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Village Harmony is the umbrella organization for a diverse range of choral, world music and harmony singing activities founded by Larry Gordon in 1989 and co-directed by Patty Cuyler since 1995.

Farewell to Larry Gordon

We are heartbroken to share that Larry Gordon, founder of Village Harmony and mentor and dear friend to many passed away on Tuesday, November 9th, 2021.

A memorial is being planned, to take place in central Vermont over Labor Day weekend, September 3-5, 2022. Information will be posted on the Village Harmony website after we work out the details.

“Reading all of the stories, memories and experiences shared, seeing all the wonderful pictures, it’s amazing to see the sheer size, breadth and strength of community that Larry did so much to create. I doubt even he grasped the true nature of the wonderful beast he unleashed.”

Ongoing tributes

Vermont Public Radio: An Appreciation of Larry Gordon

Choral leader, community builder: A sonic memorial for Larry Gordon

VPR with Walter Parker: Village Harmony & Larry Gordon Live in 2014

Facebook group: “Love for Larry Gordon”

Remembering Larry Gordon, Vermont’s Pied Piper of Community Singing (Montpelier-Barre Times Argus, Nov. 20, 2021)

The Community Remembers (Times Argus, Nov. 20, 2021)

WGDR’s Community Radio Celebration of Larry Gordon
As tributes by friends, family, colleagues, and fellow musicians amplified, local radio station WGDR/WGDH provided a platform for them to sing out across Vermont, live on the air. This show aired on Sunday, November 14, from 7-9pm, honoring Larry’s life. Hosted by Joseph Gainza, with board operation by Carl Etnier, the show featured friends of Larry’s telling stories and the music of Village & Northern Harmony.

Village Harmony 2022 Summer Camps

We invite you to join us for the summer of 2022 as Village Harmony comes back in person, with these in-person teen, adult and international camps:

For teens (ages 11-18):

• New England Teen Traveling Camp I, June 28-July 16, led by Sinead O’Mahoney, Bongani Magatyana (from South Africa) and Scott Sexton

• New England Teen Traveling Camp II, July 14-31, led by Lysander Jaffe and Megan Henderson, with third leader TBA.

Adult residential weeks:

• New England Adult Camp, July 17-24 in Wiliamstown, MA, led by Brendan Taaffe, Bongani Magatyana and Kathy Bullock

• Oregon Adult Camp, August 22-28 at Menucha Retreat on Columbia River east of Portland, led by Gideon Crevoshay, Sarina Partridge and Heidi Wilson

Non-US study-performance programs (for teens & adults):

• Corsica Camp, June 14-July 2, led by Frederic Vesperini, Jean Etienne-Langianni, Patty Cuyler and Ketevan Mindorashvili

• Caucasus Georgia Camp, July 10-26, led by Ketevan Mindorashvili and Ensemble Zedashe, Patty Cuyler and Mollie Stone

• South Africa Camp, July 30-August 16, led by Matlakala Bopape, Bongani Magatyana, Patty Cuyler and Mollie Stone

GO TO OUR REGISTRATION SITE

Village Harmony’s Pandemic Programs

The virtual and modified in-person programming Village Harmony began in response to the Covid-19 pandemic in mid-2020 has been successful beyond imagination, bringing people from radically different parts of the world together in an unexpectedly-satisfying way to create and share both music and new friendships. At the same time we have been able to provide much-needed income to our folk music colleagues across the globe during otherwise hard times.

Our own organization’s online programs have included the Village Harmony Cross-Countries Choir, a marathon two-day Winter Weekend Festival in late February, a number of different quarantine incarnations of our alumni touring ensemble Northern Harmony, a full summer of online weekend workshops and three online specialty weeks—all led by world music experts beaming in from North America and abroad to supplement the two reduced-size in-person singing New England singing camps, one for adults and one for teenagers that we organized.

During the 2020-21 school year Village Harmony orchestrated specialized zoom classes—ranging from one-off workshops for regional choral organizations to weeks-long, semester-long and year-long global music courses for public and private universities across North America—uniting singers with our expert singer-teachers in their home countries all over the world.

During the current academic year we remain in demand for similar online programs, utilizing the magic of Zoom to bring authentic face-to-face instruction of global folk repertoire to choirs and music students—even as many of these singers have returned to primarily in-person rehearsals.

Interested in having a private online teaching session or course designed for your own choir?
Read more below.

“Just in case I don’t gush enough during the zoom, I want to thank you for this workshop series. I’ve been doing various online musics all during the pandemic, but have really enjoyed the variety of traditions here. And you’ve done a great job with all the materials made available to us, wrangling the technology, etc.”

YouTube videos

We have posted new videos and recordings of both Northern Harmony and Village Harmony ensembles on YouTube.

Follow these links:
VH Teen II Ensemble 2019
Northern Harmony 2017
Northern Harmony in Chicago 2019
Northern Harmony Sextet 2020

Support Village Harmony Programs

Village Harmony is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization and all contributions are fully tax-deductible.

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Expand your choir’s repertoire during the Zoom era

Village Harmony has developed an ever-expanding online teaching resource library for choir directors looking to collaborate via zoom with expert teachers across the globe.

Our aim is dual-fold. The project provides much-needed income to our teachers. And the program provides a valuable interface for singers of all levels to learn songs directly and authentically from musician experts in many of the worlds greatest non-Western choral traditions: from South Africa, the Republic of Georgia, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Corsica, Cuba and the American Appalachian and African-American communities.

Using Village Harmony’s online learning platform, resources provided to participating choirs include digital rehearsal material—audio or video individual voice part recordings and performance tracks, scores /wordsheets/translations, pronunciation tracks, background resources. These back-up teaching files compliment a live zoom lesson that we set up for your choir with a tradition bearer, who will introduce and teach the voice parts directly to your students, model authenticity and provide essential historical and personal background about the song.

We can offer your choir a tailor-made one-off workshop, multi-week or semester-long program, or even a year-long series of guest teachers.

Contact Mollie Stone at molliestone@uchicago.edu to what we might offer for your own choir and to set up a private zoom meeting for a tour of our programs.

Organizations we’ve organized such online projects for include Harvard University, Purdue University, University of Minnesota, Augsburg University, Baltimore Choral Arts, University of San Diego, Coastline Colleges, Orange Coast College, Wellesley College, Muhlenberg College, Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh, Quechee Waldorf School, Upper Valley Waldorf School, Orange County Women’s Chorus and the Chicago Children’s Choir, as well as a number of regional school music festivals.