2026 Microtonal Recording Retreat - June 6-14 in Virginia
13 people attended, and we had 2 drop-ins, including Toby Twining! Photos coming soon.
SCHEDULE:
- Sat-Mon: mingling, jamming, setting up, trying out the submitted pieces, coming up with new pieces
- Tues-Fri: filming/recording sessions
- Sat night: house concert and group photo
- Sun morning: cleanup and goodbyes
Mark Johnson led daily choir sessions focusing on microtonal rounds and exercises, barbershop tags, and various submitted vocal works. Mark is a lifelong ensemble musician with a keen ear for special tuning. He has sung in a cappella ensembles of every size and many styles. He played various woodwinds throughout school, and studied oboe and conducting at the Eastman School of Music in the 1980s. Mark met Toby Twining at a Bobby McFerrin workshop in 1988, and collaborated with him as music director, singer, producer, and mix engineer for Chrysalid Requiem (2002) and Eurydice (2011). He also worked for many years with The Western Wind Vocal Ensemble, as producer for their recordings and ensemble coach at their workshops. Some of his favorite musics are The Hi-Lo’s, Pat Metheny and Mahler symphonies.
While there were a few solo performances, the focus was on playing music together, because it's the one thing we can't do online. The focus was also on recording, so that we have something to share with the world after the fact. All attendees had significant previous experience performing microtonal music. Attendees were able to connect with each other beforehand in a google group, to share ideas.
CALL FOR SCORES ETC. The deadline for submission was May 15th. The material ranged from improvised to composed, from classical to modern, and from instrumental to singer-songwriter. For composed pieces, people provided sheet music plus midi demos. For improvised material, people provided lead sheets, example recordings, etc. The choice of which material to use was entirely up to the attendees. We did not get around to everything. Coming soon, a youtube playlist and a free bandcamp album. Select scores will be published in a free songbook on the UnTwelve website.
