Experience Voice Works
Artistic Director
Pharis Romero
Pharis has been a part of the Voice Works family since 2009. She’s taught every year, expanded into her role as Artistic Director beginning in 2018. An early student of technical classical and casual country, she grew up performing with her family’s folk-country band while jamming out to her dad’s original songs and her mom’s opera and 60s rock. She has spent her life learning the songs and stories that made her want to dig deeper into every aspect of the music. These days she performs and writes music mostly with her husband Jason, and is equally at home disappearing into an old-time jam as she is singing on stage or teaching the joy of song and sound at music camps around the world. Fewer things fill her cup more than three part harmonies or a terrific melodic line. She’s won four Juno Awards for her recordings with Jason, and is a three-time Canadian Folk Music Awards Traditional Singer of the Year. She makes her home in the lovely little town of Horsefly, British Columbia, and when she’s not playing music she’s working in the J. Romero Banjo shop, running with their two kids, and heading for the woods.
Artist Faculty
2026 Artist Faculty
Isa Burke
Isa Burke is a multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, and producer based in Durham, North Carolina (and sometimes in southern Maine). Using electric and acoustic guitars, fiddle, voice, and sometimes other instruments, she creates music that draws from traditional folk, modern indie-rock, and beyond.
Raised in a musical family in Maine, Isa came up through the Northeast’s thriving folk music scene.…
Gideon Crevoshay
Gideon Crevoshay is a vocalist, teaching artist, composer, facilitator, and sonic eco-archaeologist from the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. He works with the countless dimensions that sound, improvisation, and deep listening can touch upon. Gideon has studied and taught myriad forms of vocal music from around the world, finding inspiration from the wisdom contained within these traditions and how they can inform ideas of music-making, communities of resilience, ritual, and explorations of consciousness.…
Cathy Fink
Two-time Grammy Award Winners, Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer are master musicians with a career spanning over 35 years. Their superb harmonies are backed by instrumental virtuosity on the guitar, five-string banjo, ukulele, mandolin, cello-banjo, and many other instruments. An eclectic folk festival on their own terms, their repertoire ranges from classic country to western swing, gypsy jazz to bluegrass, and old-time string band to contemporary folk including some original gems.…
Hubby Jenkins
Banjo
Hubby Jenkins is a talented multi-instrumentalist who endeavors to share his love and knowledge of old-time American music.
Elise Leavy
Armed with her father’s first guitar, a wry sense of humor and a startlingly cohesive and masterful tone to her writing, Elise Leavy writes and sings folk songs that sound like they came straight from Laurel Canyon in the 70’s. Often likened to Joni Mitchell and Judee Sill, Elise says it must be the California seawater getting inside her head and heart from an early age.…
Erika Lewis
Known for her lengthy tenure touring and busking with beloved New Orleans jazz band Tuba Skinny, prolific songwriter and singer Erika Lewis has been churning out American originals all her own for the past several years. From classic country to cosmic Americana to dreamy indie folk, Lewis continues to dip her toes more deeply into an ever-expanding pool of roots music styles.…
Marcy Marxer
Two-time Grammy Award Winners, Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer are master musicians with a career spanning over 35 years. Their superb harmonies are backed by instrumental virtuosity on the guitar, five-string banjo, ukulele, mandolin, cello-banjo, and many other instruments. An eclectic folk festival on their own terms, their repertoire ranges from classic country to western swing, gypsy jazz to bluegrass, and old-time string band to contemporary folk including some original gems.…
Joe Newberry
Known around the world for his clawhammer banjo playing, Joe Newberry is also a powerful guitarist, singer and songwriter. The Gibson Brothers’ version of his song “Singing As We Rise,” featuring guest vocalist Ricky Skaggs, won the 2012 IBMA “Gospel Recorded Performance” Award. With Eric Gibson, he shared the 2013 IBMA “Song of the Year” Award for “They Called It Music.”
Joe was a featured singer on the Transatlantic Sessions 2016 tour of the U.K.…
Rachael Price
Rachael grew up in a musical environment in Portland, OR. At an early age Rachael began taking voice lessons and singing in local choirs and discovered that she wanted to sing professionally. She attended Berklee College of Music on scholarship as a vocalist. Rachael graduated with a degree in Professional Music with an emphasis in Songwriting from Berklee in 2010 and has been pursuing music ever since, recording albums and touring nationally.…
Ashlee Watkins & Andrew Small
Based in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Southwest Virginia, Ashlee Watkins & Andrew Small have captivated audiences around the globe with their stirring harmonies and deep-rooted sound. The duo moves seamlessly between heartbreaking country duets and foot stomping breakdowns as they explore various combinations of fiddle, banjo, mandolin, and guitars. Ashlee and Andrew have won many awards from fiddler’s conventions throughout the region including first place in the old-time band contests at the storied festivals in Galax, VA, Mount Airy, NC, and Clifftop, WV.…
Class Descriptions
2026 Class Descriptions
Will be posted soon!
Schedule
2026 Schedule
Here is how you’ll spend your time:
THE FIRST DAY! Monday, June 22
Check-in starts at 4:00 p.m. at the Centrum office. Dinner is served at 6:00 p.m. in the Commons.
SHORT FORT WORDEN TOUR – Find out where classes are held, which buildings we’ll be using, and get a general feel for the Fort Worden campus. The tour ends at the Wheeler Theater in time for orientation. Meet behind 204, we’ll depart at 7:10 p.m.
An extensive welcome and orientation session begins at 7:30 p.m. in the Wheeler Theater. Bring this book and a pencil, and your badge. We will introduce each of the musicians who are on staff, ask them to sing a little, and to talk about what they’ll be teaching. We’ll also talk about the workshop schedule, bring any fresh information, and try to get your questions answered.
General Schedule - subject to change
9:30: warm ups
10:00 - 11:50: class session #1 - all faculty teaching concurrently
12:00 - 1:00: lunch
1:00 - 2:00: siesta or practice
2:00 - 3:00: class session #2
3:30 - 4:30: class session #3
4:45 - 5:45: wildcard/ALL CAMP SING/open mic
6:00 - 7:00: dinner
Evenings
Thursday - public performance at 7:30 p.m. in the Wheeler Theater featuring all of the Voice Works faculty.
Friday - Honky Tonk Polka Dot Dance at 8:00 p.m. in the USO
Kids & Teens
Most of our workshops are family events, and we welcome musicians of all ages and abilities to participate.
If you are under 18, you must be accompanied by a registered adult. Please register the adult first, as you will need a confirmation number.
Costs
2026 Costs
Workshop tuition includes admission to everything, including a great seat at the public performance.
Adult Tuition: $550
Additional Family Member (sibling, spouse, child; limit of two): $275
Youth (under 22): $275
Canadian Resident: $380 USD
Private dorm room: $300
All meals: $350
Lunches only (4): $100
Airport shuttle (optional): $130 round trip or $65 one way
Centrum has a variety of ways to be able to attend our workshops even if you’re on a budget. If you need financial assistance, Centrum has a robust scholarship program awarded on a first-come, first-served; and as-needed basis. Apply online as you register. Please note that except in rare cases, scholarships are available for tuition only. Centrum requires a $200 deposit of scholarship applicants, which is fully refundable before May 25 if you are unable to attend.
Room & Board
Most participants stay in private dormitory rooms at Fort Worden. There are a limited number of double rooms, that is, rooms with two twin beds. If you’d like a double, please request one, and list another registered participant who has signed up for room and board in order to share that room. It is first come, first served.
Meals are served at Fort Worden Commons. The first meal is dinner on June 22; the last meal is breakfast on June 27.
Cancellation/Refund Policy
All but $50 is refundable if cancellation is made on or before May 25, 2026.
FAQ
Scholarships
Apply online as you register. Please note that except in rare cases, scholarships are available for tuition only. Centrum requires a $100 deposit of scholarship applicants, which is fully refundable before May 23 if you are unable to attend. If you are interested in volunteering, or a work trade position, please contact Peter McCracken at peter@centrum (dot) org.
Voice Works shuttle schedule:
Arrive – Monday, June 22, 2026, depart SeaTac airport, 2:30pm, Pacific Time.
Depart – Saturday, June 27, 2026, depart Centrum at Port Townsend, 9am, Pacific Time.
If you have any more questions about Voice Works, please contact Peter McCracken at 360-385-3102, x127, or peter@centrum (dot) org.
PERFORMANCES
Workshop tuition includes admission to everything including the public performances.
VOICE WORKS EVENTS
Performance schedule will be posted in the spring.
Past Artist Faculty
Christine Balfa
Christine Balfa is a native Louisiana French speaker, a committed and caring teacher, and a deeply- rooted Cajun musician with a passion for culture and education. As the daughter of Cajun cultural ambassador and National Heritage Fellow Dewey Balfa, she grew up in the center of the renaissance of Cajun and Creole culture. After his passing, she formed the musical group Balfa Toujours and created the non-profit Louisiana Folk Roots, of which she was the founding executive director.…
Dina Blade
Dina Blade is a singer with a deeply relaxed sense of time and swing. She spent her early childhood watching old cartoons with jazz soundtracks and has been enthralled with the music ever since. She has graced stages in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Cuba and Brazil, singing at festivals, jazz clubs, schools, parties and other community events.…
Gail Davies
Gail Davies is one of Nashville’s finest singers, songwriters, and record producers. A pioneering performer, she was the first female in country music to produce her own recordings and has been cited as a major influence by such diverse acts as Mary-Chapin Carpenter, Kathy Mattea, Suzy Bogguss, and Pam Tillis. A gifted, multi-faceted musician with country, bluegrass and blues leanings, Gail has delighted in spreading her creative wings since she scored with her revival of Webb Pierce’s No Love Have I in 1978.…
Nikki Dee
Past Faculty
Nikki Dee is an award-winning vocalist and transformational vocal coach based in Honolulu. Her renowned Deeva Method takes the mystery and confusion out of vocal technique, making vocal power, confidence, and healing accessible to singers and speakers around the world.
Queen Esther
One of country and Americana music’s most fascinating artists, Queen Esther’s range stretches far and wide creatively. Bold and outspoken, sweet and generous in spirit, her music shines a light on violence against Black Americans, her passion for country music, and the myths that have haunted the South since long before the Civil War. She’s a vocalist, songwriter, lyricist, musician, solo performer, playwright, librettist, essayist, actor, TED speaker and producer.…
DaShawn and Wendy Hickman
Wendy and DaShawn Hickman are a married couple of sweetheart musicians, rooted in gospel roots and soulful tradition. They share a home in Mt. Airy, North Carolina.
DaShawn is one of today’s foremost players of Sacred Steel, a blues-gospel tradition started in the Pentecostal-Holiness churches of the 1930s. He grew up hearing the pedal steel in the tiny House of God church his family attended in Mt.…
Rich Hill
Rich Hill is from Wyoming. He began learning Gaelic when he was seven years old from a Scottish immigrant who had come to the Rocky Mountains. He met a “new family,” the Gaels of Vancouver, in 1989. He has been heavily immersed in Gaelic since that time, teaching and singing in Scottish Gaelic. He is a founder of Slighe nan Gaidheal and Féis Seattle, and is also well-known in Seattle’s early music scene.
Mara Kaye
Voice
Referred to by Jazz Lives as “one of New York’s great gifts to the world,” blues and jazz vocalist Mara Kaye is “like some lost pocket of the blues that had never been explored in the old days, all wrapped up in a ball of 21st-century Brooklyn-bred attitude.” For over a decade she has traveled internationally and throughout the US, sharing legendary stages with champions of the genre, singing beloved songs of the past with a deep passion and respect for its original storytellers.
Bridge Hill Kennedy
Faculty
Dr. Kennedy (he/him/his), attended his first Sacred Harp singing in June of 2002. This life changing event came about when he was invited to accompany his sister-in-law to a singing for a commissioned painting (“All Day Singing and Dinner on the Grounds” by Bethanne Hill, 2003, commissioned by Max Berueffy).
Caleb Klauder
Faculty
Raised on Orcas Island, WA, then on to college and the 30 years to follow in Oregon, and then back to Washington again, Caleb is a true north-westerner. Yet
his maternal family roots lay in East Tennessee. These deep family roots contribute to his music through old memories, bringing you the strong singing and spirited attitude that gives his music a cutting and sweet edge. Caleb has written many songs, some that are performed by others and some that are becoming standards at jam sessions in the bluegrass scenes across the US, Canada, and in Europe.
Laurie Lewis
For nearly four decades, Laurie Lewis has gathered fans and honors for her powerful and emotive voice and her versatile, dynamic songwriting. And she is an inspiration and a ground-breaker – across genres, across geography and across gender barriers. Laurie has shown us how a woman can blend into any part of the classic bluegrass singing trio, and she showed us how a great voice could move fluidly between bluegrass and other types of music.…
Grace Love
Faculty
Singer songwriter Grace Love is the Olympic Peninsula’s shining jewel of grit, beauty and power – think Etta James and Betty Wright meet Mahalia Jackson. She grew up in Tacoma, just a stone’s throw from Seattle, which infused her R&B melodies with fortitude and grunge.
Max Malone
A life in music is practically unavoidable when you’re born into a family of musicians. Max Malone was weaned on country music in the rural wilds of Ontario, through both the radio and his mother’s work as a background vocalist on the Tommy Hunter show. By the age of twelve he was performing as a singer and bassist with his family band on a weekly gig in Toronto’s Cabbagetown.…
Khari Wendell McClelland
Faculty
Khari Wendell McClelland is a diversely talented and ever-evolving artist. Originally from Detroit, Khari has become a darling on the Canadian music scene with reviewers lauding his performances as a clever mix of soul and gospel. Khari’s songwriting crosses genres and generations, joyfully invoking the spirit of his ancestors who straddled the US-Canadian border in efforts to escape slavery and discrimination.
Tim McNalley
Vocal Support
Tim said he didn’t have much interest in music until he started playing it. Because his dad (bassist Joe McNalley) is a musician, he was always around it, went to concerts all the time and was “tripping over upright basses his whole life.”
Tim started playing the electric bass and guitar at the same time when he was twelve. …
Emily Miller
Emily Miller is the Artistic Director of the Augusta Heritage Center, the string band director of the college’s Appalachian Ensemble, and a professional singer and fiddle player. At Augusta, Emily works with the director to oversee all programming and helps the theme week coordinators to execute a joint artistic vision. She received her BA in Anthropology-Linguistics from Brown University and her MS in Speech-Language Pathology from Vanderbilt University.…
Valerie Mindel
Val Mindel is a longtime musician, teacher and workshop leader, known for helping singers achieve the sound they want and have fun doing it. She teaches a wide range of harmony styles from the buzzy sound of American old-time and early country harmony to the weaving harmonies of songs from across the ocean. In the process she addresses such indefinables as tone, ornamentation and lead singing.…
Karla Mundy
Karla Mundy is a vibrant, soulful and diverse vocalist, pianist, arranger and choir leader. She grew up outside Calgary, Alberta and from a young age, was extremely passionate about piano, singing and dancing. She studied piano from the age of seven onwards, sang at all times and was introduced to many styles of music through her study of jazz, modern, flamenco, African and Latin dance as a teenager.…
Johnny Nicholas
Blues Songs
Time is a river and you can never step in the same river twice. It’s all gonna change, but what came before shapes what comes after. There are certain people who seem to be in both places at once. Johnny Nicholas has played music and rambled with some of the most original and artistically powerful individuals of the American 20th century.
Sarina Partridge
Sarina Partridge is a musician, song-leader, educator and activist based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She feels most alive when learning, creating and sharing songs — especially songs that grow out of time spent in wild places. Sarina sings with a wide variety of music projects: community song-leading of her own original songs; harmony-rich original music with folk trio Heartwood; performing and teaching vocal harmony folk music music she’s studied with master teachers around the world; and performing and teaching of Eastern European and Yiddish song – her own musical lineage.…
Dawn Pemberton
Dawn Pemberton has deep musical roots that take her powerful voice from gospel and soul to jazz, funk and world music. She has become a staple of the Vancouver music scene and can often be found tearin’ it up as a vocalist, teacher, facilitator, choir director and “go to girl” for live performances and studio sessions.…
Karin Plato
Canadian vocalist and composer Karin Plato came to jazz almost by accident. The music she heard in her formative years was the rock and pop music of the day and the classical music she studied from a young age. She didn’t get the “jazz bug” until she was in her early 30’s and that’s when her music career really began when she made the move from central Canada to the West Coast.
Pharis Romero
Artistic Director, Voice Works
Pharis has been singing and playing music her whole life. An early student of classical and country, she grew up performing with her family’s band and learning the songs and stories that made her want to dig deeper. These days she performs mostly with her husband Jason, and is equally at home disappearing into an old-time jam as she is singing on stage or teaching the joy of song and sound.
The Chapin Sisters
The Chapin Sisters carry on a proud family musical legacy: Father Tom Chapin is a Grammy-winning singer/songwriter, legendary late uncle Harry Chapin was an artist and activist best known for his #1 hit “Cat’s in the Cradle”, and grandfather Jim Chapin literally wrote the book on how to play the drumkit. For nearly 20 years these masters of blood harmony have garnered critical acclaim by forging a distinctive musical imprint by blending dynamically complex vocal harmonies and folk-influenced melodies with dark, wryly sarcastic lyrical content.…
Moira Smiley
Faculty
Her clarion voice and joyous, embodied performances have carried Moira and her songs around the planet and inspired millions of harmony singers to sing her songs. She’s immersed herself in early American, Irish and East European vocal traditions and seeks to honor the many powerful, cultural roles of singing beyond stage and microphone
Miss Tess
Miss Tess has always been known for creating an eclectic array of vintage blues, country, and jazz sounds. Currently residing in Nashville, she finds no shortage of inspiration in the roots scene there. However varied Tess’ music can be, front and center sits her voice that has been described as “alternately seductive and sexy, and a pure joy to listen to” (Pop Matters).…
Yoseff Tucker
Yoseff’s early life exposure to traditional bluegrass and American roots music came courtesy of his grandfather who moved to Central California from the Ozarks in the early 20th century. His first guitar came to him while he was still in diapers and an appreciation for music laid a great foundation in his life.
Melody Walker
Melody Walker is a songwriter, producer, performer, and fervent believer that songs can change the world. Best known for her writing with Molly Tuttle, Sierra Ferrell, Della Mae and her own band Front Country, Melody’s post-pandemic recalibration has found her setting real roots down in her home of Nashville, co-writing with her talented neighbors, and hosting her weekly writers’ round, Writers’ Kitchen.…
Eli West
Faculty
It’s always illuminating to ask an artist how they understand music, but Eli West’s perspective is nothing short of ground-breaking. A trained designer, he sees music architecturally, visualizing his compositions spatially. It’s a highly unusual way to think about music, tied to his verdant natural world of the Pacific Northwest.
Reeb Willms
Faculty
Reeb Willms has been singing and playing guitar since 2001 and is widely regarded as one of the best rhythm guitar players in old time music. She hails from the windswept Central Washington farmlands of Douglas County, and was heavily influenced as a child by her musical father and uncles, who performed locally as the Willms Brothers. Her warm, tender vocals and driving rhythms are a living testament to this musical tradition, which she brought to the stage in her early 20s.
