|
The
String Institutes with Eugene Friesen
 March 14-16, 2008
St. Johns, Lodi, California
Application: pdf msword
Limit: 15 participants
July
18-21, 2008
at
Centennial
House, Northfield, MA
Application: pdf
msword
Limit: 15 participants
Transcending all
categories, Friesen's music stirs the soul...
nothing less than inspiring." - Jazz Times
"Eugene's String
Institute was the best pure music-making I have experienced
in many years. His openness, depth of knowledge, and mastery
of the cello led everyone to unlock doors to personal expression
that will stay open for a long time. This weekend was a gift."
- Crispin Campbell, Interlochen
"Oh, I see how
this works. Yesterday you couldn't get me to play a solo,
and today you can't get me to stop!"
- Janet Haarvig, cellist, composer, Proctor, MO
 The
String Institute is a unique opportunity for intermediate
and advanced string players to study with master teacher, performer,
and Grammy winner Eugene Friesen in a beautiful setting. Designed
for performers wanting to expand their abilities in improvisation
and non-classical styles, as well as teachers interested in adding
improvisation to their curriculae, the String Institute
is a unique opportunity for intermediate and
advanced adult cellists, violinists, and violists to expand their
technique, repertoire and improvisational skill in a
musically intense environment. More
about Eugene
|
Don't
miss this opportunity to energize your
playing and teaching in a beautiful setting!
Overview
- The String
Institute allows for unprecedented interaction between fifteen adult
participants and one of the most exciting cellists of our time in
an informal setting which will include master classes, private lessons,
opportunities for student jams, and performances. Meals provided.
| Schedule - Lodi, California at St. John's Episcopal |
| Friday |
|
| 6 pm - 7:30 |
Dinner |
| 7:30 - 9:30 |
Workshop sessions |
| Saturday |
|
| 9:00 am |
Bagel breakfast |
| 10 am - 9 pm |
Workshop sessions with meal breaks |
| Sunday |
|
| 10 am |
Church service featuring Eugene |
| 12 noon |
Lunch |
| 1 - 4 pm |
Final workshop sessions |
Class Descriptions
Master
classes and private sessions will address teaching and playing with
regard to topics such as:
RHYTHM IN THE
BOW - Jazz articulation, accents, ghost notes and notation. Using
call and response, rhythmic templates, metric modulation, and unusual
subdivisions, players are guided into more sophisticated relationships
to a pulse.
PENTATONICS
- Dividing the octave into five tones is a device for creating
melodies and melodic scale passages without the need for constant
shifting. The practice of pentatonic scales and patterns also gives
the improviser instant and equal comfort in all keys, while strengthening
the extended position.
WORKOUT: 6/8,
9/8 & swing bowing - The roots of what we call “swung”
eighth notes is in African music. We’ll listen to examples from
African village music, drumming and pop music, use physical steps
and clapping to replicate the feeling, then translate the feel into
our bows.
CHORDS and NOTATION
- This session will focus on the anatomy of chords, and how they
are commonly represented in notation. We will give special emphasis
to how chords “fit” our hand positions, but also how they
influence our melodic choices, and how they inform our choice of scales.
This session will also explore how to play five different seventh
chords (major 7, dominant 7, minor 7, minor 7 flat 5, and diminished
7) in all twelve keys.
WORKOUT: Free
Improvisation - Using techniques devised by Paul Winter and developed
by Eugene, this class in free improvisation is the perfect starting
point for students who have never improvised. Starting with “there
are no wrong notes,” this session explores interactive music
making where there is no plan or prior discussion. The values of leading
and following are illustrated, and players are encouraged to make
any sound on their instruments as they converse musically with one
another in duos and trios.
WORKOUT: Playing With Drones - Using a sustained pitch as our
accompaniment, we will explore how to practice and improvise. The
use of modes will be presented, demonstrated and practiced. Vocality
of expression and phrases will be emphasized.
WORKOUT: Accompanying
- Using a variety of pizzicato and arco techniques, creating an
accompaniment for singers and instrumentalists can highlight the incredible
range and flexibility of the cello. Questions of register, chord tones,
phrasing, variety and imagination will be demonstrated.
DISCUSSION -
Making finances work out for a creative musician, and/or creating
a full musical life. We will be joined by Margie Farmer, who manages
bookings for a full roster of performing artists.
FREE IMPROVISATION
2 - Since we tend to improvise within our levels of musical comfort,
it then follows that we must continually work to find comfort in higher
levels of rhythmic and harmonic complexity. This session focuses on
taking our improvising into more complex areas, and how to prepare
for that.
WORKOUT: Odd
Time Meters - Using examples from various world music sources,
we will explore how odd time meters (5, 7, 11, etc.) help us to create
unique rhythmic settings. We will discuss how to practice, and how
to use the concept of overlaying groupings of 3’s and 5’s
in 3/4 and 4/4.
DISCUSSION and
FEEDBACK - We want to hear about your impressions of our week
together, and suggestions for making an increasingly positive experience
in retreats to come!
Friesen's
frenzied bowings and soaring melodies sent many
in the audience home in a state of musical rapture.
--The
Washington Post
Comments from participants...
"Thank you! Even though
our camp finished at 2pm on Monday, I was on a musical high
until I went to sleep Tuesday night. The inspiration
from camp has stayed with me, and I have even discovered a
new part of myself that had been suppressed for a long time.
The Outer Banks workshop was the perfect environment
for me to discover, be supported, and explore my
uninhibited musical personality. It has changed my
life forever. THANK YOU!!!" ~Cindi Kornhaus
"I am so glad
to have the contact list to drop you all a note and express
my appreciation to each of you for a wonderful weekend of
music making and camaraderie at the Outer Banks. I don't
know about the rest of you, but I was totally exhausted for
the rest of the week after returning home. Exhausted
and inspired. I took the opportunity to tell the story
of my weekend in each of my classes on Tuesday and that theme
of "Rigor, then Surrender" seemed to echo in my brain.
I am sure that I will use it for many years to come.
I was also able to draw many parallels between the lives
my students lead and the brief experience that I had that
weekend - basically living together 24/7, taking a risk to
leave home and learn something, extreme rigor and creative
stretching, and many others. I must say that I find
myself much more sympathetic to and impressed by the
lives my students are leading here at the School of Science
and Math. Another great by-product of the weekend.
Bottom line - it was a tremendous experience for me and I
thank you all! " ~Sincerely, Scott
Laird
"This was a fabulous
camp. Eugene is a top-flight technician, musician and teacher.
I learned a lot very quickly and have projects to work on
for at least a year! Within a week of coming home I had an
opportunity to improvise with fellow faculty members for a
fund-raiser given by the Washington Conservatory of Music.
One week earlier I would have wanted to but I'm not sure I
would have said yes. This time I volunteered myself and did
great! Talk about synchronicity! So I'm off and running thanks
to just three days, three days of the most creative, musical
fun I've had in twenty years."
~ Deborah Brudvig
"[You] called
the workshop The Outer Banks Intensive; I think that is a
very honest interpretation of the event. I liked that there
was a limit to participants. I felt like I would be
attending something special. I also appreciate that
significant others were welcomed. Thank you so much for
all you did to make this weekend a reality. It was truly
a wonderful and unique experience. "
~Ardith Collins
"The
weekend in New England learning about improvisation with Eugene
Friesen was truly inspiring. Eugene offered us so many
paths to develop our own style of improvising and was always
encouraging and patient with our attempts. I know all
of the participants went home filled with energy and excitement
as well as hands on approaches to continuing our work. Besides
that, the accommodations were first rate and the food was
gourmet. What more could we ask for?!"
~Susan
Sturman
|
For
artist info, please visit
www.eugenefriesenmusic.com
For more information please contact us
410-374-9059
mtfarmer@classactsontour.com
Accommodation and Travel - Northfield, Massachusetts
 The
Centennial House Bed and Breakfast
www.thecentennialhouse.com
94 Main Street
Northfield, MA 01360
Check-in anytime after 3 pm Friday
Participants will enjoy dinner
followed by an evening session
Sheets and towels, all meals
are provided
Check-out by noon on Monday
Driving
directions
Airports (both about an hour and a half from Northfield):
Logan
International Airport Boston, MA
Bradley International
Airport Hartford, CT
Bradley airport was recommended by the innkeeper as it is a straight
shot up Interstate-91 and the cabs there are used to driving to Northfield,
MA, whereas Boston car services tend to not be familiar with the drive.
Also, travelers don't have to deal with Boston traffic if they use
Bradley, which is just outside of Hartford. However, flying to Boston
may be more affordable. The choice, of course, is up to you.
From the airport to Northfield,
MA: The innkeeper recommends Valley
Transporters, who are the main service of the five colleges in
the area and are used to working with musicians and instruments. Reservations
required; call 1-800-872-8752 or visit their website. Both
airports also have numerous car rental options if campers would like
to drive themselves to and from Northfield, but we do not anticipate
campers will need access to a car during the weekend.
More about
Eugene Friesen
"Robust improvisation, inspired writing,
and spirited collaboration."
JAZZ TIMES
"I
really love the ideas you present, and the creative ways you have
stretched the limits of the cello to engage the audience's imagination."
YO-YO MA
"A
superior performer able to synthesize a vast array of influences
and ideas into an entertaining, musically satisfying whole."
TOWER PULSE
Eugene
Friesen is at the forefront of a new generation of musicians versed
in classical, popular and world music. A graduate of the Yale School
of Music, he is active as a performer, composer, recording artist,
and is currently on the faculty of The Berklee College of Music
in Boston.
Friesen's gift for the responsive flow of improvisatory music has
been featured in concerts all over the world with the Paul
Winter Consort, Trio Globo, and with poets Yevgeny Yevtushenko
and Coleman Barks. He has performed as a soloist at the International
Cello Festival in Manchester,
England;
Rencontres d'Ensembles de Violoncelles in Beauvais,
France;
and at the World Cello Congress in Baltimore,
Maryland.
His compositional credits include five albums of original music:
Sono Miho, In The Shade Of Angels, New Friend, Arms Around You and
The Song of Rivers; Grasslands, a symphony premiered on the Kansas
prairie in 1997; Earth Requiem: Stories of Hope, an oratorio first
performed in 1991; The Brementown Musicians with Bob Hoskins for
Rabbit Ears Productions in 1992; Sabbaths, settings of poems by
Wendell Berry premiered in Vermont in 1999; and numerous scores
for documentary films. Eugene's
music can also be heard on the recordings of Trio Globo, which he
founded in 1992 with Howard Levy and Glen Velez.
Friesen was awarded two Grammy awards as a member of the Paul
Winter Consort. Additionally,
Eugene
was the 1999 recipient of grants from the Lila Wallace/Reader's
Digest Fund and Continental Harmony to compose a symphonic setting
of Carl Sandburg's PRAIRIE, which was premiered in June of 2001
in Arkansas
City, Kansas.
CelloMan,
his one-man show for young audiences, features a wide variety of
music on solo cello: classical, jazz, blues and rock. Created in
collaboration with maskmaker/choreographer Robert Faust, CelloMan
has been performed widely in the United States.
|