The


Accordion, and Bodhran, as well as Song, Folklore, Step Dancing and Ceili Dancing.


Swannanoa Gathering


North Carolina. Summer, 2011. by Sharon Armstrong


T


o reach the Swannanoa Gathering you must travel through the silver and


blue Great Smoky Mountains of North Carolina. The “Smokies” are amongst the highest peaks in the Appalachian mountain range, and as you drive upwards along winding highways bordered with kudzu-draped pine trees, past low-slung houses settled sturdy and deep into red earth, and food-stands selling peaches, blueberries and hot boiled peanuts, the sight of these ancient, softly curved mountains disappearing back and back into the dusk will take your breath away. When the sun goes down, fireflies flash and flare upwards into the dark. The air smells of pine. It is a stunning setting to both learn and play music in.


Martin Hayes and John Doyle


The Swannanoa Gathering is one of the most exciting music camps in the United States – a series of summer workshops, concerts and events that take place on the campus of Warren Wilson College, near Asheville. Starting in July and ending in August, the Gathering offers week-long workshops in Fiddle, Traditional Song, Celtic music and culture, Old Time Music and Dance, Guitar, Contemporary Folk and Dulcimer, taught by some of the biggest names in traditional music. The cost of tuition covers all classes offered during each week, students must register but they can then take as few or as many classes as the schedule allows. Options for staying on campus are available, and there is a well stocked canteen serving three meals a day. Celtic Week runs from July 10 – 16 and offers classes that vary from beginner to advanced on Fiddle, Harp, Flute, Bouzouki, Guitar, Mandolin, Banjo, Uilleann Pipes, Button


The Living Tradition - Page 22


At night when classes are finished the teaching staff put on concerts and dances, providing world class music in a party atmosphere, and the week culminates in a student showcase concert, which gives everyone a chance to show what they have learned over the week.


In 2011 the Gathering celebrated its 20th


anniversary, but it all began in 1990 when newly appointed President of Warren Wilson College, Douglas Orr met with his old folk music friend Jim Magill for lunch, and to also discuss an idea that would eventually become the Swannanoa Gathering.


“The first moment I stepped foot on the Warren Wilson campus”, Orr explained, “I contemplated that the campus setting, location and history would make ideal ingredients for a summer music camp offering themed weeks to feature and enhance the traditions of music, storytelling and dance – Asheville was a center for traditional music, and both the college and region’s culture tended to attract individuals of artistic expression. The name was chosen to reflect the college’s valley location and the old tradition of musicians and storytellers “gathering” together for song and story…the legendary ceilidh in Scotland and Ireland, or jam session in our mountains, a strong sense of inclusive musical community was to be an underlying thread.”


With enviable energy by July 1992 the nascent version of the Gathering was up and running, and from an initial attendance of less than 100 it has grown to more than 1200 annual students. Over the years, these students have been taught by 600 of the world’s greatest folk artists from a wide variety of different genres – from Laurie Lewis to John Doyle – as well as by such deeply missed legends as the late Johnny Cunningham, and Ossian’s Tony Cuffe.


Each year the Gathering also awards Youth Scholarships to promising young musicians and dancers, which cover the cost of tuition and housing in any of the programs. These scholarships are funded by donations from participants in the Gathering: several are memorial scholarships. During Celtic week


a scholarship is awarded in memory of Ossian’s Tony Cuffe who was one of the early Staff members and a great supporter of the Gathering. This year the recipient of the Tony Cuffe Scholarship was 12 year old Dylan Robinson.


When Dylan’s mother Donna Richardson was a child, she was forced to take piano lessons, and hated them. When it came to her children, Dylan, Newt and their younger sister Haley, she asked them one question - if they could play one instrument, what would it be? Haley, after seeing Kevin Burke in concert, said fiddle. Her older brother Dylan said guitar – because it was cool.


Dylan is now 12 years old, his sister is nine, Newt is 14, and to call any of them simply gifted players would be an understatement. Haley is a three-time champion fiddler for the under-12 Mid-Atlantic Fleadh Cheoil, and has competed in Ireland at the Fleadh Cheoil na hEireann. Dylan placed second in the under-15 accompaniment. Both she and Dylan qualified to represent the United States in the All Ireland Fleadh Cheoil in August 2011. In 2009 Haley was sponsored by the Youth Scholarship Fund to attend the Swannanoa Gathering; Dylan was awarded the Tony Cuffe Scholarship in 2011. His favourite teachers at this year’s Swannanoa were John Doyle and Eamon O’Leary.


“I probably thought it was cool”, said Dylan, when asked why he wanted to learn guitar. “It was hard at the beginning, I wasn’t used to fingering, my fingers hurt more, but then I built up calluses. The school is fun, learning classes, the sessions, all the new tunes…a bunch of new stuff.”


True to form the teachers for the 2011 Celtic week included such folk luminaries from both side of the Atlantic as Brian McNeill, Billy Jackson, Martin Hayes, Kevin Burke, Ed Miller, David Surette, John Doyle, Cathy Ryan, Brian Conway and Margaret Bennet, as well as what might be described as members of the new vanguard, Eamon O’Leary, Grainne Hambly, Rose Flanagan, Kimberley Fraser, Andrew Finn Magill and the lovely Nuala Kennedy.


The Gathering classes range from advanced to those for total beginners, and in each the range of skill is varied as well. It makes


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