UK VOCAL IMPROV FESTIVAL RETREAT 2023
October 18 - 22
The UK Vocal Improv Festival Retreat returned to its home Penny Brohn in the rolling hills outside of Bristol, for its second iteration.
Following on from 2022's incredibly enriching gathering, 2023's event flowed with a profound ease and trust, true evidence of the growing maturity of our community and the know-how of the team behind the scenes.
Exciting new additions included the Improv Bazaar, a self-organized space for participants to offer workshops and gather singers. We also trialed a new way for participants to sign up to facilitators' workshops, offering a greater degree of flexibility and spontaneity. Our attempt to hold a nighttime sing around the fire was somewhat foiled by a hearty downpour, but we soldiered on and ended up co-creating a deeply resonant and moving collective song ritual by candlelight in the Garden Room.
There were many special moments, many memories made. We are so grateful to all the humans that made this second endeavour possible. The practice of vocal improv invites us to steep ourselves in the minutiae of collaboration - deep listening, feeling, vulnerability, trust, and presence. For four days we practiced, we sang, we moved, we cried, we laughed, we lived into reality a beautiful community. Thank you.
Photography by Olumedia
Programme
MORNING WARM-UPS
A range of optional body and voice warm-ups in different spaces, either self-led or with different leaders. Space for yoga, dance, meditation, choral warm-ups, and more.
CHECK-INS
Daily moments of small group connection to come together and check in with yourself and others around how you are doing and what is coming up.
IMPROV BAZAAR
A supported space to come together and decide what to explore and with whom. This is an in-the-moment marketplace of options to cater for spontaneity and responding to what you want to dive into, with facilitator-led, peer-led and co-created sessions.
CHOOSE YOUR ADVENTURE WORKSHOPS
Pre-selected, facilitator-led workshops which are chosen before the event. You will be able to state preferences so you can craft your experience to suit your interests.
EVENING CELEBRATIONS
A time for all the focus of the day to erupt in a joint celebration of our community. Expect performances from our experienced practitioners, cabaret, jamming, and some surprises!
OPENING & CLOSING CIRCLES
Gathering together as a whole group in ceremony to honour the transitions of arrival and departure.
LANDING MORNING
An opportunity to let the dust of travel and newness settle, focussing on arriving, connecting, and landing together in a small group setting.
WHOLE GROUP SESSIONS
Workshops which invite the whole group to gather together and play in large scale musical improvisation.
MAGICAL MYSTERY
Experiences which tap into the immersive, nature connection, ritualistic, magical, mystical realm…
think water, fire, sunrise, and more!
FREE-TIME
Quiet time, space to reflect, hang out, read a book, decompress, go for a walk, whatever you need to resource yourself.
Meet Our Facilitators
"Ancestors' Song" - a fully improvised piece created by the Facilitators of the UK Vocal Improv Festival Retreat 2023
Our Story
We are a community of vocal improvisation artists and facilitators woven together through a variety of projects, explorations, workshops, performances and cups of tea.
At the beginning of the pandemic, we, like most people, clunkily navigated our way through the trials and tribulations of offering an online space to our communities. The undeniably shiny silver lining is that we started talking regularly, co-creating spaces, and really digging into what collaborative vocal improvisation actually means to us. Most importantly, we realised that by joining our forces together, we could reach more people and help the artform to flourish.
Some of the exciting projects that germinated from this commitment to closer collaboration, connection, and cross-pollination include: The Daily 10&6, a new album of improvised songs “Remembering”, Guillermo’s Anthropos, Oöm (formerly The Wellspring Collective) formed by Emma and the Kates, Jaka and Randolph working on the Collective Identity project, Kate Smith and Uran’s time-travel livestream, and more.
Most importantly, we realised how rich and varied the idea of improvising using voice, particularly in a group setting, can be – as well as how hungry people are to dive into this work!
As a collective, we decided to offer a space for people to FINALLY celebrate this richness once the world opened up again! Now having run the Festival Retreat twice, we feel we are onto a good thing and are dreaming up the next 10 years. How can we support our community to grow strong roots and spread vocal improv to all corners of the UK? We believe in the value of this practice and we intend to carry on!
We are Kate Smith, Uran Apak, Kate Mellors, Emma Coleman, Jaka Škapin, Guillermo Rozenthuler, Briony Greenhill and Randolph Matthews.
We are grateful to so many influential artists, teachers, and improv greats, who have influenced us all and who we would like to honour for their contribution to this artform. Thank you particularly to Bobby McFerrin for his incredible innovation and continuous inspiration, and also to Rhiannon for her pioneering teaching resources - Vocal River. Thank you also to our friends and collaborators in the UK including Jenni Roditi, Cleveland Watkiss, and many many more.
