Blue Ridge
Vocal Connection
Intro to Music Reading, 11 am
Location: Basement
Note: Musical notation is an effective way to capture and convey instructions about how to perform a song. But it can also be a vexing mystery to beginning musicians. This workshop will break it down into elements so basic, relatable, and understandable that even a cave man six-year-old could follow along. If you’ve ever wanted to unlock the secrets of what you see on a page, this is the session to attend!
Lunch, 12 pm
Location: Sanctuary
Note: Lunch is included in the registration fee and will be served onsite in the Sanctuary for those who register on/before 1/10/24, and as supplies last for participants who register & pay at the door. Numerous restaurants are available within a 1-2 mile radius if we run short on food.
Applied Skills: Chorus A, B, C, D Rehearsals, 1 pm & 3 pm
Location: Sanctuary, Chapel, Classroom, Basement
Note: Participants will be divided into four choirs (Allisonia, Brush Mountain, Claytor Lake, and Dan River) with voice parts distributed as evenly as possible. Each choir will work with directors to prepare two songs for performance at the 4 pm All Cords Concert.
Workshop Description
Ola will open our event with an energetic session of vocal warmups that will prepare singers for a day of vocal fun. You don’t need to know how to read music, or even sing! Using a “Simon says” approach, she will guide adventuresome participants into vocal frontiers where they’ll discover welcome flexibility, remarkable accuracy, and production techniques they didn’t know they had.
Info about Presenter: Ula Weber
Ula is a leading conductor, teacher trainer and workshop leader, whose work has taken her around the UK and as far afield as Poland, Uganda, Ukraine, Thailand, China and New Zealand.
A former “Outstanding” (Ofsted 2004) primary school teacher, Ula is a leading conductor, teacher trainer and workshop leader, whose work has taken her around the UK and as far afield as Poland, Uganda, Ukraine, Thailand, China and New Zealand.
Ula is an expert in developing choral and classroom singing through creating singing strategies and delivering school workshops, large-scale choral events and teacher CPD. She is currently Vocal Projects Leader (Sandwell Music and Arts Service) and Co-director of Vocal.Point. She has had a number of songs and arrangements published, including Sing Up, Sing Out! and Ziggy da Dumba.
As well as singing with the renowned choir Ex Cathedra, Ula also works for the organisation as a lead vocal tutor; and co-created Singing Playgrounds, Ex Cathedra education’s internationally acclaimed and award-winning project.
A trained choral conductor, Ula currently conducts CBSO SO Vocal (a 200-strong community choir run by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra), CBSO Young Voices and the Birmingham City Council Choir (as featured in the 2013 BBC2 programme ‘The Choir’, with Gareth Malone). She is the founder and Musical Director of Echo Doliny (The National Polish folk choir) and, most recently, the National Teachers’ Choir.
As Head of Events for the National Choral Organisation, Sing for Pleasure (SfP), Ula organises conducting and singing courses across the UK and abroad. She regularly tutors on SfP conductor training courses and is Course Director for their annual Summer School.
Ula guest conducts at national and international events and is regularly invited to lead singing, training, and corporate workshops for organisations including ABCD, BBC, G4S, Glyndebourne, NAME, NYCOS, Music Mark, Sing Up and numerous Music Hubs across the UK.
Keynote Kickoff: Warm Up w/Ula Weber, 9 am
Location: Sanctuary
Note: Ula will open the workshop with an energetic session of vocal warmups that will prepare singers for a day of vocal fun. You don’t need to know how to read music, or even sing! Using a “Simon says” approach, she will guide adventuresome participants into vocal frontiers where they’ll discover welcome flexibility, remarkable accuracy, and production techniques they didn’t know they had.
All Cords Rehearsal, 10 am
Location: Sanctuary
Note: Our closing concert at 4:00 pm is open and admission is free to the public. It’s your chance to show your friends and family your new skills. The grand finale will be a couple of songs we perform together. The joint rehearsal for those songs is during the ten o’clock hour. Rehearsal tracks and pdf’s of the scores are here, and you’re strongly encouraged to familiarize yourself with them prior to the workshop.
Vocal Coach Workshops (male and female), 11 am & 2 pm
Location: Sanctuary (female), Classroom (male)
Note: Contrary to popular myth, singing isn’t a skill a few lucky people are born with and most other people don’t have. Rather, if you can speak, you can sing. And singing is a skill that can be improved with time and attention.
The format for these sessions will allow a limited number of participants to work one-on-one with world-class vocal instructors to identify and address barriers to better singing. Observers will get to see and hear what can happen when an artful, capable, and creative vocal instructor works with a willing and cooperative student.
Registration, 8:30-9:00 am
Location: Sanctuary
Note: Please come early to address any registration issues that might develop, especially if you don’t pre-register. Hot drinks & breakfast snacks will be available while they last. The first session (featuring Ula Weber by video from England) will begin promptly at 9:00 am, so you’ll want to make sure you’re already signed in by the time it starts.
Advanced Vocal Skills Workshop, 2 pm
Location: Sanctuary
Note: This is an advanced vocal technique workshop that will be led by vocal coach Gregory West. Open to singers and non-singers alike, it will also include an introduction to Voce Vista, an analytical software tool that’s designed to help voice students hear, interpret, and improve their vocal production.
All Vocal Cords Concert, 4 pm
Location: Sanctuary
Note: This closing concert is an opportunity to demonstrate what has been learned throughout the day. Each of the four choirs will perform the songs they’ve learned, and then join together to perform the final songs.
What better way is there to warm up a cold winter day than joining together in heartwarming and inspiring music?
We want family & friends to enjoy this workshop together as much as possible. But we also have an aesthetic need to distribute people among the four choruses as evenly as possible according to their vocal range.
That’s why you’ll be asked during the purchase process to tell us what each ticketholder’s vocal range is. If you don’t know what it is, you can tell us that as well.
We’re also asking you to identify any underage children in your party by age, so we can keep children 17 and younger together with their parents.
If you’re registering 4 or more people, and don’t mind splitting them up, you can let us know that as well.