Topics for Workshops and Lectures

    Brazilian Music Ensembles

• Brazilian Jazz Workshop: Improvising in Primary Styles
• Brazilian Rhythm Section Workshop
• Hermeto Pascoal and his Lineage of Composers
• Choro Workshop and Performance Practice
• Music of Minas Gerais:
Toninho Horta, Sérgio Santos, Milton Nascimento
• The Northeast: baião, forró, frêvo, xote, xaxado, maracatu
• Brazilian Composition Workshop

Ensemble topics can also be presented as a Lecture/Survey

    Brazilian Music Lectures/Surveys

• Choro: the Bebop of Brazil: 150 years of virtuosity
• Hermeto Pascoal: Repertoire, Recordings, Analysis, Harmonic Vocabulary
• Guinga: Intuitive Genius, Guitar-as-Laboratory
• música mineira: Milton Nascimento, Toninho Horta, Sérgio Santos
• Masters of MPB: Jobim, Chico Buarque, Djavan, others
• Northeast Brazilian Genres: Baião, Maracatu, Frêvo

    Brazilian Guitar and Guitar Ensembles

• Solo Brazilian Guitar Masters: From Garôto to Guinga
• Composing for Solo Acoustic Brazilian Guitar:
  Melding melodic, rhythmic and harmonic elements
• Brazilian Guitar Comping Using Percussion Sourcerhythms
• Right-hand Independence for Brazilian Repertoire
• Brazilian Guitar Duo Workshop
• Chamber Choros for Guitar Trio and Quartet
(highest instrument can also be flute, mandolin, etc.)
• Arranging Brazilian Standards for Solo Guitar
• Adapting Solo Piano Music for one or two guitars

    Other Guitar

• Fingerstyle Jazz Techniques and Improvisation
  (for single line soloing and solo guitar arrangements) 
• Foundations of Fingerboard Harmony and Voiceleading
• Sightreading for the Contemporary Guitarist (all styles)
• Professional Sightreading Skills
• Advanced Guitar Sightreading Ensemble

    Brazilian Vocal

• MPB Workshop: Jobim, Buarque, Djavan, Sérgio Santos
• Portuguese Diction, phrasing, interpretation, timbre
• Survey of Brazilian Vocalist Styles
• Scat-Singing Improvisation in Brazilian Styles
• Brazilian Choral Repertoire and Performance Practice

    Other Vocal

• The American Songbook: Study of Master Jazz Vocal Stylists
• Arranging and writing professional charts for small combo
• Jazz Scat-Singing: Classic Solos, Transcriptions, Analysis
• Sightsinging for the Contemporary Vocalist


    Essential Musicianship

• Jazz Improvisation: 
Principles of Linear Construction/Development
• Classic Jazz Solo Transcriptions and Analysis
• Solo Transcribing and Advanced Dictation Skills
• Repertoire Development Strategies
• Dynamic Ear Training
• Constructive Listening: What to listen for in music and why
• Sightsinging for Instrumentalists (all styles)
• Jazz and Contemporary Music Theory and Harmony
• Fast-Track Sightreading and Sightsinging Masterclass

    Composition and Arranging

• Compositional Techniques Across Stylistic Disciplines
• Finding Your Compositional Voice
• Arranging Essentials for Rhythm Section and Small Combo
• Contrapuntal Writing in Contemporary Composition
• Richard Boukas Compositions as contemporary models

As available, Private and Small Group sessions may be arranged outside the terms of an artist residency.

Contact Richard Boukas
about presenting an Artist Residency

EDUCATOR TESTIMONIALS

For information on Private Lessons

 

 

Boukas on Music and Education

The following mini-discussions are Richard's spontaneous reflections about different styles, areas and aspects of music– his approaches to teaching them and suggestions for honing them. In some cases, he will relate directly to a specific topic listed on this page; in other instances, address broader issues that are central to the developing musician. These mini-discussions will change and rotate fairly frequently. For that reason, they will be downloadable for archiving purposes and further reflection. Richard hopes that such insights will spark a musician's curiosity and inspire them to expand their stylistic realms of expression. In the near future, interactive online discussions can be held.

The first four discussions focus on the following topics:

1. Teaching approaches to Ear Training and Sightsinging
2. Brazilian music as a resource for broader musical development
3. Choro: Brazil's Popular Chamber Music
4. Transforming through exposure to new Repertoire



Mini-Clinics Audio (downloadable)

Dynamic Ear Training Orientation