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Fri, Mar 21 - Sun, Mar 23 | Jamaica Plain​
Join us for an immersive weekend of community singing.
Boston Big Sing is a weekend immersion of communal singing, bringing together the growing and vibrant singing community of Boston. Join us as we cultivate connection to ourselves, our community, and the Earth through song.


Workshops & Songleaders

Tracy LJ Robertson
Headliner — Collaborative Vocal Improvisation
Tracy LJ Robertson is a performing and recording vocalist and vocal percussionist, vocal arranger, music director, and facilitator in the world of empowerment through music. Following a four year scholarship to Berklee College of Music, Tracy has worked with a range of artists including Valerie Simpson, Justin Timberlake, Andy Grammer, Michael Bublé, Billie Eilish and Bobby McFerrin. Meanwhile, the acappella community has offered opportunities to tour internationally and teach at a cappella and vocal jazz festivals with groups like Pitch Slapped, Overboard, Vocalosity, m-pact, The Magnets, and The House Jacks.
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Tracy is particularly grateful to work with community building organizations like the Urban Voices Project, Gaia Music Collective, and in ever more spaces where healing and empowerment are invited and supported through music. Through his project, Vocal Bloom, Tracy invites musicians from all walks of life to engage their voices and bodies through playful self-surprise and connection through musical creativity.​​​
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In Tracy's headliner session, you are invited to co-create container for an individually and interpersonally generative experience, for connection and creative inspiration. Tilling and fertilizing with a cumulative series of games and exercises, the process of collaborative musical creativity can seed experiences of self-surprising connection, while enriching musical / improvisational vocabulary along the way. Cultivating:
• Capacity for collaborative creation/ holding of safe space, through music
• Connection with and through intuition / your creative impulse
• Fluency in the language of music
Through collaborative vocal improvisation, may we explore and model for ourselves and one-another a nourishing experience of group-think gone right.
Rosi Amador
Workshop Facilitator — Vocal Improvisation with Latin and Caribbean Rhythms
In this workshop, you’ll immerse yourself in the vibrant world of Latin and Caribbean polyrhythms, exploring the joy of vocal improvisation in a group setting. Rosi will guide you through select techniques for Venezuelan/Colombian rhythms from the “llano” (plains), an Afro-Puerto Rican dance rhythm and Brazilian body percussion, along with vocal percussion that mimics the energetic sounds of a Cuban salsa band. You’ll learn how to recreate the sounds of some of the following: claves, congas, bongos, maracas, cowbell and more, alongside vocalizations of the bass, the tres - a Cuban stringed instrument, the trumpet and trombone. Together we’ll create a vocal salsa band! This workshop is for ages 12 and up.
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Rosi Amador is the lead singer, percussionist and co-founder of the Boston Music Award-winning Latin band Sol y Canto. Born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, of Puerto Rican and Argentine descent, to performer parents, Rosi and her husband, composer/guitarist Brian Amador launched Sol y Canto in 1994. Their 30th anniversary album, “En tu órbita” (In Your Orbit) and trajectory were recently featured on NPR’s “Here & Now”.
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She has been studying vocal improvisation and body percussion for close to 15 years with the master vocal improvisation mentor, Rhiannon, as well as with other recognized vocal and body percussion improvisation coaches including Cuban vocal and body percussion master Freddy Lafont, Sofia Ribeiro, Juan Ospina, Rizumik and Música do Círculo in Brazil and attended Bobby McFerrin's circle singing school in 2022.
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Rosi lives in Cambridge, MA with Brian and their loving 3 year old terrier mutt, Pepito.


David Ruffin
Workshop Facilitator — "Remembering Song," An Embodied Song Circle Jam
Can you remember a time where words like music, voice, rhythm, movement and dance were so deeply intertwined in our expression and psyche that they felt inseparable—or even interchangeable? Perhaps, like me, you don’t come from a culture where this is still the case. Yet do you, too, feel the resonance of this etymological blurring within you? And what about the line we often draw between singing and improvisation? Maybe we can sing a song we already know—but not, we think, the unsung song alive in our bodies in this moment. What if this distinction is just another misplacement of a deeper knowing? Another invitation to remember. Join me in this dive deep into our aliveness through song. Drawing from some of the powerful song weavers who have helped me remember, let’s rediscover together all that “song” can mean when we gather in the spirit of remembering it fully.
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David Ruffin is a performing artist, community song leader and teacher with a passion for authentic expression. He loves creating space for voices to emerge fully and freely. He calls Central Vermont home, where he’s grateful to be able to share his holistic, embodied and soulcentric approach to voice in community through lessons, workshops, singing gatherings and performance collaborations. David’s work is inspired by a diverse background including studies with Roy Hart Center voice teachers, deep dives in vocal improvisation, especially with Rhiannon, explorations and training in Voice Movement Therapy and over 20 plus years of performing arts, teaching and counseling/ministry experience. Learn more at www.DavidRuffinVoice.com​
Paola Faoro
Workshop Facilitator — Join the Flow: A Musical Journey with Música do Círculo
Paola's workshop "Join the flow: A musical journey with música do círculo" explores the Música do Círculo practice which invites participants to create music together in a circle, using their voices and bodies as instruments. Rooted in deep listening, spontaneity, and collective interaction, it emphasizes the relational aspects of music-making, where the process is as important as the result.
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Paola Faoro's musical journey began in Brazil, where she first performed with the “Brasileirão” Choir and later co-founded the a cappella vocal trio “Noivas do Allfreddo” (Allfreddo’s Fiancées), singing with the group for five years. Since moving to Boston in 2012, Paola has continued to grow as a musician. She has been leading Circle Singing sessions in Jamaica Plain since 2019, has completed the Leading Musica do Circulo training in 2023 and is a member of the vocal improv ensemble Backyard Collective, which she co-founded in 2020.


Destiny Cooper
Workshop Facilitator — HarmoniSING!: Pocket Songs and Originals for Connection
This session is for all voices big and small. As an educator, song leader and circlesinger, I've come across beautiful songs both learned and invented- each with its own unique energy but a common purpose in bringing people together. From lively, fun tunes that give you energy, to more introspective pieces that invite you to connect with yourself, there’s something for everyone. In this session, I'll be teaching Pocket Songs and other Feel Good Choruses to deepen your love of melody and discover your love of creating harmony with others!
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Destiny Cooper is an active musician, conductor and educator whose goal is to find ways to build community through music, education and performance. As a music educator and conductor, Destiny is passionate about getting students thinking creatively and expressively in their music-making; incorporating songwriting and elements of vocal improvisation. She is currently a Middle School Choral Director in the Greater Boston Area and has been a Conductor with Boston Children's Chorus since 2018. A passionate choral singer, Destiny has worked with The Western Wind and the King's Singers as well as participating in performances with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project and Boston Symphony Orchestra. Outside of traditional choral music, Destiny has been an active member of the Circlesinging Boston community. She became a member of Circlesinging group, Backyard Collective in 2021.
Milly Roberts
Big Sing Co-Organizer, Friday Singing Circle Leader
Friday night will kick off our weekend with a classic Singing Circle! This circle will feature a repertoire of Singing Circle “Best Hits,” ya know the songs in our circles, that have just... hit. Songs for embodiment, release, for trust in the unknown, and connection with a life force always moving through us. These simple, powerful songs will provide a fertile foundation for our voices to connect and grow together. As we layer in harmonizing parts, improvisation, movement and rhythm, the songs will become a unique expression of those in the room, at that moment. Following the facilitated Singing Circle, we will transition to a fire, and invite an open space for all to share and lead songs in community.
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Milly Roberts is a song leader, organizer and environmental educator with a passion for building power in communities through the arts. She has collaborated with a variety of artists over the years to “get off the stage and into the room,” and joined the Dedham School of Music to bring weekly music, movement & storytelling sessions to residents of the Dedham Housing Authority.​​ She co-founded Boston-Area Singing Circles in 2023, and is excited to be one of the co-organizers of Big Sing. ​
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Jordan Mudd
Big Sing Co-Organizer, Sunday Closing Circle Leader
Sunday's Closing Circle will celebrate our time shared together and the seeds we collectively planted. Gathering by the beautiful Jamaica Pond shortly after the Spring Equinox, we will use song to connect us to the Earth and this threshold of seasons, honoring the Winter passed and blessing the coming of Spring.​
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Jordan Mudd is a musical facilitator, community songwriter, ritualist, and prayerful activist. His father taught him that you never need a “reason” to sing besides the joy of it. Improvisational music spaces shifted his understanding of music from something to be witnessed to something to be experienced. Through songleading in social movement spaces, he saw how lifting our voices together can create unity, trust, and presence. And a growing "apprenticeship" in grief work has shown him how singing can guide us into and out of the depths of the soul. He co-founded Boston-Area Singing Circles in 2023, and is excited to be one of the co-organizers of Big Sing.
You
Unbroken Circle
You are fresh off of a weekend of singing, loosening and freeing your voice through the help of our amazing songleaders. Finishing off a full day of workshops, meals, and connection, you enter into an "unbroken circle" - an uninterrupted flow of vocal improvisation and song where we all are leaders and followers together. What spark of inspiration might you bring to shape the group? What melody or rhythm might you be a channel for? What is possible after a weekend of trust-building and embodiment through song?

Our Approach
Our goal at Boston-Area Singing Circles is to make singing accessible to all. This weekend is open to people of all relationships with their voices - even if you've never sung with a group before. We believe that singing is a birthright, and all our songleaders are skilled at welcoming singers of all comfort levels.
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We teach songs call-and-response style, without written music, and sing a-capella with the support of light percussion.​​ We love improvisational singing as a practice of freeing our voices, and offer tiers of participation that invite people to find their brave edge - whether that's holding a part, finding a harmony, or stepping into the circle to solo. And we incorporate movement and somatic awareness to help us sing as an embodied practice. ​​​​​

Guidelines & Policies
Children: We love children, the energy they bring to our spaces, and exposing them to community music at a young age. Children are warmly encouraged to join our Friday and Sunday circles. For our Saturday afternoon session, our workshops will ask for greater focus and rigor, and so we ask all caregivers to be mindful of how their children engage with the space and take measures to prevent them from disrupting the group. Our Saturday evening session will be closed to children under 12. If you have any specific questions relating to your child's participation please reach out to us.
Youth: Youth ages 12 -18 are welcome to join any part of the weekend, at half cost.
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Cancellation: Full refunds available until 3/10. Partial refunds available if cancelling afterwards, unless it is due to sickness or an unforeseen emergency.
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Community Health: We are not requiring COVID-19 testing, or masking for this event. You are welcome to wear a mask if you choose. If you feel sick on the day-of, please stay home and we will offer you a full refund and look forward to singing with you another time.
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Community Support: ​This weekend will not be possible without a lot of support! While we will have many volunteers filling assigned roles (fill out this form if interested), we ask that all participants take initiative to clean and help out.
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Video & Photo: We will be taking photos and video throughout the weekend, which may be used on our website, or in graphics and flyers. If you do not wish for your face to be discernible in promotional content, make sure to note that during day-of check-in.
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Communal Meals: All our meals will be lovingly prepared by community members, and will have vegan and gluten-free options. If you have other allergens please make sure to note them when you sign-up and we will do our best to accomodate.

Transportation & Accessibility
Hope Central Church (85 Seaverns Ave, Jamaica Plain) is a 4 minute walk from the Green Street stop on the Orange Line, and has its own free parking lot across the street. The Church is wheelchair accessible via a ramp and Power Stair Lift Chair, and has a wheelchair accessible bathroom. Please note during sign-up if you have any accessibility needs we should know about.
We recognize that gathering inside a church brings up different emotions for each of us. Our choice to gather in Hope Central Church is based both on the beauty and accessibility of their space, as well as their commitment to reparations and their queer-led and queer-affirming congregation.
Jamaica Pond is a 20 minute walk from the Green Street or Stony Brook stops on the Orange Line. There is free street parking available nearby. We will meet at the Pinebank Promontory, a beautiful open and secluded spot. The paths leading there are paved and wheelchair-accessible, and our gathering spot will be flat and grassy.
In the event of rain, we will gather under the Jamaica Pond Boathouse Pavilion.
Tickets

Ticket Options:
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Full Weekend ($100 - 200)
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All-Day Saturday ($70 - 150)
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Saturday Afternoon Session ($45 - 95)
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Saturday Evening Session ($45 - 95)
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Add-on Friday Circle ($20 - 40)
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Add-on Sunday Circle* ($20 - 40)