(Limit: 10 students)
Taught by Tanya Perkins, Robbie O’Connell & Ed Miller
This in-depth program is designed for any singer who wants to:
- Work with a professional vocal coach on improving voice quality and tone
- Learn to sing and interpret traditional Scottish and Irish songs.
During Festival Week, Tanya Perkins and Robbie O’Connell teach Friday’s two-hour session featuring Irish songs. Tanya and Ed Miller teach Saturday’s two-hour session featuring Scottish songs. The aims of each session are to:
- Expand and strengthen singing skills by identifying and addressing individual vocal issues as they arise through specific exercises that can be shared with the class
- Develop a feel for interpreting and presenting Scottish and Irish traditional songs, which includes becoming familiar with the correct pronunciation and meaning of words in order to sing more naturally in a style that truly reflects song origins.
In Friday’s class, Robbie will introduce each song and its place in the Irish tradition, define and pronounce any obscure words, and give his thoughts about approaching the song as a singer. After Robbie performs a song, the class will join him in singing, and Robbie and Tanya will provide general comments. Tanya will invite individual students to sing verses solo in order to identify areas for improvement. Tanya will teach strengthening exercises geared toward the individual singer, which the whole class will join in practicing. In this manner, Tanya and Robbie will help students tackle each song in depth, and each student will receive individual attention regarding voice technique and interpretative skills. Ed and Tanya will repeat this process on Saturday with emphasis on songs in the Scottish tradition.
This program marks our first time teaming two of our star traditional singers with Tanya Perkins, a star in her own right. Tanya has top NY credentials as an outstanding professional stage actress/singer and extraordinary voice teacher. We think we’ve put together a terrific team for all you serious singers out there, and would like to get your feedback on the experience.
The Traditional Specialty Singing package also includes an additional workshop with Tanya addressing voice techniques and two Singing for Fun workshops with Mairead Ni Mhaonaigh of Altan and Brian Dunphy of The High Kings. As a bonus, we invite you to participate in the popular ‘Take Your Voice Out of the Shower’ workshop, also with Tanya, and look forward to hearing you sing on Sunday at the Sing Along.
