This year Free Columbia will offer: 

3 weeks with Manfred Bleffert, 

1 week painting with Laura Summer, 

a five day experimental workshop with Laura Summer, Nathaniel Williams, Faye Shapiro and Marisa Michelson using color, light sound and puppets 

and a 1 week workshop on voice improvisation with Faye Shapiro and Marisa Michelson.


see details and descriptions below:


Course descriptions

 

3 courses with renowned and inspiring musician and visual artist -  Manfred Bleffert

Color and music through the circle of the year

(scroll down for more detailed descriptions)

June 16-22 – Instrument Building - The breathing process of the earth, and of the cosmos, as a musical base for the development of new instruments and musical form. We will make iron and copper gongs and Glockenspiele

June 25-29 – New Music Improvisation

July 2-6 – Color and Tone in Relation to Rudolf Steiner’s Soul Calendar 

Using painting and music we will explore the cycle of the year in creative process. We will work with the relationships of color and tone in the Calendar of the Soul by Rudolf Steiner. We will see what is revealed in gesture and movement when we enter the world of tone, color, sound and form as we follow the course of the year. 

Manfred Bleffert has dedicated his life to developing new music. His work includes a unique approach to graphic notation, composition and instrument building. His research is both broad and profound. His compositions are improvisational and unique. He is both a musician and a visual artist and a dynamic and inspiring teacher.

July 14-18

5 days of experimental work with color, light, music and puppetry

with Laura Summer, Nathaniel Williams, Faye Shapiro and Marisa Michelson

 

July 23-27

Seeing the Word through Painting
 a workshop with Laura Summer
  
Working with poems and stories as well as watercolor, pastel, charcoal, and collage we will explore this subject. Through relaxing our expectations, while playfully manipulating our media, we will experience the realm of creation and develop skills for our further work.

 

July 23-27

Orientation Toward an Inner Voice

vocal experimentation with composed and improvised music  with Marisa Michelson and Faye Shapiro

The lands of the soul open up and show themselves to us- we see them with our imagination, we travel them with our voices... With exercises aimed to free the body and awaken the soul we will explore possibilities given to us in the voice. We will improvise together and compose music in real time, we will try to find a relationship to music inside, around and outside of ourselves with the aid of imagining. All that needed is the desire to sing. 

Financial information:

All of the work at Free Columbia is based on an understanding of the importance of creating a free cultural space, therefore there are no set tuitions. Rather we offer suggested donation amounts based on what it costs to run courses. If you prefer it is possible to make a monthly pledge to support Free Columbia rather than making a one time donation.

A commodity fee of  $180 will be charged to each participant in the instrument building workshop. This fee is related to your being able to take home the instrument you build. This fee is in addition to the suggested donation.

5 day courses suggested donation $250 – 450

instrument building fee = $180

all supplies are included but not housing or food

contact: Laura Summer 518 672 7302 laurasummer@taconic.net

 

 

detailed course descriptions

 

Musical Improvisation Week: Regardless of one's level of musical experience, each one of us has something to contribute to the musical community we will build together in this week. With Manfred’s guidance, we will bring to our awareness the elements of musical breathing and listening that will allow us to bring to birth whatever sound wants to be in the room from moment to moment. In this co-creative experience, each individual contributes to the breathing, listening, and sounding process of the group. We will work with the new instruments (chimes, rods, gongs, Glockenspiele, among others) and also with the instruments participants choose to bring with them. All experience levels welcome!


Instrument Building:  In this course, we will relate to the breathing process of the earth, and of the cosmos, as a musical base for the development of new instruments.  We will make iron and copper gongs and Glockenspiele. The process of building these instruments together in a group provides an opportunity for us to explore the relationship between our individual experience and the processes at work in the world around us. (Commodity fee $180 in addition to donation)