Second Saturday Clinics Return!
April 22, 2022
Hello Everyone - Happy Friday!
Y'all know that I'm huge fan of music education. That's what I studied in college, and teaching music was my primary job in the years before I bought Folkcraft in 2007. So it only made sense that I jumped into dulcimer festivals in a big way when I had the opportunity. One of the first festivals I was involved with was the 2010 Key West Dulcimer Fest and that's where I met a lot of people who became important to me: Tull Glazener, Lois Hornbostel, Aaron O'Rourke, and Aly Walker Glover. You might not recognize that last name - she's not a famous dulcimer player (yet) and she goes by a different name these days - Aly Ash.
But I'm digressing. Back to festivals...
Richard Ash teaching at Folkcraft's Second Saturday Clinic in 2013.
It was on the long drive back from Key West to Woodburn, Indiana, that I decided to put on a festival here at the Folkcraft shop. I hired Bing Futch, Lois Hornbostel, Stephen Seifert, and a few others, and we put on the very first Indiana Dulcimer Festival that summer.
We've held the festival most every year since then, until "the virus" hit. We canceled 2020, as required by law. We were allowed to hold a festival in 2021, but chose to wait another year. And I've been on the fence about 2022 since canceling 2021. Many of us are ready to get out and do things, but a lot of folks are still cautious. And some people are a bit reluctant, with the state of the world being what it is.
So late last week, I decided that we weren't having an 2022 Indiana Dulcimer Festival. Instead, I've asked the artists involved with the festival to switch to a different format, our Second Saturday Clinic Series. They all said "yes" - which is awesome!
Our Second Saturday Clinics are four-hour events, held at the Folkcraft concert hall. We start with a two-hour jam at 10 AM, follow it up at noon with a clinic (one instructor, 15-25 students), and end with an informal concert at 4 PM. Concert ends at 4:30, and we're all on the way home before 5. It's a great format, and we've been doing this for years, too.
Our first scheduled Second Saturday Clinic for 2022 is on July 9. Bing Futch is coming up from Orlando and teaching at Folkcraft. You're invited. $40 gets you the clinic, concert, and lunch, and hopefully you'll learn something, and have fun, too. Registration is required, in advance, and we'll be limiting attendance to 30 participants.