Come sing with Village Harmony!

This world of ours needs harmony. Join one of Village Harmony's singing programs and be part of the solution.

“As an artist and educator, I was delighted to be in the presence of leaders so knowledgeable and comfortable with sharing, that learning was effortless--even with the challenge of unfamiliar languages and diverse musical styles. This aspect of Village Harmony bears great weight in our global community, as music is surely one of the best ways to connect people of different cultures.”

We thank all of the singers, leaders and volunteers who make Village Harmony such a vibrant, rich & collaborative international community.

Registration for the 2025 summer season is now open.

Village Harmony’s 2025 Offerings

Winter Weekend-Feb. 21-23

Go HERE for more information & a registration link. Our annual winter gathering is a great way to check out the Village Harmony style of teaching and fit a musical adventure into a few days.

Summer Camps in the United States

Go HERE for more information & registration links for our camps for teens and young adults. Camps this year are:
- New England Alumni Camp (June 1-15):
for ages 18-26
- Teen Traveling Camp 1 (June 26-July 12):
for ages 12-18
- UK Alumni Camp (July 27-July 14):
for ages 16-26
- Teen Traveling Camp 2 (July 11-27):
for ages 12-18

Go HERE for information and registration links for our adult residential weeks, which will be:
- at St. Benedict’s Retreat in McKenzie Bridge, Oregon (July 6-11)
- at Woolman Hill Retreat in Deerfield, MA (July 14-20)

International Summer Camps

Go HERE for more information and registration links for our international camps. Camps this year are in:
- New Zealand (January 11-28): for mixed ages
- North Macedonia (June 22-July 3): for mixed ages
- UK Alumni Camp (June 27 - July 14): for young adults ages 16-26
- Madagascar (July 16 - Aug 2): for mixed ages
- Republic of Georgia (Aug 3-17): for mixed ages

runs camps just for teenagers, alumni trips for older teens & young adults, residential weeks primarily for adults and international camps for mixed age groups. Each camp session is headed by a trio of music leaders fluent in a wide range of traditions and highly experienced as teachers. Our no-holds barred attitude toward what is possible has resulted in ensembles whose sound remains dynamic, unpredictable, and absolutely exciting year after year. With their clear command of radically-varied singing styles and infectiously joyous stage presence, Village Harmony ensembles always knock people’s socks off.

Village Harmony camp & workshop locations vary each year. This summer our camps will be held in New England, Oregon, the UK, the Republic of Macedonia, Madagascar and Caucasus Georgia. In other years we have run camps in the Midwest, Canada, Corsica, South Africa, France, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Bulgaria, Bosnia, Ukraine, Russia and Ghana.

During the rehearsal week, singers get to know one another, absorb the basics of new vocal styles and prepare a concert program. Rehearsals are focused and intense, usually six or more hours each day, with voice coaching and instrumental work between the group sessions. Written music is distributed for a lot of the repertoire, but many songs are taught solely by ear, and virtually everything is taught by example. Emphasis is placed on authenticity in the spirit of each musical genre, not just on its replication. 

Above all we strive for total conviction, and singing with joy. Intense as this description may seem, Village Harmony groups tend to be extremely relaxed, non-competitive and democratic in nature.  

The supportive and inclusive atmosphere at our camps is such that no one is afraid to give their all in performance and sing from the deepest place in their hearts.The framework of each residency is communal, with everyone pitching in to help cook and clean. The menu is primarily vegetarian, responsive to the tastes and culinary talents of the singers. We make time for dancing, hiking and searching out swimming holes. During the rehearsal week we often find time for a cabaret, when stand-up comics & little-imagined talents come to the fore.

The shorter residential camps finish up with just one or two performances. The longer teen and international camps launch into concert tours, traveling and performing at a different venue each night; and the communities that sponsor us and make up our audiences also provide us with meals and overnight housing. Concerts are held in small-town community halls, in village churches, at folk festivals; we make a point of collaborating with local folk musicians, especially overseas. Foreign audiences in particular are thrilled and gratified to see us learning and performing their traditional music with so much care, respect and enthusiasm.

Regardless of whether one attends a shorter residential camp or one of the traveling ones, the intense immersion in new repertoires and the many challenges of preparing for the concert performances is exhilarating for all involved.

Village Harmony

“I don't know if I can put into words the excitement you stir up with the amazing music you find and bring to us through your travels and your international contacts. We get a visceral experience of different worlds when we sing a people's music as they would sing it, as opposed to through the lens of an arranger. Over and over, I found myself exclaiming out loud at some surprising cadence, some wild harmonic digression. To be able to sing this music, to learn what the words mean, was to participate in cultures worlds away from mine --such a privilege.”

“It’s time to sing everyone!”

~ This was Larry Gordon’s signature call to rehearsals. We sorely miss Larry, VH’s founder, who died on November 9, 2021. Our memories of his joie de vivre live on—as does the sound of his strong bass voice in the many hundreds of concert recordings he made with Village Harmony and Northern Harmony ensembles.

VILLAGE HARMONY acts as an umbrella sponsoring a number of other activities, including:

  • We not only bring expert international tradition bearers to teach at our programs but also aid and sponsor foreign folk music ensembles to come to the USA to perform on tour—the most recent of which was Ensemble Zedashe from the Republic of Georgia.

  • Since the pandemic years Village Harmony has been recognized for its success in connecting international teachers with community and university choirs interested in learning songs from authentic sources. We arrange not only for zoom teaching sessions but also offer access to an online platform with parts, pronunciation and performance recordings, plus background resources, to best aid singers to produce an authentic performance result.

    LEARN MORE

  • This is something we are working on: an interactive library that will allow searches of the our music archive by teacher, camp session, genre or year. We aim to honor VH founder Larry Gordon’s personal legacy of sharing music through this ongoing project. We have also amassed a vast archive of digital teaching resources that we hope to make public in the future. If you’d like to help support these projects through a donation, click on the link below.

    LEARN MORE

  • Northern Harmony is the name of the highest level, semi-professional touring group—always a shifting collaboration of singers—under Village Harmony’s umbrella. Under founder Larry Gordon’s wing these groups toured and performed widely from 1993 to his death in 2021 throughout America and Europe to great critical acclaim. We hope to resurrect the tradition before long.

    LEARN MORE

Our Mission

Village Harmony is a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) educational organization dedicated to the study, performance and celebration of diverse styles of traditional choral music. Working with an international team of culture-bearing musicians we provide a wide range of educational and performance opportunities for amateur musicians around the world. Our aim is to promote cultural awareness and community through direct and ethical cultural exchange.

Support Village Harmony with a Patreon account.

Making a monthly donation through our Patreon account will give you access to a monthly download of recordings and background material for selections from our unique and wide-ranging world music repertoire. Learn, enjoy and teach authentic international choral pieces and support Village Harmony at the same time. Resource materials are donated to the cause from our domestic and international teachers. Go to our Patreon Account HERE.