Willems® Congress Udine 2023 Presentation of the workshops

General presentation

Each teacher will develop 2 different themes twice a day, giving participants the choice of 4 workshops per day.
Each workshop has a progression during the 5 days of the Congress.
This is why it is advisable to follow the same workshop 5 days in a row.

The workshops are classified here in 4 groups corresponding to the time slots:

  • Workshops A: 11:00 / 12:15
  • Workshops B: 14:00 / 15:15
  • Workshops C: 15:30 / 16:45
  • Workshops D: 17:00 / 18:15

The themes of Workshops A are taken up in Workshops C, and those of Workshops B in Workshops D. This is to allow for a linguistic distribution to facilitate translations.

The participants must choose a workshop A, a workshop B, a workshop C and a workshop D, among the 4 proposed for each time slot, avoiding to choose the same theme with the same speaker between A and C, and B and D…

The “A7-B7-C7-D7” workshops led by Nicole Corti are devoted to choral singing combined with choral conducting, with participants taking turns being conductor and singer. All the participants being divided between the 4 time slots, this will allow everyone to have a time of choral practice at some point during the day.

For example: A1 / B4 / C3 / D7 or A7 / B1 / C4 / D3 …

Translations: the letters following the speaker’s initials indicate the translations envisaged for each workshop. ES / Spanish – FR / French – IT / Italian – SI / Slovenian

Description of the workshops

  • A1/C1. Corporal movement – Béatrice Chapuis-Westphal
    Movement is life! The embodiment of music is a dimension too often neglected in music education, and yet, without the body, what about the rest?
    Béatrice Chapuis-Westphal invites you on a journey that follows the sound vibration from our ears to the animation of our cells…
  • A2/C2. Practice of the pedagogical principles of the 1st and 2nd degree Willems – Christophe Lazerges
    Experiencing for yourself some key elements of this pedagogical progression is essential to understand its meaning. A very concrete workshop for auditory sensoriality, melodic sense through singing, rhythmic sense through clapping, audio-motor synchronisation through body movements.
    Christophe Lazerges will share his experience in this field.
  • A3/C3. Introduction of reading and writing – Mateja Tomac-Calligaris
    Central element of the 3rd degree “Pre-Solfique” of the Willems® progression, this workshop will show the importance of the preparation with the graphics of the 2nd degree, then the relationship between relativity and absolute, supported by automatisms introduced in the 3rd degree and reinforced in the 4th.
    Mateja Tomac-Calligaris will share his experience in this field.
  • A4/C4. Musical Training / Solfeggio – María-Ángeles Pérez-Lancho
    The 4th level of Edgar Willems’ pedagogical proposal is both a culmination of musical initiation and the doorway to knowledge of the musical language: both practical and theoretical, it is a time for learning, for the progressive mastery of reading, writing, improvising and even composing techniques through all the styles in the history of music up to the present day. A very vast programme that needs to be marked out!
    María-Ángeles Pérez-Lancho will share her long experience in this field.
  • A5/C5. Instrumental beginnings – Franca Bertoli-Cividino
    The Willems® pedagogy is not limited to musical initiation. It offers a coherent and complete extension for instrumental practice, presented in this workshop: ear playing, sight reading, repertoire and memory, improvisation.
  • A6/B6. Practical keyboard harmonization – Thibaut Louppe
    Harmonisation of scales, melodies and songs is an important part of the artistic contribution of introductory lessons and solfeggio. But practice is difficult, especially for non-pianists.
    Thibaut Louppe will lay the foundations for this work at different levels.
  • A7/B7/C7/D7. Choral singing and choral conducting / advanced – Nicole Corti
    This workshop combines the approach of a type of repertoire with the fundamental elements required to conduct a choir, with participants alternating between the roles of conductor and chorister.
    In each workshop Nicole Corti will approach a different repertoire
  • B1/D1. Corporal movement – María-Ángeles Pérez-Lancho
    María-Ángeles Pérez-Lancho, who is steeped in traditional music, has always incorporated body movement into her teaching practice, from initiation to music theory. She will offer participants a renewed experience of this primary dimension of the Willemsian trilogy: Physical Life, Affective Life and Mental Life.
  • B2/D2. Practice of the pedagogical principles of the 1st and 2nd Willems® degrees – Mateja Tomac-Calligaris
    To experience for yourself some key elements of this pedagogical progression is essential to understand its meaning. A very concrete workshop for auditory sensoriality, melodic sense through singing, rhythmic sense through clapping, audio-motor synchronisation through body movements.
    Mateja Tomac-Calligaris will share his experience in this field.
  • B3/D3. Introduction of reading and writing – Franca Bertoli-Cividino
    Central element of the 3rd degree “Pre-Solfique” of the Willems® progression, this workshop will show the importance of the preparation with the graphics of the 2nd degree, then the relationship between relativity and absolute, supported by automatisms introduced in the 3rd degree and reinforced in the 4th.
    Franca Bertoli-Cividino will share her experience in this field.
  • B4/D4. Musical Training / Solfeggio – Béatrice Chapuis-Westphal
    The 4th level of Edgar Willems’ pedagogical proposal is both a culmination of musical initiation and the doorway to knowledge of the musical language: both practical and theoretical, it is a time for learning, for the progressive mastery of reading, writing, improvisation and even composition techniques through all the styles of the history of music up to the present day.
    A very vast programme that needs to be marked out!
    Béatrice Chapuis-Westphal will share her long experience in this field.
  • B5/D5. Improvisation in all its forms: Rhythmic / Melodic / Harmonic – Christophe Lazerges
    It is not when you “know” that you can start to improvise, it is by improvising that you learn. We will experience with the participants the multiple aspects of this learning in action, through experimentation, and the interest of enriching this improvisation with elements of consciousness.
  • C6/D6. Organ Masterclass – Thibaut Louppe
    Maître de Chapelle and organist of the St-Jean-Baptiste cathedral in Lyon, Thibaut Louppe will give a Masterclass on the French music repertoire
    for two levels: Beginners and Advanced