshops in 2020, but…

Since body percussion can be done, outside, and in a socially-distanced responsible way, Andrea will be hosting workshops again outside in Toronto’s West End as soon as the stay at home order lightens. Visit back for more dates and/or let us know if you are interested.

Body Percussion Festival 2018

Body Percussion from our kids’ summer camps

HAPPY HEALTHY & CREATIVE 2021

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HAPPY HEALTHY & CREATIVE 2021

We at MusiCamp want to wish you the best for the new year and hope your 2021 is filled with happiness and health. 2020 has been one of the most challenging year for so many and while I know some people are still ambivalent to what 2021 will bring, we remain hopeful – at least hopeful for more music and creativity!
Have a look at what MusiCamp has in store…

UPDATES

 

 

FESTIVE SPIRIT TO SHARE


With the spirit that Christmas carols are all about celebrating rebirth and renewal, we’re sharing these downloads of carols, released only last week and and featuring the fabulous percussion of Jaash Singh.


GEORGIAN SINGING ONLINE, STARTING AGAIN!


Starting up again mid-late January, our singing family will be zooming with you, providing all 3-voices to teach Georgian songs. Look for updates on our page.

 


OUTDOOR BODY PERCUSSION BODY MUSIC


For West End Toronto folks: free or pwyc, outdoor, socially distanced, body percussion workshops in January. Starting Tuesday January 5 2-3pm at Christie and Bloor. Beginner/intermediate level. Learn more here.

 



WINTER VIRTUAL WOMYN’S DRUM CAMP

February 5-7, MusiCamp’s Andrea Kuzmich will be one of many facilitators at this winter camp for women, which features workshops on drumming, kirtan, dance, sound healing and more
Free/pwyc event.
Click here to register.

 

ORI SHALVA IN THE PARK


While we recorded this in August, it was only released last month and features excellent production quality by Labyrinth Ontario, which also produced a number of other exceptional performances and interviews with traditional musicians in Toronto. Hope you get a chance to check them all out.

 

VIRTUAL SUMMER CAMP FOR KIDS!!

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SUMMER MUSICAMP ONLINE WORKSHOPS FOR KIDS!
AUGUST 17-21 2020 9:30 AM – 3:30 PM

REGISTER HERE or CONTACT US FOR MORE INFO

 
We have a great series of workshops inspired by our Composition and Song Camp, which include body percussion, exploring songs, and composition and songwriting. At the end of the week, workshop participants will have developed new repertoire and new skills in music making. For the song and composition workshops, we’ll compile a video of performances of our campers’ work from the week and send it to parents and their kids so they can share their musical work with family and friends.

All the camps will be led by MusiCamp’s Andrea Kuzmich, who has been successfully hosting online workshops in Georgian Singing and Body Percussion since April. To make it more real, more musically interactive and more fun, Andrea’s 12-year-old son will be joining her!

Parents can sign kids up for the full day of camp (all three workshops) for $275 or can sign up for individual workshops (prices listed below). All camps are run on Zoom. For more information please visit our contact us page.
 

Andrea & son, 2017 Body Percussion Festival, Harboufront Centre, Toronto. Click to view.

BODY PERCUSSION BODY MUSIC WORKSHOP
Ages 8-14; class size unlimited
Mon-Fri 9:30-10:30 AM $65
REGISTER HERE
A fun, physically active, movement and rhythm workshop, and a great workout for the brain!
Participants in this workshop will be introduced to cool rhythms that can be performed with the body and voice. Starting with simple patterns and building upon them, the workshops present material to accommodate varying skills.

 

A sample of songs from past camps. Click to view.

EXPLORING SONGS WORKSHOP
ages 9-14; class size limited to 10 participants
Mon-Fri 11:00-12:00 AM $85
REGISTER HERE
Kids will learn a load of songs from a vast array of styles and genres. Some are rhythm based, some ancient; some new music, other contemporary pop; some may involve body percussion, others chordal accompaniment.
Starting with basic rhythmic chants and work songs and progressing to 3 and 4 chord songs, we’ll explore the makeup of a song and naturalize concepts of rhythm, tonality, scale, the pentatonic scale, chords and harmony.
A video compilation of the songs learned/performed will be sent to participants and their parents at the end of the week.

 

COMPOSITION AND SONGWRITING WORKSHOP
ages 10-14; limited to 8 participants
Mon-Fri 1:30-3:30 PM $175
REGISTER HERE
Have a song you want to sing? A story you want to tell? This series will help the aspiring songwriters and singers put their ideas to music.
Through fun and practical songwriting exercise, participants are introduced to aspects of songwriting, like hooks, riffs, harmony, and rhythmic accompaniment, chorus-verse format, basic chord progressions, intros and outros, rhyming and storytelling – useful skills/review for even the more experienced song-writers.
A video compilation of all the original compositions will be sent to participants and their parents at the end of the week.
Note: this series builds off of the songs and concepts we learned in Exploring Songs; it is highly recommended your child enrol in the Exploring Songs workshop as well.

Song writing exercises and performances. Click to view.

 

ONLINE BODY PERCUSSION/MUSIC WORKSHOPS

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A fun, physically active, movement and rhythm workshop, and a great workout for the brain…


TUESDAYS 7 PM – 7:45 PM EST (GMT-4 hrs) on Zoom
$10-15 for employed, PWYC for underemployed (per Tuesday class)

Sign up with our PAY PAL link or use our Contact Us Page for more info.
There’s also more info on registering at the bottom of this page. 

Participants in this workshop will be introduced to cool rhythms that can be performed with the body and voice. This is a physically active music workshop, where layers of rhythm are overlapped to make some serious groove. The singing component involves vocalizing rhythms as well as singing songs and riffs, sometimes in harmony. Participants will come out with a stronger sense of rhythm and the pure joy of making music solely your body.

Starting with simple patterns and building upon them, the workshops present material to accommodate varying skills. Those who are more adept are given more challenging rhythms to layer on top of a basic rhythm. Alternatively, those challenged with the more demanding rhythms can practice holding the simpler rhythmic pattern. Vocals, like singing or vocalizing rhythms, are another layer that can be added. A component of drilling certain movements/rhythms will allow some room for individual variation, giving the student more of a chance to express individuality, which in turn makes it more interesting and musically alive!

About 5 years ago, MusiCamp’s director and founder, Andrea Kuzmich, started exploring ways to use body percussion in our kid’s summer camps. It not only functioned as a pedagogical tool to help with rhythm and arranging, but also heightened the excitement of any song – and really was inspired by Andrea’s interest to instantaneously make a party-like atmosphere, any where, any time, without instruments, but through the body alone!

In June 2019 Andrea was honoured to lead workshops on body percussion at the Ontario Womyn’s Drum Camp. Due to Covid-19, the 2020 camp was turned into a Zoom camp, and Andrea lead a Zoom body percussion workshop for over 60 participants. The video below is from that workshop.

With an interest to share and develop these skills more, Andrea will be hosting regular Zoom body percussion workshops on Tuesdays. You can use our Contact Us Page for more info or to arrange payment, or click this PAY PAL link (all sorts of credit cards accepted) to sign up now (make sure you enter your email address) and we’ll send you the zoom link and instructions. 

Body Percussion Festival 2018

ONLINE BODY PERCUSSION/MUSIC WORKSHOPS

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Please visit our UPDATED PAGE for this workshop.  

TUESDAYS 7 PM – 7:45 PM EST (GMT-4 hrs) on Zoom
PWYC for underemployed, suggested $10-15 for employed

Sign up with using our PAY PAL link or use our Contact Us Page for more info.


Drawing on her wealth of experience from running innovative music programs at MusiCamp, Andrea Kuzmich will introduce participants in this workshop to cool rhythms that can be performed with the body and voice. This is a physically active music workshop, where layers and layers of rhythm are overlapped to make some serious groove. The singing component involves vocalizing rhythms as well as singing songs and riffs, sometimes in harmony. Participants will come out with a stronger sense of rhythm and the exceptional experience of creating music together. The material will be presented to accommodate varying skill levels.

Starting with simple patterns and building, the workshops present material to accommodate varying skills. Those who are more adept can be given more challenging rhythms to layer on top of a basic rhythm. Alternatively, those challenged with the more demanding rhythms can practice holding the simpler rhythmic pattern. Vocals, like singing or vocalizing rhythms, are another layer that can be added. A component of drilling certain movements/rhythms will allow some room for individual variation, giving the student more of a chance to express individuality, which in turn may make it more interesting and musically alive!

About 5 years ago, MusiCamp’s director and founder, Andrea Kuzmich, started exploring ways to use body percussion in our kid’s summer camps. It not only functioned as a pedagogical tool to help with rhythm and arranging, but also heightened the excitement of any song – and really was inspired by Andrea’s interest to instantaneously make a party-like atmosphere, any where, any time, without instruments, but through the body alone!

In June 2019 Andrea was honoured to lead workshops on body percussion at the Ontario Womyn’s Drum Camp. Due to Covid-19, the 2020 camp was turned into a Zoom camp, and Andrea lead a Zoom body percussion workshop for over 60 participants.

TO REGISTER
With an interest to share and develop these skills more, Andrea will be hosting more Zoom body percussion workshops. Thursday June 27 is just the first of many. You can use our Contact Us Page for more info or to arrange payment, or click this PAY PAL link (all sorts of credit cards accepted) to sign up now (make sure you enter your email address) and we’ll send you the zoom link and instructions. 

Body Percussion Festival 2018

6-week Georgian Singing Workshop

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We hope to have the opportunity to cozy up with you in our studio and blend our voices into a warm harmony that will help pass the winter away.
 
A 6 Week Workshop
WEDNESDAY 7-9 PM FEB 19 – APR 1 (skipping Mar 4)
at the MusiCamp studio
$250 for new participants; $200 for repeat students
More info or register by email through our contact page

IMG_1558Under the direction of Shalva Makharashvili and Andrea Kuzmich, MusiCamp will be hosting another Georgian singing workshop. Georgia, is located in the mountainous region of the Caucasus, the crossroads of Europe and Asia. Its ancient singing tradition, known for its distinctive and haunting harmonies, was recognized by UNESCO as an intangible masterpiece of humanity in 2001. The 3-part form defies Western conventions and comes in a plethora of musical dialects, reflecting the diverse geographical and cultural makeup of the land.
 

In this series, we’ll take a look a variety of regional styles and song-types (harvest/work/travel/table/love songs and chants). At the end of the 6 weeks we’ll have a little performance for friends and family… and a little toast – to keep it in the Georgian tradition…
 

 
Georgian-born singer/multi-instrumentalist Shalva Makharashvili and his Toronto-born partner, Andrea Kuzmich are Canada’s foremost experts in Georgian polyphony. Both Shalva and Andrea were featured soloists in Darbazi; founded the award-winning trio ZARI; perform with their family ensemble Ori Shalva; led Georgian workshops and/or have collaborated with many groups in Canada, including VIVA Youth Singers, Aradia Ensemble, UofT Vocal Jazz Ensemble, Young Voices of Toronto and Folk Camp; and have exposed many in Toronto (enthusiastic amateur singers to professional musicians and composers) to the intricacies of Georgian polyphony through regular workshops they lead out of MusiCamp. (Andrea is also an academic (PhD ABD) who has presented and published papers on Georgian music to international audiences.)

To register for the workshop send us an email through the contact us page.

For some samples of Georgian songs have a listen to Shalva’s and Andrea’s trio soundcloud playlist or visit their website ZARI

Winter Georgian Singing Workshop

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Happy New Year!!

We hope to have the opportunity to cozy up with you in our studio and blend our voices into a warm harmony that will help pass the winter away.

Under the direction of Shalva Makharashvili and Andrea Kuzmich, MusiCamp will be hosting another Georgian singing workshop, starting sometime in mid-February 2020. The date is still to be determined but it will run in the evenings (7-9 PM), once a week, at the MusiCamp studio for 6 weeks. You can learn more of past workshops by visiting www.MusiCampTO.com/georgianworkshop or feel free to contact us. Look to the side if you’re on a PC or scroll down on your phone to view some videos of past workshops.

And remember to check back soon for updates on the dates!

WINTER GEORGIAN SINGING WORKSHOP
Starting Mid February, day still to be determined, 7-9 PM
for 6 weeks at the MusiCamp studio
$250 for new participants; $200 for repeat students
Feel free to reach out to our contact page if you have any questions

ICE CREAM! an original song by MusiCampers!

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Our Composition and Song week is always so creative!!! And so productive!!!

What you’re hearing right now is an original song written by the MusiCamp campers from the Composition & Song week of 2013. We run a slew of creative song writing exercises throughout the week, some where the campers work independently on theirs songs, others where they work in groups. These exercises challenge the kids to think of how a pop song is made and the different components that make an effective song – the hook, the chorus, the intro, the verses, the ending, etc.The young campers also learn to identify chord structures in a very practical and accessible way. They even make instruments, like the diddley bow or the bucket bass, and are able to play the basic I IV V chord structure on the instrument!

By the way, ICE CREAM! was written as a collaborative exercise where all the campers contributed to the making of this song. And every year, in just one week’s time, these inspired youngsters write wonderful music! It is always such a blessing to work with these young creative minds!

This year Composition & Song week runs from July 15-19, 9am – 4pm. We still have spots! You can register here.

A FOLK OPERA

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ZEMLYA / EARTH:  A Ukrainian Folk Opera 
May 17 8pm $30
St. Vladimir Institute (620 Spadina Ave)

 

ZEMLYA / EART : A Ukrainian Folk Opera

ZEMLYA / EARTH is an innovative interdisciplinary original work that features a contemporary context for the powerful and ancient women’s singing tradition of the Ukraine, a polyphonic tradition that has too often been overlooked – by Western academia and the rest of the world.

Growing up with Ukrainian grandparents, I often heard and sang Sovietized arrangements of folk songs. I always thought they were beautiful but, like most of the world, never thought much of the singing tradition. I only discovered how intense and varied their polyphonic tradition was about four years ago. The remarkable thing is that most people – even musicologists and ethnomusicologists – have no idea about this ancient and powerful tradition. So it gives me great pride to be a part of an innovative approach to presenting the music: a folk opera!

This project was initiated by KALENDAR, a performance singing group that grew out of the Kosa Kolektiv urban folk movement. With grants from the Ontario Arts Council, the Shevchenko Foundation, and the Ukrainian Credit Union, we were able to commission the expertise of ethnomusicologist/musician Marichka Marczyk – who is not only the co-created of the award winning Counting Sheep but has also spent over 15 years collecting songs in the fields of Ukraine and has an incredible ability to teach and share the essence of these songs with us. 

The show will premiere with only a single performance scheduled at St. Vladimir Institute on May 18, 2017. It is my hope that Zemlya‘s presentation of the ancient powerful women’s musical tradition (which involves choreographed movement, traditional dance, and background video) will reveal an ageless purpose of the music and viscerally remind us of the universal relationship humans have with the earth and each other.

For more information visit www.Kalendar.ca or visit KALENDAR’s FB event page.
Tickets can be purchased online from http://zemlya.brownpapertickets.com/
Sign up via our email list for more news events like this here here