Fall Newsletter - Nov. 2007 - News of the Family...
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Any of you with notable news you’d like to share with the Gathering community should send a copy to the Gathering office, and we’d be happy to publish it here.... Congratulations to our Office Manager Liz Brace who became a parent with the arrival last March of baby Elliott.... Congratulations to Dulcimer Week Coordinator Lois Hornbostel who is now editor of Mel Bay Publications’ internet webzine, www.DulcimerSessions.com, featuring features articles and music for hammered and mountain dulcimer players.... After 16 years running sound for our concerts, Doc & Jean Russell have decided to hang up their cables. They’ll be sorely missed and we wish them well.... Congratulations to Fiddle Week staffer Aidan O’Rourke, who was selected as Instrumentalist of the Year at this year’s Scots Trad Music Awards.... Former Youth Scholar Ruth Howe once again won the Scottish Fiddle Open competition at the Grandfather Mountain Highland Games. Yay Ruth!.... Congratulations also to former Youth Scholar Rebekah Weiler, who this year became the first female in 36-year history of the Smithville Fiddlers’ Jamboree to win the Old Time Banjo championship.... Some of you may know that our dear friend and long-time staffer Jerry Holland was diagnosed with cancer last year. There have been numerous fundraising events in his honor, and you can still make donations through the website, www.jerryhollandfund.org. During Celtic Week, Scottish staff fiddler Pete Clark donated a bottle of The Macallan 10 year single malt Scotch to be raffled off as a benefit. We printed 100 tickets at $5 each, and sold them all in two days. The raffle winner, Bill Hubbard, returned the bottle and said “Raffle it off again next week.” The next week’s winner said the same thing, as did the following week’s winner. All told, we raised $3,137 for Jerry, and Bill & Marilyn Hubbard were able to personally deliver a bottle of single malt to Jerry in Cape Breton, to boot! Our thanks to all who contributed.... Just before the Gathering, our veteran bodhran instructor Mark Stone developed complications due to pneumonia and had to be placed into an induced coma. He recovered, thankfully, and felt well enough to place a call just before Weds. night’s Celtic concert when he was able to thank everyone for their support via the Director’s speakerphone through the sound system. He was rewarded with a deafening roar from the assembled packed house.... Irish fiddler Sean Regan was scheduled to make his first appearance on the Celtic Week staff this summer, but had to be hospitalized with an undiagnosed illness just before he was to leave Ireland. We wish him a speedy recovery.... We mourn the passing of ballad singer and banjo player Mary Jane Queen, who last year was awarded the National Endowment for the Arts’ National Heritage Fellowship Award. A remembrance of Mary Jane was held during last summer’s Old-Time Week.... This summer, our Youth Scholarship Fund sponsored a record 25 students: Maggie Jo Saylor (Sing & Swing); Gentian Waller (Dulcimer); Devin Wickel (our Celtic Week Tony Cuffe Scholar), Sarah & Corey Dlugokecki, Erik Maxwell, Sophie Poppele, Morgan Mitchell, Amanda Morgan, Angus Mossman, Suzanne Harner, and Grace Haaland (Celtic); John Palmer, Ethan Haithcox and Kristina Bowers (Guitar); Sean Bowery (Contemporary Folk) and Maura Shaun Scanlin, Ledah & Willa Finck, Charlotte Lewis, Loni Taylor, Emma Bowers and Gailanne Amundsen (Fiddle). In addition, the Charlotte Folk Society sponsored this year’s Marilyn Meacham Price Youth Scholar, Carson Hedberg (Dulcimer), and the Robert Woodfin Foundation sponsored our Ralph Blizard Scholar, Emily Horne (Old-Time).... Key deposit donations to our Youth Scholarship fund this year totaled $5,398. Our profound thanks to all of you who gave financially to help cultivate a love for traditional music and dance in the next generation.... Teachers please note that the Swannanoa Gathering offers teacher renewal certification hours for any of our weeks. Contact your local school board for prior approval.... Don’t forget to support your local Public Radio and Television stations. Where would we hear our music without them? For other folk news, don’t forget the magazines Sing Out!, Dirty Linen, The Old-Time Herald, Performing Songwriter, Acoustic Guitar, Dulcimer Players News, Fingerstyle Guitar, Acoustic Musician and Fiddler.