for Elementary, Middle, High Schools and Universities
- Language is Music is Language
- Vocal Improvisation
- Choral Tune Up
- A Musical Trip Around the World
- Cantamos Con Ritmo
Language is Music is Language
For French, Spanish, and German classes.
It’s easier to learn a foreign language by singing!
Download the Language is Music is Language Study Guide. Click here!
Drawing on her vast repertoire of songs from Europe, Canada, South America, Africa, and the United States, Elise involves the students in a discovery of the musicality of Language. Each culture brings its own rich linguistic characteristics to its music and has unique rhythms and melodies to share with the rest of the world.
As Elise teaches songs she puts them into their cultural context with stories that illuminate each song’s origins. Elise is also a stickler for pronunciation, and makes the speaking so much fun, that in no time students find themselves sounding like native speakers!
She taught the students culture, pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary without the students even realizing it! – Spanish Teacher, Barnesville HS; Barnesville GA
She would receive straight A’s from me!! – French Student, Cony HS; Augusta ME
Grade Levels: College, University, Middle School & High School Foreign Language Students
Languages: Spanish, French, German, mixed languages
Maximum number of students: 30-50
Available as Workshop or Residency (1-2 weeks)
Length of Workshop: 1-2 class periods
Study Guide provided.
Vocal Improvisation
For University, HS & MS Vocal Ensembles
Dive in!
This workshop is guaranteed to expand your confidence and your consciousness! Play with melody, rhythm, language, harmony, vocal production, and soul connection. Get the gritty, technical, sensual sense of how the voice can draw powerfully on vocal wisdom from many cultures. Explore the rainbow of colors inherent in our voices and join with other daring singers to create vocal landscapes, soulful harmonies, and impromptu sonic masterpieces.
Elise uses games and exercises from her studies with master teachers Bobbie McFerrin, Rhiannon, David Darling, Dr. Fred Onovwerosuoke , and Dr. Ysaye Barnwell, which then expand with our own creativity. Vocal Improvisation provides a safe and supportive space to stretch out and widen vocal horizons, and to express our authentic selves. Music reading is not a prerequisite, but some knowledge of music theory can’t hurt.
Elise teaches great ways to access your deepest, most authentic, most beautiful voice. – Leila, Atlanta GA
You help create positive, transformative experiences for people of all ages. – Loraine Martin, Outreach Director, Lake Eden Arts Festival, Black Mountain NC
Grade Level: College, University, Middle & High School Vocal Groups – Chorus, Choir, Glee Club, A Capella Ensembles, etc.
Maximum number of students: 60
Workshop or Residency
Length of Workshop: 1-2 class periods
Study Guide provided.
Choral Tune Up
For University, HS & MS Vocal Ensembles
Develop group dynamics and build ensemble.
Download the Choral Tune Up Study Guide. Click here!
Drawing on her vast experience as a professional soloist, and a 20-year member of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chorus and Chamber Chorus under the direction of choral master Robert Shaw, Elise breathes new life and excitement into the process of ensemble singing.
CHORAL TUNE UP is a workshop for College, University, Middle & High School Vocal Groups. It reinforces choral teacher’s warm-up techniques, proper breathing, diaphragm work, diction, and dynamics.
Inspired by her studies of vocal improvisation with Bobby McFerrin, Rhiannon, and David Darling, of African Music with Dr. Fred Onovwerosuoke and African American music with Dr. Ysaye Barnwell, Elise teaches songs that are polyrhythmic and polytonal, songs that are easy to learn, but sound fabulous when sung in ensemble. The workshop is ideal for developing group dynamics and building Ensemble.
She has a way of making students feel good about what they’re doing. – Choral Teacher, Atlanta GA
She gives students an outlet not only to express what’s in their minds, but what’s in their hearts. – The Daily Reflector, Greenville NC
Grade Level: College, University, Middle & High School
Vocal Groups – Chorus, Choir, Glee Club, A Capella Ensembles, etc.
Maximum number of students: 60
Workshop or Residency
Length of Workshop: 1-2 class periods
Study Guide provided.
A Musical Trip Around the World
For Elementary Schools
Sing and Sign in many languages!
Download the Musical Trip Around the World Study Guide. Click here!
Through multi-lingual singing, students will gain a perception of the rich differences that exist between cultures, while also sensing the universal nature of music that binds the world together as one family. Students may learn a bi-lingual Puerto Rican song celebrating the human family, a Kiswahili counting song, an animal song in French, a clock song in Danish, a mystery song in Japanese, or a New Orleans vegetarian jazz song. Many songs will also be accompanied with Sign Language.
Grade Levels: K-2 / 3-5
Maximum number of students for Concert: 250/performance
Concert or Residency
Length of Concert: 40-55 min.
Technical Requirements: PA with 2 microphones on stands (prefer boom or gooseneck)
Study Guide provided.
Cantamos Con Ritmo
A bi-lingual artsploration / celebration of Latin Rhythms & the Spanish Language with Beverly Botsford & Elise Witt
Exploring the Spanish Language and the Contagious Rhythms of Latin America, Spain, and the Caribbean!
Join international vocalist Elise Witt & cross-cultural percussionist Beverly Botsford in an inspired collaboration that honors traditions in a contemporary spirit, Elise & Beverly are the guides on a journey using the two oldest forms of musical expression.
Students join in polyrhythms and vocal harmonies on everything from Cuban son and Chilean nueva canción to Spanish flamenco and a Nicaraguan food song! We will even create a “polyrhythmic sound painting” using Thank You’s from around the world. Music is a language used by people all over the world, a bridge that brings us together as one human family. When we learn songs from other countries, we learn to appreciate what makes each culture different, special, and unique.
Grade Levels: Elementary, Middle, & High School
Maximum number of students: 250 (performance) ~ 30 (workshop)
Performance, Workshop or Residency
BEVERLY BOTSFORD has performed in Africa, Asia, Europe, Cuba, and all over the Americas. For 13 years Beverly travelled with the Chuck Davis 
African American Dance Ensemble, is on the music faculty of the American Dance Festival, has studied Afro-Cuban culture and percussion in her travels to Cuba, and currently tours internationally with jazz singer Nnenna Freelon.
Together, Beverly and Elise have sung and played in schools around the Southeast, working with Kindergarten through High School age students including students studying Spanish, French, Chorus, Band, Theater, Dance,and core academics. Their collaborations have also included Teacher Workshops and polyrhythmic/multi-tonal Workshops for Adults. “Singing Hands,” their residency at Creekside High School in Atlanta, was featured in Pass It On, the national journal of the Children’s Music Network. In addition to being animated and entertaining performers, Beverly and Elise are known and loved as Educators who pass on their passion for singing, percussion, and world.
We think the key to better understanding and appreciating music and foreign language is to get children involved in fun, high energy, interactive music and language experimentation, and that is exactly what ‘Cantamos con Ritmo’ did for our students! – Joyner Elementary School, Raleigh NC
This terrific team of two captivated both elementary and middle school students. Phenomenal! – Corinth Holders School, Zebulon NC
Elise has been a Visiting Artist and Artist-in-Residence in schools all over the country.
Elise works with students in elementary schools, middle, and high schools, as well as colleges and universities. Writing songs about everything from Prefixes & Suffixes, Secrets of Fractions, the Planets, and Contemporary Leaders, Elise and her students have made the learning of difficult subjects fun with their original songs. Her education workshops and concerts use music as a language to celebrate our cultural diversity while appreciating our connections as one human family. Elise currently serves as Director of the Music Program at the Global Village Project in Decatur GA.
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Elise is also a highly respected and sought after teacher of teachers, leading professional development workshops in a myriad of settings.
“I was totally impressed and awed with her fantastic voice and ability to inspire the students and teachers alike.” – High School language arts teacher, Thomaston GA
Study Guide provided for all programs.
