Visit my performance calendar (on a different website)
Time to sign up for summer 2008 workshops!
Historical arts summer day camps are back this year! Workshops will take place the following weeks:
Medieval* Arts Week: July 28-August 1
Renaissance Arts Week: August 4-8 (Note: This class is full.)
These programs with co-teacher Jacob Breedlove are some of my best loved. With stories, songs, dances, and crafts, we'll enter the world of centuries past. Knights, queens, and clever fools share their lives in portraits and perhaps a play. This hands-on workshop includes early social dance and a menagerie of string, wind, and percussion instruments for everyone to try. (No musical background is necessary.) Everyone will be able to try their hand at arts from calligraphy to cooking with period recipes!
The workshops can be taken together or separately. We'll be back with new projects this summer so that returning kids can repeat the classes.
Class size is limited to a total of 12 kids with two teachers. The small size is the secret to our successful age-mixing -- no one is underengaged or overextended. Jacob Breedlove returns as my popular teaching and performing partner. He's a multi-instrumentalist and craftsman whose music, stories, puppet shows, and theater sets have been enjoyed at Camlann Medieval Village in Carnation, WA for 19 summers.
Both workshops will run M-F, 9am-noon, at the Phinney Neighborhood Center in Seattle. Full tuition is $150, and kids aged 5-11 are welcome to attend. Until I learn how to post a downloadable registration form, please get in touch and I can send you one by email or paper post.
* Not sure about the middle ages for kids? Check out my blog posting about kid-friendly medieval arts.
Note: Financial aid is available for most classes; please ask.
Past Classes -- Summer 2007
A Week in Medieval England - Portland, OR
June 25-29 2007, presented by the Portland Revels
The Middle Ages come to life in this hands-on exploratory workshop for children. Try your hand at arts and crafts of the period, from weaving and calligraphy to dance and song -- and cooking from medieval recipes! Instructors and musicians Shulamit Kleinerman and Jacob Breedlove bring a menagerie of medieval percussion, wind, string, and keyboard instruments for everyone to try. (No background in music is necessary.)
Renaissance Arts for Kids - Seattle, WA
July 30 - Aug 3 2007
Discover Renaissance culture through stories, music, arts and crafts of the period. This hands-on workshop includes early social dance and a menagerie of early string, wind, keyboard, and percussion instruments for everyone to try. (No musical experience is necessary.) Everyone will be able to try their hand at arts from calligraphy to cooking with period recipes, and we'll take a look at how Renaissance science shaped the courtly arts of the time.
Multi-instrumentalist and craftsman Jacob Breedlove, who joins Shula for this class, has been entertaining at Camlann Medieval Village in Carnation, WA as a musician, storyteller, and puppeteer for 18 summers.
Fall 2006 to Spring 2007
Early Music for Youth
Thursdays October 19-Dec 14 (except Thanksgiving), 6-7pm
Phinney Neighborhood Center
$60 *special rate for the first run of this new class!
This class is for music students aged 8-14, who...
- have a year's experience or more
- can play comfortably in (at least) C, G, and D major.
- have at least a beginning familiarity with note names
- have a private teacher who will be interested to spend some lesson time on the material if necessary
Students at a variety of technical levels should be comfortable in the class, since we'll be learning tunes and working out arrangements that make comfortable use of individual skills and instruments. Class size will be capped at 8 kids to keep it relaxed and rewarding.
We'll focus on a few medieval tunes for the first half of the session, mostly by ear/rote, moving into some basic renaissance consort repertoire from the page in the second half. We'll also venture into improvisation and renaissance dance, and there will be opportunities to try as many instruments as possible (viola da gamba, percussion, medieval fiddle, and recorder at least). Early percussion specialist Peggy Monroe will visit to introduce instruments and techniques, so that everyone can take turns playing percussion throughout the class.
Students need not have experience with historical instruments. There may be space for one or two keyboard students, pending the availability of an instrument -- please ask.
Mozart’s Magic Flute
Yule Week
December 18-22, 2006
Festive projects and pastimes from the Middle Ages and Renaissance to celebrate the changing seasons – and we’ll explore the science behind the shortest day of the year. Special guests include costumed Renaissance dancers Katie Gibbons and Toivo Rovainen of Seattle Early Dance to demonstrate and teach courtly dances.
Behind the Scenes at the Puppet Opera: The Liberation of Ruggiero
Saturdays March 24 and 31, 9am-1pm (bring a bag lunch)
Northwest Puppet Center
$75
Ages 7-11
This spring, the Carter Family Marionettes are performing Francesca Caccini’s early seventeenth century opera (the first opera written by a woman) about Ruggiero’s escape from the island of Alcina. We’ll meet one of the singers, and go backstage with Dmitri Carter to see how the puppets are made and used. Meanwhile, try your hand at the music, art, and manners of early Baroque Italy.
This class is scheduled so that participants and their families may attend the performance of Ruggiero later in the spring.
On Vacation with Handel
M-F April 9-13, 9am-noon
Phinney Neighborhood Center
$150
Optional extension until 1pm (bring a bag lunch), $25
Ages 7-11
What was London like in the 18th century, when Handel wrote music there? We’ll explore tales of the place and time along with period arts and crafts. Special guests include Seattle Baroque Orchestra artistic director Ingrid Matthews with her violin, dancer Ines Andrade of Seattle Early Dance – in costume – to introduce Baroque dance and manners for gentlemen and ladies, and historical fencer Cecil Longino of the Academia della Spada to offer an introduction to the art of fencing (with soft foam swords).
This class is scheduled so that students and their families can attend the Seattle Baroque Orchestra Handel concert a few weeks later, with dances performed by Seattle Early Dance.