Voice | Ginny Hawker & Emily Miller | All Levels | Period 2 | Week 1 (July 6-11, 2025)
Duets such as Loretta Lynn and Conway Twitty, Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton, The Davis Sisters, Ira and Charlie Louvin, The Everly Brothers have defined Classic Country harmony singing for decades. In this class Ginny and Emily will not so much be teaching you to sing harmony, since we have a class for that if you are new to harmony singing. Instead we will be concentrating on listening to your partner, striving always for that blend that makes the little bones in your ears vibrate and draws attention to the feeling of the words and melody of the song. We will sing with you and you will sing with other students, looking for that sound that together creates a 3rd voice. Lyric sheets will be provided; singing will be done by ear. Emily will accompany the class on guitar. Bring a recording device that will not distract you from the present and a pencil to make notes in your lyric booklet.
About the Instructors
Ginny Hawker was born to do Country music growing up in southern Virginia in a large musical family. Starting with the soul-stirring unaccompanied singing of her father’s church that came to this country from Scotland, lyrics are important and you hear that when Ginny sings. Ginny learned harmony through Bluegrass and southern Gospel, where the blend of voices singing together pulled her ear and made her a gifted teacher at music camps in US, Canada, and the British Isles for over 25 years. Any class Ginny teaches will be informative and challenging without being overwhelming. Emmylou Harris is quoted in “O” magazine describing Ginny as “real as dirt” when reviewing her first solo recording, Letters From My Father.
Emily Miller is a singer and fiddler based in Elkins, WV, where she also serves as the Chief Creative Officer of the Augusta Heritage Center. At Augusta, Emily oversees all educational and artistic programming, working with culture bearers in many traditional art forms. She received her B.A. in Anthropology-Linguistics from Brown University and her M.S. in Speech-Language Pathology from Vanderbilt University. In her career as a musician, she has toured with bands such as the Sweetback Sisters, The Starry Mountain Singers, and as a duo with Jesse Milnes, performing multiple times on national radio programs Mountain Stage and A Prairie Home Companion and touring across the US, Europe and Australia. She has released several albums of traditional and country music including In the Valley (2006), Chicken Ain’t Chicken (2009), Looking for a Fight (2012), Jesse Milnes & Emily Miller: Deep End Sessions (2015) and King of Killing Time (2017).