Flying Body Choir

A Lan Ting in Honor of Kate Rinzler

The Flying Body Choir participated in a special event in honor of the life work of Kate Rinzler, singing five songs including "O frondens virga" by Hildegard von Bingen, a round from The Greenest Branch, and Captain Kidd, the shape-note American hymn, no. 50 in The Sacred Harp. The group also participated in a "Puppet Uprising" of Bread & Puppet style large puppets created by Kate that will also play a role in the The Greenest Branch, an opera under collaborative development as the first creative residency sponsored by Inventing Earth.

The Flying Body Choir Helps to Open Festival

The Flying Body Choir performed at the historic kickoff for the 2010 Thumb Butte Festival at Courthouse Square in Prescott, Arizona on September 24, 2010. The event officially launched the run-up to the Arizona Centennial. The experimental vocal ensemble joined Rita Cantu andJonathan Best on stage for music written by those composer-songwriters, both of whom are also members of the choir. On Sunday, September 26, 2010 The Flying Body Choir also performed a full set at the Prescott Public Library as part of the Mad Linguist event schedule during the Festival.

History

In late spring 2010, Inventing Earth hosted Dr. Mary Larew for a month. She offered four workshops in vocal music of the world and medieval vocal technique. The group has continued meeting once a week at the beautiful Prescott College Chapel, renowned in some circles for its extraordinary acoustics. We have sung original works by composers Jonathan Best, Meg Bohrman, and Lin-Sargent, all members of the group. We also explore somatic singing in warmups led by Mary Lin, M.Ed. M.F.A. and others have led singing meditations especially Roy Willey. We also continue to explore the shape note, Balkan, and medieval musical literature that Mary Larew introduced us to. Ben Sargent and Mary Lin are have also shared some of the transcriptions of Hildegard von Bingen's music which they are working on for the opera, The Greenest Branch. Why do we call ourselves the Flying Body Choir? By opening and freeing our mind/body/heart through somatic awareness, and opening the circle for everyone to share their talents and to take turns leading, our music and our voices soar!

Flying Body Choir

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