PORT TOWNSEND — Centrum will host Voice Works, a week of singing workshops designed to engage singers of all levels.
Voice Works runs Monday through Saturday next week. Fourteen teaching faculty will be joined at Fort Worden by nine support staff and about 125 students, said Artistic Director Pharis Romero.
A few spots are still available. Those interested can register at https://tinyurl.com/2s456chx.
Tuition for the week costs $275 to $550, optional housing costs $300, optional meals cost $90 to $350 and an airport shuttle costs $60 to $120. Scholarship opportunities have been exhausted, said program manager Peter McCracken over email. Those with questions about registration can reach McCracken at pmccracken@centrum.org.
The faculty and students will stay at Fort Worden and eat three meals a day together, organized by Centrum.
The group will start each morning with a 30-minute vocal warm up, Romero said.
Then students will then participate in two-hour workshops.
There are 12 two-hour blocks to choose from, and students will mostly stay with their morning blocks throughout the week, said Romero.
Two-hour blocks focus on a range of techniques and singing styles. “Roots Vocal Technique,” “Singing with Intention: Technique, Storytelling, Emoting,” “It Might Get Loud!” and “Harmony Around the World” are four of the 12 blocks offered.
Romero is teaching a morning block called “Singing in the Moment.”
“It’s based around functional ear training, ear training, pitch accuracy, identifying note relationships, identifying what chords sound like, identifying key signatures all of those things come into play to be able to sing with people, effectively, in the moment,” Romero said.
In the afternoon, after lunch and siesta or practice time, students will have two more one-hour workshops on a daily basis. Students will mix and match which workshops they take on a daily basis, Romero said.
For a full list of classes, visit the Voice Works page on Centrum’s website, https://centrum.org/program/voice-works/, and open the class descriptions drop-down menu.
Faculty bios can be found on the same webpage.
“We have a great diversity of students who come,” Romero said. “That’s one of the things that I really treasure about this program.”
Attending students range from people who haven’t sung a note in years, to choral members who sing in groups regularly, to professional musicians, Romero said.
Singing is a consummate act of bravery, Romero said.
“You are the instrument,” she said. “Your body is the instrument. As a result, everything that is going on in your body whether you haven’t had enough sleep, or you’ve been exercising like crazy, or you’re super hydrated, or you’re super not hydrated and you drank too many coffees, or you had a stressful day yesterday, or you’ve got a little bit of a cold. Whatever it is that’s happening in your body, opening for resonance or closing down for resonance, it’s going to affect that instrument.”
The week, singing and singing in a group or in front of a group, can be an emotional experience, Romero said.
The faculty know that, and are prepared for that reality, Romero said. She said she has seen students leave a stage flustered after a performance and seen faculty walk them through how to address the challenges both technically and emotionally on many occasions.
“All of the faculty are full time, long-term professional musicians,” Romero said. “All of them have a passion for communicating music.”
Another throughline the faculty share is that they are all great people who share the characteristic of being lifelong learners, Romero said.
Coming together to sing for the week is a lot of fun, Romero said. In addition to the workshops, students are casually singing and jamming together throughout the week, she said.
“Singing is so good for us,” Romero said. “Those times, especially when you’re in the moment, you feel good. Everything about it feels good. It’s hitting all of these endorphin levels.”
Romero, a lifelong singer and musician, who lives in Horsefly, B.C., has been involved in teaching at Voice Works since 2009. In 2018, she expanded her involvement, becoming the artistic director.
She and her husband Jason Romero tour as Pharis and Jason Romero. They have won three Juno awards. Romero is a three-time Canadian Folk Music Awards traditional singer of the year. The Romero’s also have a business building banjos called J. Romero Banjos.
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Reporter Elijah Sussman can be reached by email at elijah.sussman@sequimgazette.com
