The Swannanoa Gathering, a series of weeklong workshops in traditional music, is held on the campus of Warren Wilson College each summer. Along with intensive sessions in song, old-time music, fiddle, mandolin and banjo, the gathering offers a series of concerts that are open to the public.
Press release from event organizers:
Traditional Song Week Concert I – Monday, July 6
Traditional Song Week Concert II – Wednesday, July 8
Old-Time Week Concert I – Monday, July 20
Old-Time Week Concert II – Wednesday, July 22
Fiddle/Mando & Banjo Weeks Concert I – Monday, August 3
Fiddle/Mando & Banjo Weeks Concert II – Tuesday, August 4
Fiddle/Mando & Banjo Weeks Concert III – Wednesday, August 5The campus of Warren Wilson College in Swannanoa serves as the home for the college’s program in continuing education, the Swannanoa Gathering, a series of week-long summer workshops in the folk arts, which draws students from as far away as Japan, Australia, France and Hong Kong to take classes in everything from fiddle to clogging to storytelling. Some of our programs feature public concerts by staff members in the College’s Kittredge Theatre.
All shows begin at 7:30 pm in the college’s Kittredge Theatre. Tickets are $20 per concert (during Old-Time Week, ticket price includes dances following concerts). Children under 12 are $10. Limited tickets are available in Asheville at Malaprops Bookstore, in Black Mountain at Song of the Wood, and at the Warren Wilson College bookstore. For concert info, call 771-3761; for credit card sales of concert tickets call 771-3024 (college bookstore).
Traditional Song Week’s Concert I on Monday, July 6, features folk legend Tom Paxton, Irish singer and storyteller Len Graham, blues historian Rev. Robert Jones, National Heritage Award winner Sheila Kay Adams, Claudine Langille, a specialist in the songs of the Canadian maritimes, week coordinator Julee Glaub Weems, and old-time country musician Mark Weems.
Traditional Song Week’s Concert II on Wednesday, July 8, will feature Ranger Doug of the Grammy- winning Riders in the Sky, Cathy Jordan, lead singer with the Irish supergroup, Dervish, Jon Pickow of Kentucky’s famed Ritchie family, English balladeer Brian Peters, noted Madison Co. musician Josh Goforth, gospel singers Michael & Robin Midyette and folk balladeer Matt Watroba. Both Traditional Song Week concerts will be emceed by famed NPR radio personality Fiona Ritchie of The Thistle & Shamrock.
Old-Time Week Concert I, Monday, July 20 is the first of two concerts featuring some of the best old- time musicians around, many of whom are familiar faces around western NC. The first concert features the great fiddlers Erynn Marshall and Kenny Jackson, singer and storyteller Sheila Kay Adams, the New Southern Ramblers, Carl Jones, Lee Sexton, Mac & Jenny Traynham, Ron Pen, Ben Nelson, Don Pedi, and Hannah Traynham.
Old-Time Week Concert II, on Wednesday, July 22 will feature legendary singer Alice Gerrard, fiddlers Rayna Gellert and Eddie Bond, John Hollandsworth, Josh Ellis, dancer Thomas Maupin, accompanied by his grandson Daniel Rockwell, Ellie Grace, Greg & Jere Canote, singer Carol Elizabeth Jones, Paul Kovac, and Susie Goehring.
Fiddle/Mando & Banjo Weeks Concert I on Monday, August 3 is the first of three concerts combining the staffs of Fiddle Week with our newest program, Mando & Banjo Week, featuring some of the world’s finest mandolin and banjo players. The first show will cover a variety of ethnic traditions, including the wide-ranging music of mandolin virtuoso Mike Marshall, Beausoleil’s Grammy-winning fiddler Michael Doucet, Celtic music from fiddlers Patrick Ourceau and Laura Risk, guitar/mandolinist David Surette, Quebecois fiddler Lisa Ornstein; classical music from mandolinist Caterina Lichtenberg, Mexican fiddling by Juan Rivera, klezmer fiddler Lisa Gutkin, cellist Ben Sollee and the innovative music of mandolinist Matt Flinner.
The Fiddle/Mando & Banjo Weeks Concert II on Tuesday, August 4 features a mix of old-time, and world/roots styles with “New Acoustic” fiddler Darol Anger, versatile mandolinist Joe Walsh, the dazzling and eclectic multi-instrumentalist Joe Craven, Old-time stalwarts Rayna Gellert, Natalya Weinstein, Jesse Wells, Bob Carlin, Adam Tanner and Kevin Kehrberg, banjoist Steve Baughman and Fiddle Week Coordinator Julia Weatherford.
The series concludes on Wednesday, August 5, when Fiddle/Mando & Banjo Weeks Concert III will highlight an extraordinary lineup of great players from the world of bluegrass, swing and adventurous new music, featuring Infamous Stringdusters mandolinist Jesse Cobb, bluegrass and jazz banjo pioneer Alison Brown, bluegrass-and-more fiddler Alex Hargreaves, swing fiddler Evan Price, banjo innovators Mark Johnson and Bill Evans, Gand Ole Opry fiddler Brian Christianson, swing greats Don Stiernberg and Greg Ruby, Country Gazette banjoist Alan Munde, and bluegrass guitarist Ed Dodson.
The Swannanoa Gathering Folk Arts Workshops run from July 5-August 8, 2015, at Warren Wilson College in Swannanoa, just east of Asheville, NC. Tuition is $510 per week. Housing and meals are available for $405 per week. Registration for each week is limited. For more information on the workshops and a free catalog, call or write: The Swannanoa Gathering, Warren Wilson College, PO Box 9000, Asheville, NC 28815-9000 (828) 298-3434, or 771-3761, or visit the Gathering’s website at swangathering.com.
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