Fall Newsletter - Nov. 2009 - 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.... It is with sadness we note the passing of two great friends and former staff members of the Gathering, Jerry Holland, the great Cape Breton fiddler, and our own Master Music Maker, Mike Seeger, a musician, scholar and champion of traditional music. In May, Mike was awarded the Bess Lomax Hawes Award for “significant contribution to the preservation and awareness of cultural heritage” by the National Endowment for the Arts. Jerry and Mike were both giants of folk music and we feel privileged to have known them.... Some of you may be familiar with the North American Folk Alliance (www.folk.org) the parent organization of our own Southeast Regional Folk Alliance (SERFA), whose mission is to promote traditional, contemporary, and multicultural folk music and dance in North America. This summer, someone in each of our weeks will win a free registration to next year’s SERFA conference at the Ozark Folk Center in Mountain View, AR, Oct. 13-17. SERFA’s mission statement places great emphasis on support for the diverse forms of traditional music and dance in the southeast. Visit the SERFA website (www.serfa.org) for more details.... Last year we were thrilled and honored to learn that The Gathering took the Silver medal in the biennial Player’s Choice Awards for the music camps category as voted on by the readers of Acoustic Guitar magazine. Thanks to all who voted for us.... Congratulations to Celtic Week staffer Laura Risk, who gave birth to her second child Elsa in early July.... Poppin’ Guitars, a guitar compilation of the music of the Sherman Brothers, who wrote many Disney movie soundtracks has been nominated for a Grammy for “Pop Instrumental Album of the Year.” Several of the contributors are Gathering staffers, including Al Petteway, Pat Donohue, Doug Smith and Mike Dowling. Good luck to them all!... Former Celtic Week staffer Andrew Magill has been awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to develop a multimedia fundraising CD/DVD project highlighting the plight of AIDS victims and their families in Malawi, east Africa. All profits will go to AIDS social service networks in Malawi.... This summer, our Youth Scholarship Fund sponsored 17 students: Todd Elliott, Cameron Faryadi, Jeremy Goodman and Sam Richardson (Fiddle); Laura Bradburn, Sean Deighan, Genevieve Gillespie, Leila Hobbs, Camille McCarthy, Mickey Nelligan and Haley Richardson, (Celtic); Jaden Gladstone, Eli Kleinsmith, Lilli McFerrin and Anna Roberts-Gevalt, (Old-Time); Eli Laughrun (Guitar); and Nathaniel Samsel (Dulcimer). In addition, the Charlotte Folk Society sponsored this year’s Marilyn Meacham Price Youth Scholar, Tyler Mitchell (Guitar) and their first-ever adult scholar Jennifer Stanton (Old-Time).... Key deposit donations to our Youth Scholarship fund this year totaled $9,500. 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, Acoustic Guitar, Dulcimer Players News, Fingerstyle Guitar, Acoustic Musician and Fiddler.