Heartland Harmony
Heartland Harmony
ember is an eclectic community choir in Viroqua, Wisconsin directed by Anni Zylstra. We stoke the fire of traditional polyphonic folk singing, with a primary focus in regions such as the Celtic Isles, Georgia, the Balkans, and Ukraine. We are a queer-friendly, all-voices welcome choir that sings for joy, building community, growing into our voices, and honoring the traditional folk music we sing. We learn primarily through oral tradition style call-and-response aided by lyric sheets and occasional sheet music. To learn more, please see our choir FAQ or read the 2023 article written about our group by member Margot Higgins.
Join Our Winter Season!
Thursdays, 7-8:45 PM
January 15 - April 16
Ember is back with a 12-week sprinter (spring/winter!) semester! We are once again offering a hybrid in-person and virtual edition of choir, beginning mid-January and ending mid-April, with two grace weeks built in for illness or weather events. If those off-weeks are not used, participants will enjoy two bonus sessions, making it a 14-week course.
Classes take place from 7:00 - 8:45 PM Thursdays in our gathering space at Nature Nooks Retreat, a 10-minute drive from Viroqua-town. Because our repertoire is learned cumulatively over time, we ask members to register for the full term with weekly attendance highly encouraged but ultimately the responsibility of attendees.
For new prospective members, be sure and read through our course FAQ which contains details about who this group is for, how the choir works - especially for virtual or hybrid members, course refund policy, info about our group culture, and more.
* While we are traditionally an all-inclusive group, we are currently prioritizing treble voices for sound blending purposes, and if you are a lower range voice looking to join our in-person choir for the first time, we will reach out about a brief audition prior to joining.
Registration & Dues
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12 Week Season: $180
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To register: Fill out the form below and send your dues on Venmo to @anniezylstra.
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Dues breakdown to $15 per 2-hour class. Your choir dues cover: All class time hours, access to home practice materials, individual part recordings and source recordings, any guest instructors and ethnomusicology collaborators, various web and payment platform fees, song licensing fees, space rentals, organizing time for special events, and time spent preparing the class and the continued education necessary to continue this work. For in-person members, there is an installment plan option folks are welcome to utilize as needed, just select it in the registration form.
FAQ
Q: What kind of music do you sing?
A: We primarily sing music from polyphonic folk traditions around Europe as well as contemporary and historic English folk music, including short songs and rounds. We strive for a diverse repertoire that is sharp, enriching, and fun to sing. We sing in foreign languages within styles like Balkan style drone and melody songs, Corsican paghjellas, Lithuanian Sutartines, Eastern Orthodox liturgical music, Georgian polyphony, Shapenote, and more.
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Q: Who is this group for?
A: Ember is a choir for both novice and seasoned singers seeking a welcoming and inclusive community music experience. It's for folks interested in improving and honing their singing craft, gaining cultural understanding through the study of traditional repertoire, and who are committed to shared values of community building, humility in our study, and generosity with one another. Our choir is queer and trans inclusive, and does not utilize traditional gendered choral language. For blend purposes, bass-range (i.e. men) singers must be vetted / auditioned.
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Q: What if I have little to no singing experience?
A: Our choir is suitable for treble singers of all levels and skilled bass-range singers. The songs are taught by ear, and while we work with challenging material, there is abundant opportunity for vocal growth both in rehearsals and at home via the practice materials provided. That said, we strive to polish and hone songs into the best versions of themselves, and new singers should have a shared goal of growing and improving their singing practice during their time in the group.
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Q: Does the group perform?
A: We are not a performance focused group. That said, there are times we host special events and work on a set of repertoire to sing for our wider community. The larger choir has a small performance-oriented offshoot ensemble that is occasionally open for auditions.
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Q: What is the group's covid policy?
A: As a group that meets during cold & flu season, we commit to doing what we can to keep our community safe and healthy. We recognize the ongoing risk many chronically ill and disabled members of our community face with covid-19 and other seasonal illnesses, and therefore ask any sick participants to stay home and join in with the live streamed online version of class for the week.
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Q: Will there be an online participation option again this term?
A: Yes! To keep our choir safe and accessible, we will continue to have our remote participation option available, which means this course is open to anyone worldwide! Online participants are invited to join in the fun and learn with the course practice materials in the online portal and via the recorded live classes. Classes are filmed from a chair seated with the rest of the group, so participants feel like they are one the choir, singing in harmony with the rest from home.
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Q: What if I have a schedule conflict or can't make the live classes?
A: All classes are recorded and uploaded to a shared Google Drive folder, so participants are welcome to make up classes via these recordings. Songs can also be learned exclusively with the detailed practice tracks in the online class portal, so singers can assess their learning styles and needs and take their pick of ways to make up missed live rehearsals.​​​
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Q: Do you sing religious music?
A: Yes! We sometimes work with repertoire that is religious or considered sacred in its culture of origin, including songs in English. We approach any sacred or religious repertoire as we do our folkloric and non-English repertoire: as cultural students and visitors within a tradition, exploring and honoring it with an appropriate degree separation from ourselves if it's not from our own tradition. Because of this, we sing repertoire in its original form and do not liberalize or alter the texts of our music, (i.e. language stemming from Christianity in a Shapenote song.)
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Q: What if I can't afford the full amount of any sliding scale tier right now?
A: Accessibility is one of our values as a group, and we're always looking for that sweet spot of keeping programming as accessible as possible while being sustainable for the long haul. We don't want money to be a barrier for anyone in joining, so please reach out if an installment plan, a trade* of time or goods, or some other option might make it possible for you.
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Q: What is the class refund policy?
A: Refunds are available up until participants receive the links to our class materials - approximately one week before a term start date. Because course access is permanent and every course can be taken at home on a participant's own time, I do not offer refunds after a course has begun.
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A note on trades! ​
We have such a rich community of local singers who are talented makers, artists, farmers, bodyworkers, and more, and we love the barter economy here in the country! Because fuck capitalism! Because there are always a high volume of trade requests every term, I wanted to share a brief list of things that are viable trades for choir dues - i.e. things my household does not already make, grow, or produce itself that we could perhaps source from your household as an exchange! Trades are made at the full tier level of any sliding scales.
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• Pastured pork and chicken • Hands-on bodywork • Artwork or crafts • Group admin support / registrar support
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