This class will meet from 2 to 5pm on Thursday, October 23, and reconvene from 2 to 5 pm on Friday, October 24. The two-day format will allow participants to work on their material overnight.
Back by popular demand! Choral conductor and composer George Emlen and Noel Paul Stookey (best known as “Paul” of the multi-platinum-selling group Peter, Paul & Mary) will offer songwriting techniques in a group setting to aspiring songwriters of all levels and genres. If you only have a melody, we'll help you find a lyric. If you only have a lyric, we'll help you find a melody. Class size is limited, so sign up early.
Best known as “Paul” of the multi-platinum-selling group Peter, Paul & Mary—and for writing and performing “The Wedding Song”—Noel Paul Stookey has been a singer and songwriter since the 1960s. As an independent musician living in Blue Hill, his newest compositions address major issues from climate change to gun control.
George Emlen, who lives in Blue Hill, is a conductor, composer, arranger, song-leader and music educator in Maine and Massachusetts. For 32 years he was music director of Revels, the Boston-based, national organization behind the annual Christmas Revels, a rich and joyful celebration of the winter solstice. In Maine he founded and conducted the Acadia Choral Society, while also conducting the Oratorio Chorale and the Mount Desert Summer Chorale. George has been on the faculty of the New England Conservatory, where he directed the Conservatory Camerata; Lesley University in the Creative Arts in Learning program; the College of the Atlantic, and the University of Maine. In recent years he has worked with Bobby McFerrin in the vocal improvisatory genre of Circlesinging.