Nonsuch 16th Annual Residential Weekend - Launde

[Dick Glasgow]

The new edition of 'Nonsuch News' just dropped through my letter box this morning & on the front page, this annual event is advertised.

The 16th Annual Residential Weekend at Launde Abbey, Leicestershire

26th to 28th October 2007

A memorable weekend of Music & Workshops.

N.B. The Booking form & Questionnaire are in this new issue.

So if you live in the UK or Ireland & you fancy attending this weekend, but are not yet a member of Nonsuch, now might be a good time to take the plunge & join up. Then of course, issue no 2/07 will soon drop on your mat & you can get your form filled in & sent off!

For more details, you should check the Nonsuch Website, where you'll find about fourteen detailed reviews, including some interesting photos, of previous Launde Abbey weekends:

The Nonsuch Dulcimer Club

Perhaps someone who has already attended one of these weekends, in the past, might like to weigh in here with some info on what goes on & what a newcomer might expect to experience during the weekend?

I note that the Nonsuch website has these quotes from some satisfied customers:

“A very special weekend and most welcoming, it's like a great big family of old friends.”
“Enjoyed my first visit to Launde. Everyone was so friendly and helpful.”
“Saturday night concert – Brilliant!”
“Will always return to this event.”
“I have had a wonderful time”

Cheers
Dick

[Dick Glasgow]

The new edition of Nonsuch News just arrived yesterday & I see that there are still some places available at this year's Launde event. So, by way of tempting you to consider going along I thought I'd post some info on this year's guest Tutors, now that I know who they are to be.

So here's some background info on:

Mitzie Collins:

Mitzie Collins, Lecturer

Departmental Responsibilities:
World Music

A native of Dallas, Texas, Mitzie Collins is known as a recording artist, a performer of Celtic and traditional American folk music, a historian of the American hammered dulcimer, and an Arts- in-Education specialist in the public schools. With her husband, she founded Sampler Records Ltd., a recording company specializing in the production of traditional music.

She received her bachelors degree with a major in piano from the Eastman School of Music in 1963; she received her Master of Arts in Music Education and the Diploma in Ethnomusicology from Eastman in 2005. She was a member of the Eastman gamelan, Lila Muni; her master's degree project was the collecting and analysis of clapping games and count-outs from Rochester children. She has completed Orff levels I and II at Eastman.

Her current research is focused on the development of the hammered dulcimer in Western New York State. Mitzie owns a collection of historical dulcimers and has recently given talks on dulcimers for the Ontario County Historical Society and the Livingston County Historical Society. Other fields of interest are the music of the Shakers and shape note singing. She has produced two recordings of Shaker music, and was a speaker at two seminars on Shaker music at Pleasant Hill Shaker Village in Kentucky; she sings regularly with local and regional shape note groups and has traveled to two traditional singing meetings in Georgia.

Mitzie has traveled widely in Aisa and Europe. In 1998 she gave programs as a Musical Ambassador in Rochester's Russian Sister City of Veliky Novgorod: in 2005 she gave a paper at the 8th Yangqin [Chinese hammered dulcimer] Congress in Beijing. She has presented workshops and performances for national and regional musical and educational conferences, including the 2000 Orff Schulwerke Convention in Rochester. For ten years Mitzie hosted Sounds Like Fun, a children's radio show on WXXI-FM in Rochester. She has twice been named Rochester's Best Folk Musician by readers of City Newspaper. She was a founder of the Golden Link Folksinging Society of Rochester. She currently teaches hammered dulcimer in group classes through the Eastman Community Music School. For the past twelve years she has taught world music to high school students in the summer Music Horizon's Program and has produced the summer concert of world Music in Kilbourn Hall. For twenty years she has produced the most popular concert of Irish music in the Rochester area.

Mitzie Collins

Mitzie's Sampler Records Ltd - H-D Recordings

Here's some info on:

Dan Evans

Dan Evans

I teach dulcimer, guitar, voice and performance skills in classes, workshops and seminars.

Dulcimer Classes ~ generally intermediate level
• Song Accompaniment in Ionian
• Airs in Ionian
• The Modal Dulcimer
in the UK the Nonsuch Dulcimer Club sometimes host my dulcimer classes

Guitar Classes ~ intermediate level
• An Introduction to Open C Tuning
• Modal Music in Open C Tuning

Workshops ~ all levels and styles
• Everyone Can Sing ~ often held at the Farncombe Estate Adult Learning Centre in the Cotswolds
• Performance Skills Workshop

Seminars ~ all levels and styles
• Arranging Traditional Material ~ with dulcimer and/or guitar
• The Psychology of Performing ~ talk
• Chanting and Rhythm ~ participatory group session
• The Electro-Acoustic Guitar ~ demonstration

I adopt a holistic approach to my teaching ~ playing music is more than just the dots on the page and where to put your fingers ~ I engage the head and heart and focus the mind and body

In classes, I help students to develop a deeper awareness of music and so enrich their enjoyment of playing and listening

Class students are given elegant computer-generated TABlature with manuscript notation

In workshops I specialise in developing confidence through reinforcement of existing strengths and I coach through creative blocks using NLP ~ the results are often dramatic, painless and moving

I use humour in all my training ~ fun is especially important in my workshops

I love teaching and it shows in my enthusiasm and results.

Dan Evans

Cheers
Dick