El Sobrante, CA / Balkan Singing Workshops with Talia Young-Skeen

Experience the magic of raising your voice to create lush Eastern European harmonies as they were originally intended to be sung...by many voices in community! Discover and celebrate your natural voice through folk song traditions from Eastern Europe and beyond. The workshop will start with some fun "open voice" warm-ups followed by a selection of tunes from the Balkan repertoire. We will explore regional vocal styles with attention to placement, breathing, ensemble skills, pitch, pronunciation, musical embodiment & cultural context. The songs presented promise to be accessible, beautiful, and interesting. It may be helpful that singers are able to match pitch and sing harmony parts in tune.

Materials provided will include printed music (word sheets and score).

Participants may register for the two workshop series or individual sessions.

NO ONE TURNED AWAY FOR LACK OF FUNDS!

Singers of all ages, genders, backgrounds, and levels of experience are welcome.

Workshop leader Talia Young-Skeen was raised in the East Bay and joined Kitka Women's Vocal Ensemble in January 2024. She has been an ensemble singer since early childhood, and started taking classical voice lessons at age 14. At her high school she learned Bulgarian pieces that were taught by members of Kitka from a workshop and fell in love with the vocal style and arrangements. Now that she is a core member of Kitka, she feels that hosting a community workshop of Balkan music in her local area will become a full circle moment! Talia earned her B.A. in music and minor in education at the University of California, Berkeley in May 2025. She sang, co-directed and arranged music for the Cal Jazz Choir, and has been a regular cantor and soprano section leader at various churches in the Bay Area. In addition to ensemble singing, Talia performs as a soloist in baroque, classical, and contemporary music and especially enjoys collaborating with composers.