Fall Newsletter

Cover: Each July and August, the NC mountains are home to the Swannanoa Gathering, held on the campus of Warren Wilson College, near Asheville. With the sweet sounds of fiddles, guitars, banjos and songs filling the air, the only thing missing is you! 30th Dear Friends, Fall 2020 Welcome to this year’s edition We were hoping to be able to post two per day, of our newsletter, the Post- which would have been 70 videos. Out of 120 total card from Swannanoa. instructors, we were gratified to receive videos from 98 2020 has been a year like no of them, which you can still other, and as you read this, watch on the “Staff Videos” we are still trying to navigate a page at our website. As they world of uncertainty. came in, I noticed that many of my staff were growing beards As most of you probably know, while isolating, so I decided to like every other summer music let mine grow, too. It was my program, we had to cancel ‘pandemic hobby’. our in-person workshops last March. Then, since community works both ways, we gave those who signed up for the 2020 workshops the The college made a painful choice, but there is no opportunity to make video greetings of appreciation doubt it was the right one. Spring was bleak, as we for all the staff members they would be missing. You all hunkered down at home and watched the news, can watch those also, on the “Community Videos” which seemed to go from bad to worse. We all got page at our website. used to wearing masks when we had to go to the store, standing well apart from other people, and This year’s newsletter is necessarily shorter than keeping small bottles of hand sanitizer in our cars, in the past, since we don’t have the summer’s our offices, our purses and pockets. We washed workshops to report on, but our hands a lot and learned to have friends over by we still have some news to setting up lawn chairs spread out across the front report, and the publication yard, and speaking a little louder than usual so we of our newsletter is what could be heard through our masks. always signals the begin- ning of the pre-registration As summer approached, with its period for next summer. sad reminder of the shared community we would all be missing, Check out the “Coming we asked our staff instructors Next Summer” section to make video greetings for all below for a sneak preview of their absent students, which of what we have planned we would post on a special page for 2021. at our website each day during the instructors’ programs. Family News... Any of you with news of inter- local school board for prior approval... Don’t forget est to the Gathering community to support your local Public Radio and Television Multiple Grammy-winner and friend of the college newsletter are strongly should send a copy to the Gath- stations. For other folk news, don’t forget the online Janis Ian will be once again be offering her Master encouraged. While it doesn’t ering office, so we can publish it resources AcousticGuitarForum.com, UMGF.com Class in Artistry during all five weeks of the Gathering guarantee that you’ll get all here... We note with sadness the (The Unofficial Martin Guitar Forum), Mandolin- and will be a regular member of the Contemporary the classes you want, pre- passing of long-time Guitar/Con- Cafe.com, BanjoHangout.com, Mandozine.com Folk Week staff. This will be a rare opportunity to registration definitely gives temporary Folk Week attendee and magazines Sing Out!, The Old-Time Herald, gain insight into what it means to be an artist from you the best chance at doing Steve Gray, a fixture at that Acoustic Guitar, Dulcimer Players News, Finger- someone who has been at it for more than 50 years. so. Folks may register with a week’s late night jam sessions... style Guitar, and Fiddler. tuition deposit of $100 and We also note the passing of vet- We will again offer a full Children’s Program during may reserve housing without eran attendee Vonnie Thoma- our Traditional Song, Celtic and Old-Time Weeks. a deposit. The deadline for son and the generous gift given in her memory… For those families bringing small children, we will pre-registration is Feb. 5. Huge congratulations go to Contemporary Folk Coming Next Summer... continue to provide evening childcare during those NOTE: If you were registered for the 2020 Week staffer Anais Mitchell, who followed up last weeks at no additional cost. workshops and chose to have us credit your Mando & Banjo Week, June 27-July 3 year’s eight Tony Awards for her Broadway play, funds toward 2021, you are automatically pre- Fiddle Week, June 27-July 3 Hadestown with a Grammy for the cast recording of The Swannanoa Gathering is structured around registered for next summer. If your contact Traditional Song Week, July 4-10 it... Congratulations to veteran Contemporary Folk what we call an ‘open format’, which allows students info has changed since last spring, please send Celtic Week, July 11-17 Week staffer Amy Speace whose song “Me and The to create their own curriculum and take as many us your updated info. Pre-registrants will be sent a Old-Time Music & Dance Week, July 18-24 Ghost of Charlemagne” won International Song classes as there are periods in the day. We require class schedule as soon as it is ready and given prior- Contemporary Folk Week, July 25-31 of the Year at the American Music Association that students register for specific classes, but allow ity in class assignments. Full payment is required by Guitar Week, July 25-31 Awards... Congrats also to staffer Alan Bibey, who them to switch after the first day into another, open May 31 to guarantee a space. After that date, class won Mandolin Player of the Year at the IBMA class if they find they have made an inappropriate reservations will be unconfirmed until we receive the It’s difficult in such uncer- Awards for the second year in a row... Big thanks to choice. After this ‘settling-in’ period, we expect balance. If we are holding a space for a student in a tain times to do any sort of The Shepherd Posse, who made commemorative that students will remain in those classes, and we class that is full, and their balance is unpaid after May planning, short- or long- SG pandemic t-shirts and donated over $800 in pro- discourage dropping in and out of classes during 31, we may release that space to another student. term, and of course we’re ceeds to the Gathering… Congratulations to veteran the week. This structure allows students consider- aware that the course of Celtic & Fiddle Week staffer Andrew Finn Magill able flexibility, and is an essential element of our At present, we are completing our staff selections for the pandemic may change and wife Cris , on the birth of their first child,Sofia program’s character and appeal. Many of our classes next year, but many of our instructors have already our plans. Having said that, Santos Magill, in October. Jim & Beth Magill are may include musical notation or tablature, though in confirmed. The online version of this newsletter will if we hope to have in- now proud grandparents... Congratulations to Celtic general, we emphasize learning by ear. be continually updated with the most current staff person workshops next Week mainstay, fiddler Liz Carroll on her induc- roster. One special feature of the 2021 workshops summer for our 30th tion into the Irish American Hall of Fame... After Classes generally have a maximum of 15 students. is Janis Ian’s Master Class in Artistry, which will Anniversary, we have we had to cancel the workshops, many registrants Some may have more or less than this figure due be offered in all five of our weeks next summer. to begin the planning chose to donate some or all to the nature of the subject or the discretion of the Here’s a peek at the 2021 lineup... process now. If that proves to be impossible, we of their payments to the col- instructor, and limits for each class will be indicated in plan to have a Swannanoa Gathering of some lege. The donations totaled our catalog. Many of our workshops fill up early and Fiddle Week, June 27-July 3, explores such kind in its place next summer, and we hope to $16,315. Our humble and we expect that trend to continue as more of our pro- fiddle styles as bluegrass, old- know one way or the other by the spring. What profound thanks to all of grams approach time, progressive, swing, blues/ follows are our plans for the most hopeful scenario, you who gave financially their limits, improv, Irish, Scottish and more when we can be together in community again, but to help perpetuate a pro- and although and will continue its integration even if in-person workshops are possible, we may gram you love... Teachers our schedule with several features of Mando & have to adjust our class offerings, staff, program please note that the Swan- of classes is Banjo Week. Coordinator Julia events, etc. in response to the pandemic. Planning nanoa Gathering offers not currently Weatherford’s staff currently this year is like trying to paint a portrait blindfolded. teacher renewal certi- complete, pre- includes our Master Music Maker Whatever form it takes, next summer will be a fication hours for any of registrations and improv wildman Joe Craven, Swannanoa Gathering unlike any other.

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