Hallowell offers a variety of types of workshops. We create these workshops to meet the ever changing needs of growing hospice choirs. Just as we create each bedside sing to serve the dying person and their families, these workshops can be formatted to serve the needs of each participating group. Any combination of workshop/leaders are available. Fee will be determined accordingly.
Workshops to help start or launch a hospice choir in your community
Newly forming groups are offered inspiration, guidance, practical direction, repertoire and support. These workshops are a great way to begin to form and grow a hospice choir in your community. Hallowell has helped to seed hospice choirs across the country and continues to offer support as choirs evolve and change.
Deepening workshops with Kathy Leo
At the heart of bedside singing is the practice of being present, witnessing, trusting the unknown and welcoming everything. Deepening workshops are intended for practicing and evolving hospice choirs as a time for reflection and renewal on what we all continue to learn from the dying and the families we serve. Led by Kathy Leo, Hallowell’s founder and spiritual leader, you will be gently guided to explore ways to deepen your practice, and to process and integrate the experiences of bedside singing more fully into your daily life.
“This is a brief, initial expression of gratitude for the excellent workshop on Saturday. I am still feeling the vibrations and glow of our time together. We were all transported to new levels of awareness of the import and impact of this work. We came away with much on which to reflect… I am so very grateful, not only for our 3 hours with you, but for the amazing work you have done and continue to do to bring beautiful vocal music to hospice and palliative care patients. It is an honor to be one of the now many ripples of your vision.”
Priscilla Baker
Program Director
Hospice Volunteer Services
Middlebury, VT
Wellspring Hospice Choir“Your time with us was remarkable and enriching. You have given us the insight, the energy and the task to ‘raise to the next level.’ I quote that phrase because it was repeated over and over during our meeting. What that means to us is not only to work on our singing skills, but also to deepen our spiritual understanding of this journey. Your contagious spirit truly built a fire under us. We come away both challenged and encouraged.”
Threshold Singers
Marblehead, MA
Singing workshops with Peter and Mary Alice Amidon
Peter Amidon (often working with Mary Alice Amidon) offers a singing workshop for hospice choirs that features, but is not limited to, the Amidons’ choral arrangements and compositions, which are being widely sung by hospice choirs across the country. The Amidons’ arrangements, accessible to choruses of mixed abilities, are often deeply spiritual. The Amidons’ repertoire includes songs both sacred and secular, lively and calming, well known classics and lesser known jewels. Many of the songs they arrange are either traditional, or composed by folks steeped in the oral tradition. The Amidons teach both from written music and by ear. Peter is known for his skill in challenging choruses to sing musically and expressively.
“I can’t express to you how moved I am by these songs and arrangements. They are astoundingly beautiful and expressive.”
Kathy Gross-Choir Director, Maple Street Congregational Church, Danvers, MA
Singing Workshops with Mary Cay Brass
Mary Cay Brass offers coaching workshops for hospice choirs focused both on learning to sing and listen well as a group and on an eclectic mix of repertoire that offers ease and comfort. Mary Cay teaches a wide diversity of songs that include folk songs and spiritual chants from eastern Europe, South Africa, the Republic of Georgia, Appalachian folk hymns, chants, and rounds. Hallowell has found that songs in other languages often have the power to soothe, calm and uplift through beautiful harmonies where the language, the words, are no longer the essential point, rather, the sound, the vibrations of the voices in harmony create a calming presence.
“My life changed when I found choral singing and joined up with Mary Cay. And then deepened when I found this practice. What you do, what you all do, is such a beautiful ministry. I feel humbled and blessed to be a part of this movement.”
Cheryl Termo, Rowe workshop 2012 & 2013