Workshops, master classes, round tables in more than 25 sessions
All take place at the DANK Haus, 4740 N Western Ave, Chicago, IL 60625
Sessions will be held each morning and afternoon, Tuesday, October 29 to Saturday, November 2. Morning sessions begin at 10 AM until 1PM. Doors open at 9:30 AM to complete registration and get ready for the day. At 9:45 AM, Jeanie Carroll will lead a vocal warm up. Most afternoon sessions begin at 2:30 PM and end at 5:30 PM. Round Table discussions will be held from 1 PM to 2:30 PM in our own lunchroom, so bring your brown bag or takeout from nearby eateries.
We’ll post in August the Preparation page to get you ready for the workshops.
Round tables (RT)
- The History of Cabaret and Cabaret Today with (to be confirmed) Martin Pénet of Radio France, Eric Vincent, Daniel Johnson and others
- Overcoming stage-fright led by Michèle Barbier(RT)
- The Business and Promotion of Cabaret: a round table keynote discussion led by Anne Burnell, Jeanne Franks, Lexa Maxa and French panelists to be determined (RT)
- Technology and Singing : How to drastically improve your voice and your performance using software tools/apps and other gadgets. Led by Lou Ella Rose (RT)
- Elements for producing your own show (we’re inviting Paulus and Lexa to lead this discussion)
Workshops (W) and masterclasses (MC)
Master classes will focus on individual singers one-by-one (usually 10-15 minutes for each) whereas workshops offer a more collective round-robin experience. In both cases, get ready to sing! Non-singing auditors are welcome to observe all sessions.
- Accompanying oneself as singer/musician, Steve Normandin (W)
- Be yourself. Everyone else is taken, Isabelle Georges (MC)
- Better performance through Improvisation, Anne Fromm (W)
- Bring foreign languages into your repertoire, Tássia Minuzzo (W)
- Bring jazz phrasing and grooves into your songs, Spider Saloff (W)
- Building your show, Jeff Harnar (W)
- Complicity between singer and accompanist, Wilfried Touati (W)
- Finding your “funny” in Cabaret, Carla Gordon (W)
- More than Words: Lyric Interpretation, Meri Ziev (W)
- Musical tips working with your Accompanist, Jean-Claude Orfali (W)
- Patter Matters: communicating with your audience, Paul L Martin (W)
- Show structure and transitions between songs, Angelina Réaux (W)
- Singing the same song in two languages: shifts in intonation and intention, Clotilde Rullaud (W)
- Stage movement essentials, Elisabeth Howard (W)
- The Story Inside the Song , Spider Saloff (MC)
- Talking with your pianist, musicality and communication, Jean-Claude Orfali, Steve Normandin, Wilfried Touati (W)
- Technique that supports emotion and emotion that supports technique, David Edelfelt (MC)
- Vocal Musicianship , Anne & Mark Burnell (W)
- Vocal Techniques Essential for Cabaret, Elisabeth Howard (MC)
Session descriptions
(In order by first name of presenter)
Angelina Réaux—Show structure and transitions between songs
How the songs are strung together can take the audience on a journey, or illuminate the songs that follow after or reveal something special or interesting about the singer. Juxtapose different styles so that you entertain as well as educate your audience. How to take in a room and gauge your audience- to play with your audience and to create a particular mood.
Anne & Mark Burnell: Vocal Musicianship
Find your unique arrangement by experimenting with different rhythmic grooves or styles. Embody the rhythm of a song, and convey the tempo and feel to an accompanist or band. Learn techniques of using contemporary flourishes, altering the melody, jazz scatting or back phrasing to create signature songs.
Anne Fromm — Better Performance through Improvisation
We will play with different group exercises of ‘letting go’ and improvisation. These exercises will allow us to feel freer and enter more easily into different emotional states. We will include vocal and body expression, space management and text interpretation on your songs to better convey emotions and reach your audience.
Carla Gordon — Finding Your Funny in Cabaret
Find YOUR funny in Cabaret! Jokes, comedy songs, and fun conversation with your audience add variety and joy to your show. You will learn how to relax into comedy. We’ll explore timing and comic beats, where to place comedy in your show order and so much more. When you make your audience feel all the feels don’t forget to make ’em laugh!
Clotilde Rullaud — Singing the same song in two languages: shifts in intonation and intention
Watch what happens when you sing in a different language, each with its own musculature and nuance! Each singer will work on a section of a song in two languages, For example, If you go away / Ne me quitte pas ; La chanson de Maxence / You must believe in spring; La vie en rose; Autumn leaves / Les feuilles mortes; My way / Comme d’habitude; Les moulins de mon coeur / The windmills of your mind; The good life / La belle vie (Spanish, Portuguese, others can be brought to the session as well)
David Edelfelt — Technique that supports emotion and emotion that supports technique
Does your vocal technique get in the way of your communicating a song? Or is it more likely that your attempt to communicate a song gets in the way of your technique? David will help you assess and then balance your strengths and weaknesses of both the technical aspects of singing and the skills needed for implementing compelling and effective choices in dramatic or comedic song communication. Prepare two selections in any genre from which one will be chosen.
Elisabeth Howard — Stage Movement Essential for Cabaret Performance. We will cover working with microphone, entering and exiting the stage, what to do with my hands, when and how to stand, walk, sit, turn. This is a hands-on try-it-on workshop.
Elisabeth Howard — Vocal Technique Essential for Cabaret Singing (10-12 singers). Whether you sing opera, jazz, Broadway or pop, Elisabeth will address vocal techniques to make the healthy and most resonant choices for each. Elisabeth will lay her hands on your voice to find new expression. We will cover breathing and support, vocal colors and resonances, head and chest registers, the mix and eliminating the “break,” expanding the range, vibrato types and personal expression.
Isabelle Georges —“Be Yourself. Everyone else is taken” The quote is from Oscar Wilde and serves as Isabelle’s motto for her master classes. There is joy to be shared, and healing that comes from the sharing of song. Get ready for hands-on!
Jean-Claude Orfali, Wilfried Touati, Steve Normandin — Talking with Your Accompanist
We’ll begin with all the accompanists (pianists and accordionists) and break out into three sessions after we explore: Speaking the Language of your Accompanist. Whether meeting for the first time at an open mic or working for years with a pianist partner, there’s an essential vocabulary to share. The relationship between pianist and singer soloist is technical, psychological and spiritual. Let’s explore what each brings to the partnership. For singers and accompanists.
Jean-Claude Orfali — Musical tips working with your Accompanist
Bringing a clean score, specifying the key tonality and other details. What you “hear” and what you want the pianist to hear. Tempo, Key, and Song Form, Phrasing, the beat, the rhythm, not to mention the pickup and longer anacrusis, slowing down and accelerating, guiding, breathing, vibrato and vibration, climax and coda.
Jeff Harnar — Building Your Show
While in Cabaret rules are made to be broken, in this session Performer/Director Jeff Harnar offers suggestions and guidelines on how to structure a cabaret act. Topics to be covered include the dramatic arc of the show, the pacing, the build and the use of patter: how best to realize your vision musically, structurally and thematically all in a way that is profoundly and definitively personal … and, we hope, winningly entertaining. Bring a workbook of your current or future project.
Meri Ziev — More than Words: The Impact of Lyric Interpretation on Song Arrangement & the Audience
After demonstration, discussion and participation, singers will have an enriched relationship to their song choices, and a deeper understanding of how specificity and personal connection to lyrics will impact song selection, arrangement, tempo, feel, focus, and the audience. Participants will read lyrics as a monologue, explore phrasing choices. Compare various approaches to song arrangement based on personal connections to the lyrics. Test approaches to audience based on the meaning of a song. Apply these methods to a performance of their song. ·www.meriziev.com
Paulus — Patter Matters: communicating with your audience.
While other workshops will explore text and subtext of our lyrics, let’s take a look at what happens in between the songs. What setup or context connects the song to your audience? Whether the song serves as soundtrack to the world we live in or is a time-travel vehicle to another time, its “patter” helps point the way.
Spider Saloff — Bringing Jazz phrasing and grooves into your songs
We’ll explore how to incorporate jazz basics into the work of any cabaret vocalist. We’ll play with phrasing, grooves, and scat.
Spider Saloff — The Story Inside the Song
This masterclass with be a hands-on examination of lyrics and how they not only apply to the interpretation but how they work with the music to make the song “your story”. This class will help you as a performer be more authentic and approachable with your audience by discovering how to present more of “you” onstage.
Steve Normandin — Accompanying oneself as singer/musician
Let’s exchange about good song delivery for a singer who accompanies himself/herself.
Tássia Minuzzo — Bring foreign languages into your repertoire
Foster multicultural contact with song; expand the possible sounds that singing in other languages produces; enrich your repertoire, find the performance, vocal gestures, creativity and feelings that a sound evokes, even if the lyrics aren’t fully understood. The workshop is for all who wish to connect with other cultures through singing, and who would like to get to know and explore their voice more, whether for stage or educational projects.
Wilfried Touati — Complicity between singer and accompanist
As the accompanist follows the soloist, the soloist must listen and follow the accompanist! When we play music, we need to have fun, and enjoy creating together by following each other’s suggestions! I was there in 2022, and I loved your investment in the cabaret cause! Encourage singers to exceed their limits! It was beautiful to see!