String students: if you are interested in developing the skills to play in a full orchestra setting or in intermediate to advanced chamber ensembles, this workshop is designed especially for you. This class is a great introduction to ensemble playing and is particularly helpful for students with little or no ensemble experience.

Learn how to combine your acting and solo singing skills by preparing scenes from operas and musicals! Students will be cast in scenes for one to five characters and develop these scenes for a performance at the end of the session. Classes will address character development, stage technique, musicality and style issues. Students will work on their own scenes and observe the development of other participants’ scenes

Develop your vocal performance skills and build a song repertoire from various Spanish-speaking countries. Students may perform in small groups or solo and will present their songs each week in class. There will be quarterly recitals and other performance opportunities throughout the year.

Play Cuban, Latin American and Flamenco music and learn how to use traditional concepts and styles to create contemporary music. Improve your improvisational skills and deepen your understanding of these forms. The focus of the Latin-Flamenco ensemble will be on the development of advanced arrangements and the preparation of a cohesive group for public performances. This ensemble performs under the name Potingue, which means “an unusual mix” in Spanish. There will be winter and spring performances at CMC and other shows around the Bay Area.

Learn how to execute arrangements and improvise in a small jazz ensemble setting. Students will share improvisation concepts and learn how to improve and evaluate solos, group dynamics and sound. Players will be strongly encouraged to write original tunes and there will be various performance opportunities throughout the year.

Jazz musicians: this is an informal forum to work on improvisation and to develop your ensemble skills. This ensemble emphasizes improvisation, writing and arranging, the role of each instrument, and the development of musical interaction.

Take your playing to the next level by mastering the guitar fretboard. Learn how to locate chords easily and play melodies that sound good with those chords. The Guitar Fretboard Workshop guides students through a system that helps them quickly find triads, the building blocks of chords. Focusing on the top three strings, this system will teach students to find almost any chord on the fretboard. Learning the corresponding scales and their multiple positions will help students play melodies that fit within those chords.

Flute players: develop your playing with others in a relaxed and supportive atmosphere. This Flute Choir will focus on developing sound production, intonation and interpretation skills. There will be various performance opportunities throughout the year.

Learn to play Asian, Middle Eastern and Eastern European music, including Klezmer and Balkan styles. Music scale systems and maqams will be studied in the context of selected tunes. Improvisations (taqsims/preludes/doinas) will be attempted according to traditional practices. There will be various performance opportunities throughout the year.

Learn interpretation and performance techniques for playing western early music in Collegium Musicum. This class will cover the evolution of harmonic progressions, musical forms, and styles of ornamentation throughout different periods and countries. The ensemble performs in December in a concert themed “Winter Celebration” and in June in a concert themed “Baroque and Beyond."