With the wood stove humming and the harvest chores completed I can finally pause and look back on a whirlwind summer… a trip to Boulder in the spring, the Sound Symposium in St. John’s, Newfoundland, a ‘sound sculpture’ project at our Rock Barra Retreat here on Prince Edward Island and a September journey to Ireland to give two voice workshops. Whew! It was busy but, creatively, very fulfilling. It’s time for me to digest all the wonderful experiences I’ve had in the last few months and make contact with all the incredible people, old friends and new, that I met along the way.
Thank you Mary Link, Jay Ertal and Matthew Berk for making my journey to Boulder so special. My week in Colorado allowed me to meet with some of my voice students from Mexico and also take some private lessons in South Indian singing and attend the Rocky Mountain Kirtan Summit. Mary and I have a deam to do a road trip together from Boulder down through Taos and Santa Fe and on to Arizona with some voice workshops and house concerts along the way. I’m not sure when we will do this, but do it we will. Get in touch if you live en-route.
The Sound Symposium in St. John’s, Newfoundland was the absolute best festival I have ever attended! Don’t miss it. It happens every second year in this beautiful city on the eastern edge of the country. Musicians, filmmakers, dancers, painters and poets with a passion for improvisation get together for ten days of incredible performances and collaborations. My friend and sound healing partner Kate Poole came with me. St John’s has gone to the top of my list of fun cities, especially for ten sunny days in July… throw in some whale watching and a trip to Cape St. Mary’s bird colony with 11,000 nesting northern gannets and it all adds up to more fun than I’ve had since… well…
Kate and I returned to the Island with loads of inspiration for our summer project at Rock Barra Retreat. This summer we collaborated with farmers and fisherman, bee keepers and metal workers to create a sound sculpture garden. Using vintage farm and fishing gear and outdated equipment from a local dairy and fish plant we created six pieces. The big surprise was how good they sounded. My favorite piece is inspired by a small instrument from Hawaii called a water phone and the work of Nova Scotia blacksmith John Little. We call our piece a Dolphin phone. The piece is made from the stainless steel bowl from my Dad’s cream separator. Dad loved music, I think he would be pleased. The bowl is around 18′ wide and 10′ deep. We closed in the top and created a metal tube coming out the middle. We welded metal rods of various lengths around the outside of the bowl and poured a bit of water inside. The sound is fantastic! It has a very wide range of sonic possibilities. It can be played like a metal drum or the tines can be struck or bowed; when bowed it sounds like dolphins or whales; when struck, more like chimes; a soft mallet produces a vibraphone quality. We made a larger version from an industrial lobster kettle. We call this the whale phone. Check out the photos. A big thank you to the dozens of people who contributed to this project most notably Tom, Ryan and Nigel Hann who gave us free reign in their metal shop. I never thought a plasma cutter could be such fun! My producer and musical soul mate Oliver Schroer came from the west coast to work on this project and record the results. Over the winter we will be sorting through those recordings and will make them available.
Other summer activities at Rock Barra Retreat included a dance workshop with Julia Sauve, my weekend voice camp, cooking with local seaweeds with gourmet Rachel Leslie and seaweed identification with Dr. Irene Novaczk. All workshops were completely sold out, some weeks in advance. Be sure to book early next summer.
In September I spent two wonderful weeks in Ireland. Shivon Robinsong, choral director of the three hundred piece Gettin’ Higher Choir in Victoria, B.C., collaborated with me to present a weekend voice workshop in Dublin. Shivon and I met while studying voice facilitation with Chloe Goodchild in Dunnderry, Ireland a few years back. Twenty-three people came out to our workshop. We were thrillled. The following weekend I went down to Kerry and gave another workshop at Flintfield Forge Retreat near Killarney, I will be going back to Ireland in the spring to give workshops in both of these locales again and to perform at the Wise Women’s Festival in Donegal.
So here’s my plan for the next while. I have a voice workshop in Halifax Remembrance Day weekend. To register call 888-703-7471. Other than that I plan to stay home for awhile. I had planned a trip to New England for the fall, but will wait till early spring. I’ve also decided not to give my voice workshop in Mexico this winter. I simply need to home. Over the next few months I want to set some ancient Irish Gaelic poetry to music and hopefully find a little time to paint. I am also working on my jazz repertoire on guitar and teaching classes in Charlottetown. On Saturdays I have a vocal technique class for teens and adults at the Arts Guild at Richmond and Queen, Saturdays 2–3:30. On Tuesdays at noon at the Guild I offer a Sound Yoga class where we use Kirtan (call and answer singing), chants and light movement to create a sense of peace and well being. Both of these classes are drop in classes. No registration is required. I also offer a very limited number of private session in both vocal technique and sound healing. My children’s chorus, ‘The Boys and Girls of Bedlamb’ is open to ages 5–11.
I am getting more and more requests to do voice workshops in different parts of the world. I welcome these invitations as my journey into the power of the human voice gets deeper and deeper and will do my best to make it happen as my schedule and family commitments allow.
Stay warm this winter. May the gift of music bring peace to you, your family and this lovely planet. As always, thank you for supporting my work.
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