Briony Greenhill is “one of the world’s leading proponents of collaborative vocal improvisation (CVI)” - The Guardian.
CVI is the art of co-creating vocal music in the moment. Here is a short film about Briony’s teaching, which has evolved from the lineage of Rhiannon, Bobby McFerrin, Joey Blake and others. Briony is a founding member of The Well Global Vocal Improvisation Network and the UK Vocal Improvisation Festival.
Briony has released 4 entirely improvised albums. Her debut studio album took improvisations and reproduced them adding instrumentation in the studio. Crossing the Ocean featured in The Guardian, Mojo, Radio 3, Woman’s Hour and more.
Briony teaches vocal musicianship from beginner to advanced levels, while also honouring the spiritual, ritual and therapeutic application of CVI. She is a qualified SomaSource Leader; a “psycho-spiritual educator, artist, activist and healer who has an integrated understanding of how to creatively work in developmentally attuned ways with diverse people throughout life’s cycles.” You can read more about Briony’s teaching values, Vocal Musicianship Trainings, and a history of vocal improvisation in the American tradition here.
Study with Briony
Weekend, week-long and year-long courses in the UK
2024 Autumn / Winter
October 8th 2024 - 13th July 2025 - Wild Voice, Solid Roots Year-Long
November 14th 2024 - 13th June 2025 - Singing The Unseen Year-Long
November 30-December 1st - Beginner / Intermediate Intro Weekend, Devon
January in California
January 11-12 - CVI Weekend for Experienced Students - San Geronimo Valley, California
January 15th - Concert at the Monkey House, Berkeley Ca
January 18-19 - An Introduction to Collaborative Vocal Improvisation - San Geronimo Valley, California
January 25-6 - Healing Forms for Experienced Students - San Geronimo Valley, California
2025 Spring / Summer
March 8 - May 11 - Vocal Transformation 3 non-residential weekends, Devon
March 22-3 - An Intermediate-Advanced Intro to CVI, Devon
May 31-June 1 - Vocal Improvisation for Men - Devon
July 29 - Aug 3 - Deep Play with Holly Stoppit and Briony Greenhill @ Embercombe, Devon
2025 Autumn / Winter
September 23-8 - Healing Forms & Nature Connection @ Bala Brook Retreat Center, Devon
October 1-3 - An Intermediate - Advanced Introduction to Collaborative Vocal Improvisation (CVI) @ MIC, Devon
October 14-17 - Rhythm Level 2 @ MIC, Devon
October 21-24 - Creativity Deep Dive @ MIC, Devon
November 5-7 - A Beginner - Intermediate Introduction to Collaborative Vocal Improvisation (CVI) @ MIC, Devon
November 25-28 - Melody Level 2 @ MIC, Devon
December 5 - 7 - Sound and Silence @ Bala Brook Retreat Center, Devon
“Working with Briony has been such a gift for me. Her expertise in the field of voice work is inspirational and I have felt so supported by her generosity, strength and tenderness. As someone who also works with the voice, I have felt so ignited by her guidance and knowledge. I took part in her Vocal Improvisation Retreat and it gave me so much for my own creative path. I feel so blessed to have worked with Briony and consider her to be a fantastic leader in this field. I will continue to work with Briony as it nourishes my creative path as a musician and as a vocal facilitator.”
— Nessi Gomes, Artist, Teacher, Healer
“I’m discovering a reservoir of power through this work, one which I suspected was there but I hadn’t actually felt or experienced coming through in the way that it is, both in my 'sung' voice and in my day to day vocal expression. It’s very much like something has been stirred and invigorated and given some channel to start moving in the world, and this is really really really exciting, and really beautiful. I’m just absolutely delighted by it.”
— Tom Hirons, Writer and Storyteller
“I mostly wanted to express my deep gratitude for what you do and what you have opened in my life. CVI has literally changed my life. The structures, the skills, the tools I learned in circles with you have opened up my musical and my daily life. I have been able to finally experience and be part of nourishing, exciting musical collaborations! My song writing, my teaching, my performing is transformed by my willingness to stand in the void and let music move through me.”
— Emily
“I’ve loved every minute of working with you and I think all instrumental students should do this. In fact I wish every person could experience this way of being.
I have taught music at the conservatory level and at the early childhood level; at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Levine School of Music, The Wolf Trap Institute for Early Learning through the Arts, etc.
I trained in Juilliard, New York in Dalcroze Eurhyrhmics, a Swiss body-based approach to teaching and developing musicianship, which is extremely powerful work.
But what you bring specifically to the voice is something quite unique. To me it’s body-based, soul-based, healing-based, and community / collective-oriented. Your vocal work has a spiritual dimension that Dalcroze Eurhyrhmics only hints at. It’s very beautiful.
I’m quite certain that the need and the desire for what you offer is immense.”
— Marcia Daft, Music Education Specialist
“I just want to say thank you for bringing me to a place where I can work to uncover bits of myself that I’m longing for, and that’s what the work does. ”
— Anonymous
“Briony's approach to CVI is a kind of revolution. She presents this vibrant, creative and compelling art with a masterful sensitivity to the needs of her students and their unique singing journeys. With her deep knowledge and practice of earth-based spirituality, CVI becomes more than a singing practice and, rather, a modality for healing and inner transformation.
Being estranged from our own voice is perhaps symbolic of this modern age of isolation, where our connection to singing is often blocked through fear, shame and the tyranny of the inner critic. Such a state of affairs seems to stand in stark contrast to our ancestors' and indigenous peoples' joyful, devotional or celebratory use of the voice for spiritual, relational and/or healing purposes.
For the sake of us moderns and our wellbeing crisis, I believe these lost cultures of communal expression need reviving. In this way, Briony's CVI appears not just to be a potent medicine for an individual, but also a tool for cultural renewal.”
Xander, Artist, Community Leader
Creativity Deep Dive
“Power and Intimacy” - The Guardian
In this 4 day course, we will slow-cook ourselves in the beautiful stew of Collaborative Vocal Improvisation. We will sing, sing, sing; all together, in small ensemble, in duos, trios, and alone.
We’ll expand into emergent co-creativity, listening together to what human ecologist Gregory Bateson calls the Schismo-genesis - what is created in the space between - and how to surrender together to the music coming through.
We’ll work with singing, movement, language; with poetry - other people’s, our own, and spontaneously improvised, sung and spoken poetry.
We’ll explore using and sharing the holy essence of our voices in their full range of options. Becoming more and more at home in improvisation, and letting the music flow through.
We’ll work with the Resonant Body to cultivate the unique magnificence of your body’s sound. We’ll be witnessed and un-wittnessed, and play.
We’ll journey with what being seen and heard in a state of ease and surrender brings up for us, what stands in our way. We’ll hold caring space for our own and one anothers’ parts, but we won’t centre healing. Nor will we study music theory this time.
We will dive bravely into creativity together and come out braver, fuller vocal artists, more at home in the sacred art of vocal improvisation; able to express and move through a wider landscape in our singing.
The Structure
We’ll work at the Moor Imagination Collective in Buckfastleigh. The cafe there caters for us; local, very healthy, partly organic, vegan food; 3 meals per day are included.
We open 4-6pm on 21st October, then dine together and sing a little that evening.
Morning Dance 8-9am
Breakfast 9am, lunch 1pm, Dinner 6.30pm
Sessions run 10-1 and 2.30 - 6.
There are evening sessions on the Tuesday (until not very late) and Thursday (until quite late).
On the last day 24th October we finish by 3.30pm at the latest.
Accommodation
There 2 initial accommodation options.
The Christian Community - £40pp pn. They’re right across the road from MIC and have 4 very comfortable clean bedrooms and a small self catering kitchen (and a chapel, and a workshop space).
Local air bnb - £50 pp pn, £65 for private en suite room. A lovely shared house with 4 bedrooms / 6 beds, 1 mile away. It’s a 5 min drive or a 30 min country walk.
To book accommodation please email Dan info@brionygreenhill.com. The sooner the better, as we can’t realistically book the local air bnb until a few people want to stay there.
Cost
The cost includes all teaching / space holding, 3 meals per day at the MIC cafe - healthy, vegan, partly organic - and optional morning dance daily at 8am. It does not include accommodation.
Tier 1: £525
Tier 2: £375
Tier 3: £250
There are 2 assistant places at £95 (for alumni) and 2 Name Your Price places for folks for whom Tier 3 is not possible.
We trust you to select your Tier with integrity. You will not be assessed.
Would you like to contribute to The Scholarship Fund? Any amount is very welcome; it’s to help widen access to this work.
Level
If you are a Newcomer to CVI with Briony, please make sure you do an intro course before this one.
This is for Journey-people, Advanced Students and Alumni.
Students have said:
“It was deeper than an ayahuasca ceremony, I grew more than in workshops with leading psychologists, and it’s the safest I’ve ever felt in a group.” - Robin
“One of the most powerful experiences of my life! I feel changed on a cellular level!” (ok it was a 4 day retreat not a weekend…)
“Briony really made us all feel at home – starting off with exercises that didn’t force me outside of my comfort zone, and a no judgement pact, really allowed me to feel comfortable with the group, which then gave me the confidence to try out some solos.”
“It was seriously fun, crazy, inspiring, opening and meditative, all at the same time.”
“Some singing teachers teach you sing with your voice. Briony teaches you to sing with your heart and sing from your soul.”
“You made it feel like a womb. Protected, loved, nourished, warm and holding.”