Check out Mark's upcoming gigs, benefits, classes ...

(click on the listing below for more info)

Oct 14, 15: Performances - Variations in 4 Spaces for Many People

Oct 15: Mark performs musical contribution for Community Church of Boston's Sunday morning series. Skip Schiel "Gaza Scorched and Stretched"

Oct 19-22: Childsplay '06!

Passim Classes: Two 6-week songwriting classes w/ Mark begin Mondays Oct. 23 - Nov. 27

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Childsplay '06!

It's been a busy and exciting summer and early fall, with album releases, new original tune and song contests introduced at Clifftop, a new year of teaching songwriting at Berklee College of Music, and lots of other exciting news... But right now I want to let you know about the upcoming Childsplay tour!

In case you've never been to a Childsplay show, it is the biggest boldest "fiddler's orchestra" you will ever lay ear on - great players from all over the United States (and some farther-flung friends from Canada, Sweden and elsewhere) celebrating every kind of fiddle style you can imagine in the comraderie of a "family" of fiddles all made by our own local hero and impresario Bob Childs. After a year's hiatus, while Bob and his lovely wife Hilary settled in with new baby boy Liam (!) in their new home in Arlington, we are back and rarin' to go! Special guests for this concert season include Shannon Heaton on flute, John Gawler on banjo, and Quebec step dancer Pierre Chartrand joining our own Irish step and sean-nos dancer Kieran Jordan. Sorry, there are only about 30 of us this time around (31 to be exact) but we'll try to keep you entertained somehow!

Here are the dates:
Thursday October 19, Brattleboro, Vermont
Latchis Theatre

Friday October 20, Portland, Maine
Portland High School Auditorium

Saturday October 21, Somerville, Massachusetts
Somerville Theatre

Sunday afternoon October 22, Lexington, Massachusetts
National Heritage Museum

Tuesday, October 17, Allston, Massachusetts
Quebecois Dance Workshop with Pierre Chartrand

You can get all the details about the concerts, order tickets; or, for our forlorn far-afield fans, pick up copies of our most recent CD "Heaven and Earth" at the Childsplay website.

Please come out and support this long tradition of bringing fiddlers and fiddle music together in joyous celebration! -- Mark Simos

If you can help spread the word about the concerts, here is a PDF of a beautiful Childsplay poster for the Boston area events:

Somerville/Lexington Flyer

Details, details:
Childsplay in Concert Thursday October 19, 2006 7:30 PM at The Latchis Theatre 50 Main Street, Brattleboro Vermont Tickets: $18 in advance, $20 at the door. Tickets available at www.brattleborotix.com or available by calling 802.246.6000 or at the door.

Friday October 20, 2006 7:30 PM at the Portland High School Auditorium 284 Cumberland Avenue, Portland Maine Tickets $20. Available at: The Rosemont Market and Bakery (559 Brighton Avenue, Portland), at all Bull Moose Music stores, or at the door.

Childsplay in Concert Saturday October 21, 2006 8 PM at the Somerville Theatre Davis Square, Somerville MA Tickets: $26. Available in person at the Somerville Theatre Box Office, online at www.ticketmaster.com, or at the door.

Sunday October 22, 2006 2 PM at the National Heritage Museum 33 Marrett Road, Lexington MA Tickets: $26. Available online: from our online store, or at the door.
Tuesday, October 17, 2006, Quebecois Stepdancing Workshop with Pierre Chartrand. 6:30-7:45 beginners, 8:00 - 9:45 experienced dancers. At the Pam Raff Dance Studio, 14 Harvard Ave, Allston MA. For details check here.

For any of the concerts or workshop, you can send a self-addressed stamped envelope with a check for the ticket amount to:
Childsplay
120 Garden Street
Cambridge, MA 02138

For more information about any of the concerts please go to the Childsplay website
or call (617) 354-1673
Email: rchilds618@aol.com

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Community Church Sunday Service

October 15 -- Skip Schiel “Gaza Scorched and Stretched”
Community Church of Boston Sunday Forums: 11:00 AM

Community Church of Boston
565 Boylston St. Boston, MA 02116
Ph: 617 266-6710 Fax: 617 266-0449
Email: info at commchurch.org

10:00am - Coffee/tea hour
11:00am - Sunday Service & Speakers Forum, with music
12:30pm - Community Luncheon

Skip Schiel has been exhibiting his art with us since the beginning of September. He will use this opportunity to talk about what is going on in Gaza and his understanding of the conflict over there. A participatory photographer, photographing while engaging in struggles for justice, peace, right treatment of the environment, and enlightenment, Skip Schiel makes photos for publications, exhibits, slide shows, and individual use. His main current project is a photographic examination of conditions in Palestine & Israel.

Mark Simos will be providing music for this event, debuting some of the songs posted to his Songs of Conscience website.

Choreographer Daniel McCusker has put together a very cool performance event celebrating the Dance Complex this weekend I think you'll be interested in. There will be dance performances happening simultaneously in 4 studios with dancers age 13-70 and live music in each room. The audience will be able to move from room to room several times during the event creating their own performance experience. I believe you'll recognize many of the musicians- Celia Markey, Eliza Moore, Adrian Rigopulos, Chris Eastburn, Michael Vitale and myself. You'll get to hear a variety of old time & traditional folk, shape note singing, fiddle tunes etc...

I hope to see you there! Mark Simos

Performances
Variations in 4 Spaces for Many People
Saturday, October 14th, 2006 at 8pm
& Sunday, October 15th, 2006 at 7pm -
22 performers, 4 studios, live music

Choreographer Daniel McCusker presents...

A benefit performance project for:
The Dance Complex
536 Massachusetts Ave
Cambridge, MA 02139-4029

Using four studios at once, Variations in 4 spaces for Many People explores ideas about personal landscape, transformation of material, and optional ways of using the Dance Complex as a performance venue, in a series of short dances. Simultaneously, the project gives audiences a role in structuring their own performance experience. Dancers and musicians will perform in Studios 1, 2, 3 and 6 and audience members will be free to move from space to space between segments. Artists Rick Fox, John Kramer and Deb Todd Wheeler will each design an installation in one studio and collaborate in Studio 1. The different spaces in the building can accommodate different audience numbers and some of the sites will be more intimate than others.

Tickets: $15 General Admission, $10 for seniors and students.
Checks or cash only, no credit cards.
For ticket reservations please call 617.547.9363.

"For me, the dancing body has its own compelling intelligence, which finds its own pathways for getting from here to there. Built on and in collaboration with the performers, I try to uncover material that is available and appropriate to each performer. In general, my dances require dancers to be clear, attentive, present, honest. My primary interest is dancing itself˜pleasurable and mysterious. And I value the opportunity that dance making provides to have a group of people and their very different bodies and selves together in the same room working on a common project. Looked at from that point of view, this project mirrors the community aspirations of the Dance Complex and seems like an appropriate way to celebrate its 15th Anniversary." — Daniel McCusker

Musical direction by Chris Eastburn. Visual Design by Rick Fox, John Kramer and Deb Todd Wheeler. Performers include: Alison Ball, Leah Bergmann, Janet Blackman, Nikki Cararra, Yenkuei Chuang, Peter Deffet, Maia Dunlap, Eleanor Duckworth, Chris Eastburn, Lynn Frederiksen, Joelle Garfi, Karen Klein, Rozann Kraus, Rebecca Lay, Jennifer Lin, Dashiell Massey, Celia Markey, Eliza Moore, Katharine Mueller, Adrian Rigopulos, Mark Simos, Nora Spicer, Sam Stiegler, Wanda Strukus, Jessica Landua Taylor, Kaitlin Toner, Michael Vitale & Melody Ruffin Ward.

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(Wondering what you missed? Recent past appearances...)

Ongoing events of interest and archives of past classes

Teaching News

Mark Simos Songwriting Classes at
Passim School of Music, Fall '06

360 Degree Songwriting with Mark Simos

Start Date: 10/23/2006
Class Meetings: Mondays Oct. 23, 30, Nov. 6, 13, 20, 27
Time: 7 pm
Cost: $132 ($108 for Passim Members)

Description: The first question asked of songwriters is: Does music or lyric come first? The answer is--yes! Most of us have familiar ways of starting our songs--as a guitar riff, a "dry" lyric, a rhythmic groove, a story idea, a chance phrase overheard. All these are great song "seeds" - starting points for building a song. Strong songwriters cultivate the skill of staying open to ideas from the full 360-degree circle of inspiration. In this class we'll develop our inner ears and receptivity for catching song seeds from any direction: writing from melody first, from a chord progression, from a story idea, a lyric phrase or title, a tea kettle's whistle or a fleeting mood. We'll work on new songs and practice specific skills and in-class exercises for leaping the gap from tune to words or vice versa. By working our own weak spots, we'll write stronger songs with less filler and more integrity, no matter where we start.

Gathering at the Well: The Listener's Perspective with Mark Simos

Start Date: 10/23/2006
Class Meetings: Mondays Oct. 23, 30, Nov. 6, 13, 20, 27
Time: 8:30 pm
Cost: $132 ($108 for Passim Members)

Description: This will be a workshop-style class, where we listen to each other's songs and provide critique and feedback using the experience-based critique style Mark has presented in the past. Our emphasis in this 6-week session will be on learning to tell clear stories in our songs. Whether writing a true narrative or "story" song, a direct-address love song, or a cryptic impressionistic landscape, songwriting always shapes the listener's experience with intent. We'll learn techniques for "stepping back from the canvas" and listening to our songs as listeners: developing "back story"; doing "line by line scans"; checking for integrity of perspective and voice; and cultivating "wise listeners."

Check for more details and register for classes online here.

About My Teaching:

For the past several years, I've been teaching a variety of classes at a wonderful local resource for music, the Passim School of Music. I've taught a number of sessions on my Net of Jewels approach to the guitar fingerboard, on songwriting, and varied other topics including listening to traditional music, old time fiddling, accompaniment for Celtic music, and tunesmithery.

Starting in January of '06 I began an exciting new teaching "gig" in the Songwriting Department at Berklee College of Music—right here in Boston. (I add that because when I brag to relatives and foreign friends, everyone thinks I'm moving to Berkeley California!) I taught at Berklee's summer Songwriting Workshop in '05 and '06. In Spring '06, Pat Pattison, one of the truly inspiring songwriting teachers at Berklee (his past students have included the likes of Gillian Welch and John Mayer to name a few) took a sabbatical for a (literal!) round-the-world tour teaching songwriting. I taught three (yikes!) sections of his Lyric Writing 2 class in the spring, as a part-time Assistant Professor.

Though I expected to return to Berklee in Spring '07, stepping in for another great teacher (Jimmy Kachulis) on his sabbatical, I was asked at the last minute to teach in Fall '06 semester as well. I'm teaching Lyric Writing 1, a directed study (one on one coaching) in songwriting, and—brand new!—an Appalachian/Old-Time Music ensemble. To my delight, many dozens of students, fiddlers and others, expressed interest in this ensemble which looks like it may become a regular offering at Berklee.

My teaching workload at Berklee meant I had to take a break from classes at Passim for a while. However, before I realized I'd be back at Berklee this fall, I had signed up to return to the Passim School of Music to teach a couple of songwriting courses. So -- it's going to be a busy fall to say the least! So grab these classes while you can -- they may be the last I can offer at Passim for a while!

For anyone in the Boston area I strongly recommend all the fine courses and instructors at the Passim School. Check their site for course information and even to register online.

About the Net of Jewels Approach:

Mark's "Net of Jewels" is an empowering approach to visualizing the geography of the guitar fingerboard in terms of small chord forms ("jewels") that interlock, overlap, and transform in mysterious, wonderful (and playable!) ways. This core set of major and minor triad forms combine into varied harmonic and modal progressions that move us fluidly across and along the entire fingerboard. As we practice 'shape-shifting' using the forms with their inversions and voicings on different sets of strings, we wind up learning 'theory' experientially and experimentally, through our fingers, ears, and eyes--not just our heads.

This material is ideal for intermediate players who have learned their basic chords and right hand strums and feel stuck getting to the next step. A great foundation for accompanying yourself or other singers on folk and contemporary songs, playing simple and tasty leads, exploring alternate tunings, and expanding harmonic ideas in your songwriting. Extensive hand-outs provided.

Follow the following link for a more detailed introduction to the Net of Jewels approach. If you have more questions, feel free to contact me.

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