Hello friends,
We want you all to know about
BACK TO THE WELL:
A VOCAL IMPROVISATION SUMMIT
AUG 2-7-2026
We hope you will save the dates and join us at
The OMEGA INSTITUTE.
Most of us met through Circle Singing and if you were lucky enough, with Bobby McFerrin, who created this form in modern times and whose brilliant career in vocal improvisation opened the doors for everything we are doing now. Bless him forever.
David, Zuza and I invite you to the first Vocal Improvisation Summit featuring Circle Singing, Musica do Circulo and Vocal River/Murmuration. These forms exemplify the diverse ways that we are spreading this joy in the world.
We want to give equal presence to these forms while learning what you all are doing out there around the planet.
Important that we are back at Omega where it all began with Bobby.
You will want to be there for this international gathering that promises to honor where we are and instigate the next layers of this beautiful, community building, human growth inspiring, and individual skill building musical experience.
Rhiannon
5 Tips for Teaching Music Improvisation
--With a vision of music as a vehicle for innovation, healing, transformation, and social change, Rhiannon has been bringing her blend of jazz, world music, improvisation, and storytelling to audiences for four decades. Her book, Vocal River: The Skill and Spirit of Improvisation, is a guide to teaching music improvisation. Here, she shares five tips for introducing and expanding the art of improvisation in the educational curriculum.
CHECK OUT THIS ARTICLE ON THE OMEGA WEBSITE: 5 TIPS FROM RHIANNON
https://www.eomega.org/articles/5-tips-teaching-music-improvisation
LEARN MORE ABOUT ACCOMODATIONS HERE:
https://www.eomega.org/accommodations
VOCAL RIVER & MURMURATION
For me, studying improvisation begins with the body,
the home of the voice.
We work in circle so we can see and hear one another as we learn to invent and share our spontaneous music.
We cross the circle sounding and moving, finding ways to express ourselves freely in a safe place.
We add basic improvising skills in melody, rhythm, harmony and tone together; no planning, keep it simple, learn how to remember what we just sang and invent from an empty place of grace inside. We also practice trusting our intuition and remembering that the music is in the air already. Spontaneous language adds to the music and tells a deeper poetic story without editing, seat of the pants truth.
We move together and separately inspiring one another, noticing the connection of voice and body; the voice sounds like the body and the body looks like the voice and we can murmurate like the Starlings in the sky creating patterns in voice and body with everyone able to lead and fold back in, fluid like water.
I have developed a curriculum and process to allow these ideas of sharing leadership, no one guiding the process alone and all of us having agency to change the direction, insert a bold new musical shape and respond to the others who are doing the same. Teaching singers how to initiate, stay authentic, blend, listen and collaborate knowing we all have power. This has led to a series of performance forms for small ensemble which we can play together; Turn, Three Face Front, Move/Sing, Supported Solo, Duets, Orchestra and more. So beautiful how the work evolves with each session. Community is created naturally during this process. I have witnessed deep friendships evolve and collaborations emerge across miles and continents.
The series of exercises changes with the room and the singers, so we don’t know how it will unfold but we know we are safe and the music is endless, pouring out of each of us, just gotta listen.
A personal spiritual path and a rock steady curriculum to develop your own pathway to vocal improvisation.
I love teaching and exploring with you.