Week 1: Monday-Friday, June 17-21, 8:30-11:30am
Week 2: Monday-Friday, June 24-28, 8:30-11:30am

Location:
St. Johnsbury School
257 Western Ave.
St. Johnsbury, VT

Catamount Arts will offer its third EPIC Music Camp this summer at the St. Johnsbury School, for students entering grades 2-7. Camp is June 17-21 and June 24-28, from 8:30-11:30am; current, former, and new students are welcome to come to one or both weeks. Violin experience is not necessary. The camp, led by EPIC Music Artistic Director Jason Bergman, will focus on high quality music instruction, both in large groups and semi-private lessons, plus games and performance opportunities. Instruments, instruction, and snacks are free. Donations to help cover costs are greatly appreciated (suggested donation: $25-100 per week).

Please register HERE.

Volunteers are at the heart of EPIC Music. Adults or high school students, with or without musical training, are invited to help with the camp this summer. Please contact Volunteer Coordinator Robin Bergman at rjbergman@myfairpoint.net or call 802-633-2871.

For more information, call 802-748-2600, ext. 109 or visit the EPIC Music page on the Catamount Arts website

Tuesdays, July 9, 16 and 23, 6:00 - 8:00 pm

Location:
Catamount Arts
115 Eastern Avenue
St. Johnsbury, VT

Instructor: Sharon Kenney Biddle

Come and play with paint and other materials to develop intriguing, unusual textures on various papers. You can make backgrounds for your painting, for art journaling, for bookbinding, or just for fun.

This series of three two-hour workshops will give you hands-on experience. You may enroll in one or two or all three.

General supplies will be provided.

Workshop Fee: $25 each, or $60 for all three (10% discount for Catamount members and students).
A materials fee of $3 per session is payable directly to the instructor.

Parents of middle and high school students: After registering for workshop(s), please complete an enrollment form HERE.

Sharon Kenney Biddle is a painter, bookbinder and collage artist who has been teaching bookbinding and related crafts for more than seventeen years. She believes that old-fashioned paper-filled books, especially ones that we make ourselves, are not obsolete or irrelevant. Designing a book and building its contents are worthy, satisfying experiences. A book that is entirely one's own from cover to cover is a splendid example of imagination and careful craftsmanship.

Location: Catamount Arts Center

Admission: Free

Northern Vermont Songwriters is a new organization for songwriters to share knowledge and maximize creativity. Membership and meetings are free. We meet at 6:45 p.m. on the second Tuesday of every month in the cabaret room at Catamount Arts in St. Johnsbury. Songwriters from Vermont, New Hampshire and anywhere else are invited to attend, and all genres of music are welcome. Songwriters may bring a song to share. The song may be performed live for the group, or a recording may be played (an iPhone dock will be available). Songwriters are encouraged to bring 6 copies of lyrics to share with the group. They may also bring lyrics only, or choose to simply listen and comment on the songs of others. Members might be invited to participate in public performances, including a Songwriter Round at Catamount Arts and at First Night. Another exciting benefit is occasional workshops hosted by music industry professionals, designed to help songwriters improve their craft. Please join us for our next meeting. Any questions should be sent to jakarns33@gmail.com; or phone: (802) 467-9859.

Monday-Friday, August 19-23, 9am-noon

Location:
Catamount Arts
115 Eastern Avenue
St. Johnsbury, VT

Instructor: Meredith Holch

Students will learn how to use a video camera to make original stop-motion animated movies. Working in groups of 2 or 3, participants will create a story line. They will use a variety of art materials to make figures of their characters. They will design and paint their own sets for the figures to move through. In addition to the visual aspect, the youth will record original soundtracks using musical instruments, sound makers, and their own voices for sound effects and dialogue.

Class Fee: Early Bird registration: $85 per student by July 15. Camp fee after July 15: $95.

Stop-Motion Animation Camp is limited to 9 students.

Catamount Arts is committed to offering high quality arts programming for all students, regardless of ability to pay. Please call Anne Campbell at 802-748-2600 x109 for information on scholarships or payment plans.

After paying the class fee, please register HERE.

Meredith Holch is an award-winning Vermont filmmaker and teaching artist whose work has been broadcast on PBS and screened at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC, the National Art Gallery in Washington, DC, and at international film festivals, art galleries, and community spaces. She has taught filmmaking and animation to children and adults for over a decade.

with Māmā Mihirangi & the Māreikura

Monday, August 19, 6:30 pm

Location:
Comfort Inn Side Lawn
703 US Route 5 South
St. Johnsbury, VT
Rain location: NVRH Conference Room

Tickets: $25

A cultural journey of Mana Wahine - Prestigious Woman - The female warrior and the power of the feminine. Experience the character, heart, and spirit of the haka. The Women’s Haka is a traditional dance that invokes and expresses a woman’s potency, their power, virtues, culture, lore, and sacredness. It is the summoning of her strength and spiritual power and is a display of unison. Participants will learn the calls, actions, words & their history, meaning, traditions, protocols and power. There are traditional and contemporary haka for many occasions and women have always had their own haka that invokes and expresses her potency, her power, virtues, culture, lore, and sacredness. No singing or dancing experience is necessary.

“I was personally overcome by an incomprehensible powerful force emanating from three Māori women performing dance with looped percussion and vocals as Māmā Mihirangi & the Māreikura. Their mesmerizing fractal flow and otherworldly theatrics invoked a rapturous level of being that only the purest music is able to conjure." Roots Music Canada.

Supported by: Comfort Inn and Suites in St. Johnsbury and NVRH.

A weekend of music and merriment

Friday, August 23 - Sunday, August 25

See schedule below

Location:
Whitehill Farm
East Ryegate, VT

Tickets: $125

After purchasing your ticket, please fill out the registration form found HERE.

A magical, musical retreat in the mountains of Vermont! Lynn and Will Rowan will lead a gentle weekend of singing with dancing, storytelling, drumming, and ritual in the beautiful hills of northern Vermont! No music reading skills required, just a willingness to open to music, community, and nature. The weekend will include music from harmony singing traditions around the world. We will also sing rounds, chants, and songs of solidarity to celebrate the earth, reinforce our interconnectedness, and heal our hearts in these challenging times. Friday and Saturday we will make a procession up the hill with bagpipes and drums to honor the sun in song, then light our evening fire for stories, music, and merriment. Please bring musical instruments if you have them! The weekend will culminate in a Sunday afternoon community concert by Lynn & Will and the Summersong Singers. Join kindred spirits, friends new and old, and music-lovers and celebrate summer’s end with us!

The weekend will be held at Whitehill Farm, located in the southern most point of the Northeast Kingdom. The Farm was a traditional dairy farm and we continue to pasture heifers to this day. The homestead continues to maintain 40 acres most of which are pasture, but there is a 3 acre parcel of cedars and five acres of sugar maples that are tapped each year. There are outstanding views from the top of this traditionally rugged property where you can take in the White Mountains and the Connecticut River.

Meals and accommodations

The traditional farmyard barn where we will be rehearsing has a common sleeping area upstairs. Participants may alternately bring tents to camp onsite. There are no onsite showers, but there is swimming nearby in a stream and pond. All participants will take part in the daily chores of the camp including cooking our communal meals, cleaning up after meals, and keeping our space tidy, helping build our community for the weekend.

Ages

10-Adult

Camp is not geared towards children under 10. Participants aged 10-11 should be accompanied by an adult or older sibling. People aged 12 and up can attend independently.

For more information, please contact Heather Alger: Heather.l.alger@gmail.com

Directors:

Lynn Rowan has dedicated her professional life to the study of vocal performance in its many and varied forms and has performed and taught workshops, lessons and lead choirs in singing for the past decade. These days she spends most of her time performing with her vocal band, Windborne, focusing on songs of social justice. Having grown up immersed in the folk communities of Vermont and discovering harmony singing traditions of many cultures through Village Harmony (which she now teaches for) her work is deeply rooted in and influenced by nature, history, and folklore of not only her own home, but also rich traditions from all over the world. Lynn’s teaching style is clear, warm, and encouraging.

Will Rowan was raised in a community where folk music and dance played an important role in bringing people together to celebrate. He fell in love with ensemble singing while touring with Village Harmony, learning from master singers and dancers at home and abroad. He studied music composition and ethnomusicology at Marlboro College, winning awards in choral composition and publishing several pieces. He also holds a Masters of Music in Choral Conducting from the Bard College Conservatory. Will is a multi-instrumentalist, playing banjo, piano, accordion, bagpipes, and percussion. With his sensitive style and years of cross-cultural teaching experience from international tours with Northern Harmony, Will is now a sought after song leader, teaching Village Harmony camps in the US and Lithuania.

Rough Schedule

Friday

• 4-5:00 – Arrivals
• 5:00 – Opening
• 6:00 – Dinner
• 6:30 – Dinner Cleanup
• 7:00 – Opening Circle/Singing down the Sun
• 8:00 – Evening Fire

Saturday

• 8:00 – Breakfast prep
• 8:30 – Breakfast
• 9:00 Breakfast cleanup
• 9:30 Morning Singing
• 12:00 – Lunch Prep
• 12:30 – Lunch
• 1:30 – Lunch cleanup
• 2:00 – Afternoon singing/dancing
• 4:30 – Dinner prep
• 6:00 – Dinner
• 6:30 – Dinner cleanup
• 7:00 – Singing down the Sun
• 8:00 – Evening Fire

Sunday

• 8:00 – Breakfast prep
• 8:30 – Breakfast
• 9:00 – Breakfast cleanup
• 9:30 – Morning Singing
• 11:30 – Lunch prep
• 12:15 – Lunch
• 12:45 – Lunch clean-up
• 1:15 – Concert prep
• 2:00 – Closing Circle
• 3-4 – Concert
• 4-5 – Final Clean-up / Departures