Harmonize Presents: Song Seeds (feat. Anilee List)

From folk songs to spirituals, people have been gathering to sing short, repetitive refrains for thousands of years -- to grieve, to heal, to protest.

Our collaborator Anilee List likes to call these short songs "seeds" because they feel like they can fit in your pocket. And if you plant them, they can grow tall, vast, beautiful and free.

In this spirit, join us for our first collaboration with Anilee's Song Seeds, where we'll move through seasons of expression with voice and lyric. Anilee will lead us in sharing and creating our own seeds and --alongside Harmonize co-founders Mendeleyev and Brenton Zola-- we will combine those seeds grow them into improvised circle songs: weaving music e as both invocation and celebration; as both unexpected and powerful.

We hope to seed you there 💚

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OUR CIRCLESINGS

Harmonize Circle Sings are welcoming spaces for spontaneous a cappella singing and harmonizing led by practiced facilitators. It's an opportunity to sing in a community of friends old and new and practice sharing your voice. This is a special edition by candlelight, which will be warm, cozy, meditative and joyous.

(For new folks, check out our insta @harmonizevoices to get a flavor. We also have sleepy concerts and other offerings in the coming weeks.)

WHAT IS CIRCLE SINGING?

Circle Singing is an improvised and collaborative experience where facilitators stand in the middle of agroup beautiful humans and create improvised musical ideas. Anyone is welcome is to share an idea (a percussive sound, a melody, a phrase) and the facilitators shape their musical ideas to take the group anywhere from joy to comtemplation to laughter and everything in between. Once we're all synced up, pariticipants are invited to sing solos, duets, trios in the middle and even shape their own ideas!

Sometimes Circle Songs will also begin with actual songs. A person might share a snippet of a cultural song or a chant or a ballad or an original. Similarly, a facilitator will take a piece of that song (a word, a phrase) and improvise from there -- this is known as a song seed. [If you are someone who'd like to offer a seed at a Circle Sing, dm us!]

Circle Singing is done all over the world, and, while popularized by musical legends such as Bobby McFerrin, it dates back to the earliest forms of human singing.

In a typical session, we:

• Engage in vocal/somatic warm-ups
• Create improvised music through song/movement
• Share a couple of song seeds
• Wind down with a vocal meditation

Almost everything at a Harmonize Circle Sing is done A Cappella, so you just need your voice, your heart and your water. We also sit together on the floor at the end, so feel free to bring a yoga mat or cushion. Though we will have a number available

**WHO IS IT FOR?***

• Anyone who loves singing
• Anyone who wants to share their voice
• Anyone wants to go deeper into improvising
• Or any combination of the above!

All experience levels welcome.

**YOUR FACILITATORS***

FEATURED FACILITATOR: Anilee List is a vocal storyteller, avid creator, and passionate collaborator. Her excitement for music began at a young age, first taking the stage at two-years-old. Named a US Presidential Scholar in the Arts, a Youngarts Finalist, and a Jerry Herman award winner for Best Actress in a musical, Anilee attended Los Angeles County High School for the Arts, A Cappella Academy, and Berklee College of Music for vocal performance .While at Berklee, she was a member of their premiere A Cappella group Pitch Slapped, made her on-camera debut as a principle role in the Oscar-Winning film CODA, and received global recognition on Season 19 of American Idol where she delivered “technically perfect vocals” and was named a Top 24 finalist. Anilee’s career has since taken her to venues all over the world, including The Hollywood Bowl, Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, Madison Square Garden, and the O2. She also collaborated with Journey, Pentatonix, AMEX, Freeform, Ben Barnes, and Noel Schajris. Anilee recently returned from a year long tour supporting the musical act Olivia Rodrigo and appears in the Netflix Documentary Olivia Rodrigo: GUTS World Tour. Having been diagnosed with Tourette syndrome at age oten, Anilee is an active member of the Tourette Association of America --- passionately advocating for the disability community and working to spread awareness and acceptance wherever she goes.

Mendeleyev is a baritone Singer/Songwriter/ Producer. Appearing on Season 17 of NBC’s The Voice on John Legend’s Team, his low booming voice got all 4 coaches to turn their chairs. Recently opening for/collaborating with Jackson Browne and Madison Cunningham, he also headlined the 4th of July at The Rose Bowl Stadium, singing for 30,000 people. Mendeleyev attended Berklee College of Music, the Bobby McFerrin circle singing workshop and is highly influenced by a variety of legends with a vocal combination of Johnny cash and Van Morrison.

Brenton Sizwe Zola is a first-generation performance artist, writer and arranger. Informed by childhood homelessness, travel to 50+ nations and of a lineage of African spiritual leaders, he has dedicated his life to the art of improvisation. Brenton is a trained playback theater practitioner, a founding member of the acclaimed "Storytellers," (known for their improvised songs), and has performed at the UN, for giants such as Usher and Gloria Estefan, with members of Broadway's Freestyle Love Supreme and more. He is on an endless quest for the world's best peanut butter

LOGISTICAL INFO:

VENUE: The space is located next door to Re/Creation Cafe on Washington. Feel free to park on the street come right in

ARRIVAL: We build in 30 minutes for arrival, so we ask that you please arrive in this window so we can begin together.

CONCLUSION: There is a noise ordinance beginning at 10pm, so we will conclude around 945pm and need to have the space completely empty by 10pm.

ACCESSIBILITY:The space is on the ground floor

COST ACCESS: If cost is a barrier, you are always still welcome. Just input a number that works for you If resources are abundant, we welcome you to consider a greater amount to pay it forward for the community. Our funds go toward covering the space and reinvesting in this community

MEDIA DISCLAIMER: We capture any mixture of film, photo and audio at our events. Your entry constitutes your consent to such photography, videotaping and/or recording and to any use of that media. If yuu have any questions, feel free to contact us on instagram

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THE HARMONIZE MISSION

Harmonize is LA's fastest growing musical community. The brainchild of a first-generation son of an African immigrants, a Berklee-trained barefoot Baritone from SoCal, a Jewish-Colombian son of New York chefs, and a first-gen, third-culture Mauritian musician, it was founded on the principle that singing is a birthright. We aim to create spaces for people to be heard in every sense of the word. From pop-up choirs to sleepy serenades to freestyle rap jams, we seek to foster spaces of belonging for all races, genders, sexual orientations, classes, religions, abilities, national origins, languages, and musical experiences. All we ask is that you bring an open mind and an open heart.