Mai 19th, 2012:
Workshop with the jazz drummer Harald Rüschenbaum

During the rehearsing process of the jazz requiem, which was performed together with the Landesjugendjazzorchester (Bavarian Youth Jazz Big Band) over Whitsun weekend, the don camillo chor had the chance for a coaching by the big band’s conductor Harald Rüschenbaum. The renowned drummer and bandleader got things going during the workshop, in order to experience music physically. „Music is always something physical“, Rüschenbaum said – and demonstrated this statement with a special exercise: Therefore he played different chords on the piano. Playing the tonic as the very basis, the choir was supposed to stand up, then he would play the subdominant and they should start to walk away from the chair and turn around as soon they would hear the dominant, and finally, to the sounds of the next tonic, they were asked to sit down again. As a further component, dynamics were added: if one says a sentence with emphasis on different words, the meaning of the sentence changes. All other parts of the sentence depend on the stressed word and either lead to it or away from it. It´s the same thing with music, he said. It is a constant leading to and leading away. Only when the body goes with it, if music becomes movement, only then music is able to „move“, according to Rüschenbaum.

July 31st, 2011:
Workshop with Evelyn Troester (Ghostligth chorus, New York) 

For several years now, the singer, music educationalist and conductor Evelyn Troester lives in New York. That´s where she founded the New York Chamber Choir Ghostlight Chorus in 2010. During a home leave of „Evi“, the don camillo chor got the chance for a fine-tuning together with her, working on their sound quality. Also extremely fascinating were the jazz improvisations, which discovered quite some unforeseen talents amongst the singers of don camillo chor.

 
Mai 1st, 2011:
Workshop with Oliver Gies (Maybebop)

Probably every pop- and jazzchoir has one or more pieces of this ingenious arranger and Maybebop-singer in his repertoire. The singers of the don camillo chor invited Oliver Gies for a workshop-day and let themselves be inspired by his ideas and suggestions. Full of vim and vigour and with illustrative comparisons he managed to elicit the feeling of desperate madness (in „Come back and stay“), the flap of a butterfly at the beginning of „On Green Dolpin Street“ and the absolute serenity for the rhythmic challenge of „Golden Brown“ from the choir. Especially impressive was how fast Oliver was able to perfectly see through the arrangements, who were still unknown to him. And how quickly he could describe their message in simple terms. Thank you very much, Oliver, it was a fantastic workshop-day!

January, 6th-9th, 2011:
2nd Jazz Vocal Süd in Ochsenhausen – Workshops with Prof. Lindsay Lewis, Bertrand Gröger (Jazzchor Freiburg) and Acoustic Instinct

Ever since their participation in the festival 1st Jazz Vocal Süd in Ochsenhausen two years ago the singers of don camillo chor knew for sure that they would come again, in case of a 2nd time of this inspiring event. All the greater was the joy when the choir was invited to be „choir in residence“ of the 2nd Jazz Vocal Süd for the participants of the conductors-workshop and also to perform a concert with evening-length in the library hall (with its wonderful acoustics). The greatest benefit thought, the vocalists of don camillo chor gained from the offered workshops.
Thus Lindsay Lewis (professor for popular singing at the University for music and theatre in Rostock) demanded quite an impressive Overdrive in the sopranos singing „Smells like Teen Spirit“ while introducing  the Complete-Vocal-Technique. Bertrand Gröger (Jazzchor Freiburg) asked every singer to improvise rhythmically, whereas Julian Knörzer and Paul Brenning of Acoustic Instinct shared some techniques of beatboxing with the choir and showed them, how to imitate the sounds of the rain forrest as authentic as possible.  

November 5th – 7th, 2010:
Workshop with Malene Rigtrup and Morten Kjær (Oerahaenger)

Malene Rigtrup and Morten Kjær are two young representatives of the „New Danish Songwriting“, who achieve a very romantic, melancholic and also cheerful style in their arrangements, connecting Pop and jazz. They invited choirs, singers and conductors into the Olympiakirche in Munich for a three-day workshop, in which also the don camillo chor participated. The coaching focused on learning the „Complete Vocal Technique“. This special vocal technique from denmark establishes four different vocal-modes: Neutral, Curbing, Overdrive and Edge. The different modes show a different amount of „metal“ in the sound.
The don camillo chor was already familiar with this technique; therefore the workshop was quite helpful to further deepen and enlarge their knowledge.

October 3rd, 2009:
Workshop with Peder Karlsson (The Real Group) at the Vocal Jazz Summit in Mainz

Mainz, how it sings and laughs“ - this is how everybody knows the city of Mainz. But the people of Mainz can not only sing, but also swing. Every couple of years, the capital of the district Rheinland-Pfalz organizes a huge a-cappella jazz festival, with all the big names in that genre. And the don camillo chor was there! During the festival they had a coaching with Peder Karlsson – still a member of The Real Group at that time. Peder taught the singers, how they could improve listening to each other and „sing with one voice“. Problems with intonation were simply blown away and the following performance of „I’ll be seeing you“ was a listening experience with goose bumps – even for the choir’s boss Florian.

April 17th-19th, 2009:
rehearsal weekend with Matthias Becker

He certainly is a big name in the A-Cappella-Choir-scene, and he doesn’t like chairs – at least not during a rehearsal: this lasting impression was left, after the choir spent a whole coaching-weekend in Regensburg together with Matthias Becker. Right away, on the first evening different vocal and timbre exercises were tried out – standing in a circle. While singing „Send in the Clowns“ the singers were asked by Matthias to dance a waltz, to drive out an unwanted ritardando in the piece. The only moments in which the choir was allowed to sit laid-back were during some improvisation-session, but were also ment to be educational for rhythmical issues – to teach the choir to swing more relaxed and laid-back.

January 3rd-6th, 2009:
1st Jazz Vocal Süd in Ochsenhausen – Workshops with Andrea Figallo (Flying Pickets), My Engström Renmann and Stefan Kalmer

The application for this festival was quite spontaneous, therefore only half of the choir could participate in the newly established festival „Jazz Vocal Süd“ in Ochsenhausen – but the spontaneity did pay off. The very well organized event combined intensive training and workshops with a lot of fun and enthuiasm for singing – during the day as well as in the evening down in the vaulted cellar, for instance together with the present choir of Stefan Kalmer „Voices in Time“.
Very inspiring were both the workshops with Andrea Figallo and My Engström Renman. Andrea taught a certain breathing technique to perform a continuous accompaniment with mouth percussion, and My showed herself as a little bundle of energy, who made the singers sing tunes, they never thought they were able to sing.