VOICE

MEMORY

Rhapsody Fellow

ORAL TRADITIONS

The Odyssey is not a book. For centuries before it was written down, it was performed — sung and spoken by rhapsodes who knew how to inhabit a story so completely that they called whole cultures into being. The poem was a physical event: breath, rhythm, call and response, the body as instrument.

Children know this. Before they read, they are listeners and tellers — holding a story in their bodies, asking for it again, passing it on. Oral tradition isn't a primitive precursor to literacy. It is the original school, the original technology for everything a culture most needs to remember. If whales click and wolves howl, humans sing tales.

We are looking for a musician and performer who can teach children to inhabit a story the way the ancients did: through voice, breath, and the disciplined freedom of oral art.

The Fellowship

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    Role

    Field Fellows join our community as a participant — enrolling your own children in the program alongside other Field School families — and as a contributing expert, leading our students in the vocal and performance work at the heart of this project. You will be expected to contribute about ten hours each week of active rehearsal, direct instruction, and faculty consultation. In addition, this fellow will likely want to spend time in general exploration of Hvar and the world of rhapsodic performance.

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    Reciprocity

    In return, we offer a full scholarship covering your children's tuition for the term. We aren't able to cover travel or accommodation, so this works best for families who have the flexibility — whether that's a homeschooling lifestyle, a sabbatical year, or simply the appetite for an unconventional fall.

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    Storytelling

    We'd love to be part of your story if this experience moves you, and we ask for one long-form piece (a podcast episode, Substack essay, or video) within 90 days of your residency, provided that it feels like a natural fit.

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    Dates

    The fall session runs September 7 through November 28, 2026.

THE PROJECT

Field School's 2026–27 curriculum centers on the ancient world, which sometimes still feels very near on the island of Hvar. Our showcase moment will be a live rhapsodic performance of the Odyssey — drawn from a selection of books, shaped for young voices, and performed for the community at the close of the fall session.

This is not a school play. Working alongside our Ancient History Fellow, this Fellow will guide students from first encounter with the text through to public performance — teaching the fundamentals of oral delivery, call-and-response structure, and the somatic awareness that theirs is a voice worth listening to.

We are also curious about the musical dimension of ancient performance. Homeric recitation was accompanied; the aulos and the kithara were not decorative. If the Fellow has an appetite to explore what that might have sounded like — even speculatively — we are here for that experiment.

WHO WE’RE LOOKING FOR

The right Fellow is a musician and performer with deep experience in early music, voice, and the body as instrument — and a genuine gift for working with children. Formal training in early music performance, music education, or voice is a strong foundation. Experience leading children's musical productions, choral ensembles, or performance workshops is warmly welcomed.

Because rhapsodic performance is inseparable from breath and physical presence, we are especially interested in candidates whose practice bridges music and somatic work — teachers who have trained in Alexander technique, Feldenkrais, yoga, or related disciplines, and who understand performance as an embodied rather than purely technical act.

This is unusual territory, and we don't expect any one person to have mastered all of it. What we're looking for is someone who finds this combination genuinely exciting, and who has the skill and the warmth to bring a mixed-age group of children along with them.

NOMINATE

If someone comes to mind when you read this, please share this page or send us their name and a line about why you think they'd be a good fit. If this sounds like your kind of project, we'd love to hear from you directly.

There's no formal application — just reach out to Field School Director Carolyn or book a call.

Interested in a full-time role? We are also hiring faculty.