Fractured History: Martha Redbone Songwriting Workshop

Women in a white dress and white hat with hand on hip

Martha Redbone

February 27, 2025

Fractured History: Martha Redbone Songwriting Workshop

Featuring Martha Redbone & Musician Aaron Whitby

Thursday, Feb 27, 2025
4pm – 6pm
Morrison Hall, Rm 250

Workshop open to UC Berkeley Undergraduate, Graduate, and Post-Doc Students

A collaboration between Cal Performances' Illuminations, the Department of Music, and the Arts Research Center with support by the Dean's Office of the Division of Arts & Humanities

Waitlist Registration Form - apply today

First round application deadline closed Feb 1.

We have created a waitlist; if someone drops out, or more room is added, we will contact students on the waitlist. If you would like to be considered for the workshop, please fill out the linked form. 
Waitlist registration is open till Feb 24, 2025

Roots music singer and songwriter Martha Redbone will be in residence during her Cal Performances' Illuminations concert visit to campus, and is offering a songwriting workshop to students based on the idea of a songwriting haiku: not a single word wasted, every word has meaning.

The workshop is open to UC Berkeley students at all stages of songwriting ability including singer songwriters, musicians who usually focus more on the melody, creative writers who are not musicians, and singers who can write lyrics but don't play an instrument. Redbone will be joined by her collaborator and bandmate Aaron Whitby for the workshop.

Students interested in attending will need to fill out an application, open Dec 1, 2024 through Feb 1, 2025. The applications will be reviewed by a panel and attendees announced Feb 5, 2025. Waitlist now open!


MARTHA REDBONE lends her soul-stirring voice to a new collaboration with the genre-defying American Patchwork Quartet, for a performance exploring the United States’ rich cultural tapestry. Redbone draws on her southeastern Cherokee/Choctaw and African American heritage to craft uplifting songs that celebrate the human spirit, infused with the folk and blues sounds of her childhood in the Appalachian Mountains of Kentucky. She has said, “I feel that the one thing that still resonates physically and emotionally with people is music… [It] is the one field where we still have a fighting chance to be able to share some important, powerful, profound messages.”

Where does music come from? When, why, and how did people first start making music? How do music creators turn raw inspiration into finished pieces? How do improvisers create music on the spot? How can we convey emotion with just a few lyrics? Can anyone create music, or is that something only for composers? Who made these rules and aren’t rules made to be broken or challenged? The class will include songwriting exercises and exploring poetry with melody. We will draw from our own personal experiences and creative journeys, as living in an era of ever-increasing globalization, it is imperative that we develop thoughtful awareness of diverse cultural practices, while at the same time understanding our own cultural backgrounds, and the contexts (social, cultural and historical) in which we live and communicate through song. 

- Martha Redbone

Reserve tickets for This Land is Our Land: Martha Redbone Roots Project and American Patchwork Quartet

Friday, Feb 28, at Cal Performances!
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group of 5 people

Martha Redbone Roots Project and American Patchwork Quartet

Topics

Creative Writing topic page, Music topic page