You never know where a cold call might lead. In the case of voice teacher and folk artist Pharis Romero, it led to a years-long association with Centrum’s Voice Works program, eventually becoming its artistic director.

A cold call usually refers to an unsolicited phone call to sell goods or services, but when Romero rang up Centrum Program Manager Peter McCracken in 2006 after attending the annual Fiddle Tunes festival, she was marketing herself.

Romero, who has performed and studied music since she was four, told McCracken she would love to teach voice classes at Fiddle Tunes. She said her new boyfriend, an excellent banjo player and a singer himself, would also like to be involved.

That spontaneous act proved beneficial for both Romero and Centrum. Romero’s voice classes were so popular that McCracken asked her if she would like to teach for the newly created Voice Works program, a weeklong summer session where participants work beside world-class artists to learn a variety of singing-related skills, including harmonizing, blending voices, and developing stage presence.

In the years after Romero and McCracken teamed up professionally on Voice Works, she and her boyfriend married and became a four-time Juno Award-winning Canadian folk music duo. They settled down in Romero’s hometown of Horsefly, British Columbia. In addition to making albums, they also make banjos.

Romero became artistic director for Voice Works in 2018, 10 years after first joining the program as an instructor. Except for the pandemic years, she and Jason have brought their children – Indigo, nine, and Si, seven – to Fort Worden for the week Romero heads up Voice Works. The family brings their bicycles to enjoy the fresh air and scenery at the state park.

“The campus is so beautiful because it has all of these old, gorgeous buildings,” Romero said.

“They’re very large, spacious, beautiful, and you’re on the edge of the water.”

Classes are scheduled throughout the day. For Voice Works 2023, which was held in June, classes included “A Singer’s Guide to Storytelling,” “Duet Singing,” “Old Time Ballads,” “Bluegrass Lead Singing” and “Vocal Technique: The Deeva Method,” among others.

Evenings provide time for open mic events, song jams and staff concerts.

Voice Works participants come from all over the country. Shuttle service from the airport is provided for an added cost of $120 roundtrip, or $60 one-way.

There are also Port Townsend residents who participate, Romero said. They tend to go home at the end of the day while the others enjoy a dormitory-style arrangement that lends itself well to forming friendships.

“Most of the people who are there and all of the staff who are there all stay together,” Romero said. “We're all going to bed saying goodnight to each other and then waking up in the morning, stretching, warming up our voices, having coffee, and checking in with each other first thing in the morning. It’s a really neat experience to do that with a group of people for a week, to be able to actually get to know each other throughout the course of the day.”

The next Voice Works will take place June 25 through June 30, 2024. Registration will open in November.

Adult tuition to attend Voice Works is $560 for meals and a private room. A limited number of rooms with two twin beds are available. Participants can bring up to two family members at an additional cost of $260 each.

Young people under 21 pay $260 to attend. Scholarships are available.

“One of the coolest things for me is that Centrum is such a supporter of the arts, that one of their most active fundraising efforts is for their scholarship programs,” Romero said.

“They're working to remove as many limitations as they can for people to be able to come and participate in these arts-based programs, whether it's their writing programs or their music programs. That, to me, is an incredibly special thing.”

For more information, visit centrum.org.