MAY EVENTS

TEACHER FEATURE - GENE CULLISON

Meadowood has the great privilege to have a cadre of marvelous teachers who help hundreds of students become stronger musicians every week.  We want to introduce you to each of them and plan to feature one of our wonderful teachers in this newsletter each month.

Gene Cullison has been playing guitar for most of his life.  He has been teaching guitar nearly as long.  He has been teaching at Meadowood since 2000.  We are so pleased to have him here.  

Gene is originally from Maryland, but moved to our area with his family when he was a child.  He studied with Gene Bujunoski as a teenager (Gene B still teaches and performs in the area) and taught guitar himself before he went to Northwest Texas University and West Chester University to study Music Education. Gene earned his Music Education degree from West Chester along with a minor in Classical Guitar. After graduation and certification as a music educator, he decided that he would be most able to help people develop musically in a private studio.  He has been teaching music for over thirty years.

Gene teaches all styles of guitar (electric, acoustic, classical) in a wide array of genres. He takes beginning through master level students in most styles of playing. Gene also teaches bass guitar from beginning to advanced intermediate and harmonica from beginning to intermediate.

An excellent solo and ensemble guitarist, bass player and harmonica player, Gene has played virtually every style of music professionally. He's played venues from campgrounds to casinos to cruise ships - in solo acts to large bands - playing Country, Rock, Funk, and nearly every other kind of music. Gene couples his extensive teaching and playing experience to aid students in their development.

Gene works equally well with children and adults and is truly invested in his students’ growth, helping them to set and achieve specific musical goals. He is the guitarist for the band, TimeWhy?s, but focuses most of his time on teaching guitar bass and harmonica at Meadowood on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. We are delighted to have Gene teach here.  

MANY MUSIC FESTIVALS ARE COMING UP!

Mayfair Festival of the Arts, from May 27th through 30th in Allentown, includes both concerts and a juried art exhibition. Berks Country Fest, from June 6 through 19th all around Berks County, sports many events including the Berks County Early Bird Fiddle Fest on June 11th at the and the Mountain Folk Fest on the 18th and 19th. It's not too early to mark your calendars for the Maidencreek Old Time Music Festival on July 10th.

MAYFAIR FESTIVAL OF THE ARTS

Mayfair is an arts festival that features visual arts, performing arts, culinary arts, garden arts, children's art and art education. The Festival has been on Memorial Day weekend since 1986, attracting 50,000 people every year to buy art, enjoy food, listen to music and take their children for hands-on children's art activities.

For years, Mayfair was in Allentown's Cedar Creek Park, a picturesque location that was also, unfortunately, prone to flooding. The flooding in 2011 and 2012 prompted Mayfair to move to the Allentown Fairgrounds in 2013. With many attractions under roof, attendees and vendors applauded the lack of rain, mud and chilly spring temperatures as well as the bonus of hundreds of free parking spaces.

Mayfair is one of the Lehigh Valley's biggest art and music festivals. The four day festival features a juried art show, craft vendors and multiple stages with music, dance and theatrical events for adults and children. The children's area of the festival has climbing structures, play areas and children's art work. Since the festival also has a culinary arts component, plenty of food and drink is available from vendors.

Mayfair, Inc., is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that produces the Festival by building community by showcasing artists, performers, and arts that are new to the region.

BERKS COUNTY EARLY BIRD FIDDLE FESTIVAL

MOUNTAIN FOLK FEST

The Mountain Folk Fest, in its 4th year, has become a two-day event in a new location. This year's festival will be Saturday, June 18th and Sunday, June 19th at the Evergreen Club, 415 Hartz Road, Fleetwood, Pennsylvania.  The festival moved its location and date to be part of the community-wide Berks Country Fest: An Americana Music Jamboree. In addition to a broad selection of musical performances, the festival is adding a single microphone competition in 2016 (on Sunday, June 19th).

The Evergreen Club is a great venue where participants can purchase food and drinks and enjoy them in traditional garden style open-air seating or at picnic tables under cover. There's a covered stage, audience area and craft vendor area and shaded areas for musicians to jam. Parking is free.  

Entertainers who are confirmed include Dave Kline & the Mountain Folk Band (fest producer & hosts), Sweet Potato Pie, Gary Reid (and his one-man musical “Life of Sorrow” commemoration of the life and music of Carter Stanley), Big Valley Bluegrass, The Zepp Family Band, Crow Hill and Butch Imhoff. The festival will announce more entertainers as they confirm.

Attendees may bring folding chairs and blankets. Musicians may bring instruments for jamming. Service dogs are welcome, but pets are not. Coolers and outside food/beverages are not welcome. More information, photos and videos for the 4th annual Mountain Folk Fest are available on the fest’s Facebook page.

• Instrumental ability (in time, in tune, degree of difficulty) 25%
• Vocal ability (in time, in tune, degree of difficulty) 25%
• Professionalism (wardrobe, smiles, eye contact, movement, working the mic) 25%
• Audience appeal (based on audible response) 25%.

All songs should be acoustic Americana (bluegrass, gospel, folk, mountain, nature-themed or traditional country music) with family-friendly lyrics.

• twice during the day - up to ten minutes per round (including intro & dialogue)

• different songs in each round
• for different judges for each round

MAIDENCREEK OLD TIME MUSIC FESTIVAL

• Mike and Paula of Meadowood Music
• Rich Dodson, Ken Gehret & John Ehlis: Roots of the Roots: Roots of Old Time
• Master Clinicians Erynn Marshall and Carl Jones
• Norm Williams with Rob and Anna Lisa Yoder
• Tom and Betty Druckenmiller
• East Side Dave Kline

• FIDDLE by Erynn Flynn
• MOUNTAIN DULCIMER by Sarah Morgan
• CLAWHAMMER BANJO by Carl Jones

READING SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA CONCERT

SATURDAY, MAY 7 - SANTANDER PERFORMING ARTS CENTER - 7 PM

Andrew Constantine has been the Music Director of the Reading Symphony Orchestra (RSO) since 2007, repeatedly demonstrating why he gained a reputation for imaginative and compelling programming in Europe and Baltimore. We see the reasons for that reputation in RSO's 2015-16 Classical Concert program.

This article comes late in the RSO season - only one Classical Concert remains. In concert six of the season, bass-baritone Kevin Deas joins the Reading Symphony Orchestra to sing in a multimedia presentation of Dvořák's Carnival Overture, Op. 92 and New World Symphony and Horowitz's Hiawatha Melodrama. 

Dvořák acknowledged that he wrote the two inner movements of the New World Symphony as studies for a longer work based on Longfellow’s The Song of Hiawatha. Horowitz's Hiawatha Melodrama takes the theme to its completion. In Longfellow's poem, the character Gitche Manito (the master of life), descended from the sky to tell people of the Earth to stop fighting. He also promised them a prophet who would improve their lives.

Soon, a woman named Wenonah bore a son to a demigod who abandoned her and her son, Hiawatha (the prophet). His mother died of grief, but Hiawatha was still able to become a strong, wise man who was widely respected. Hiawatha fell in love with and married Minnehaha. Though she and both of his best friends died and he was deeply aggrieved, Hiawatha had to defeat a villain named Pau-Puk-Keewis.

Soon after the conflict with Pau-Puk-Keewis, Hiawatha dreamed that white men who would arrive on big boat with a new religion. When the dream came true, he believed that he no longer had to protect the people and got into his canoe and paddled away, not knowing when or if he would return.

As a member of the audience, you can hear Longfellow's poem in Dvořák's pieces and in the six movements of Hiawatha Melodrama: Prologue - Hiawatha's Wooing - Hiawatha's Wedding Feast - The Death of Minnehaha - The Hunting of Pau-Puk-Keewis  - Hiawatha's Departure. The concert is a wonderful conclusion to the season.

The concert is at the Santander Performing Arts Center in Reading on Saturday, May 7 at 7:30 PM. You can get tickets through the RSO office at 610-373-7557 or email tickets@readingsymphony.org or through Ticketmaster where they cost $25 to $75.

MEADOWOOD'S 2016 OPEN MICS SEASON

Every summer, Meadowood hosts five outdoor open mics, one in May, June, July, August and September.  The open mics are on the third Saturday evening of the month from 6 to 9 pm. The first one this year is on May 21st.

Meadowood provides an outdoor stage and PA system. Mike and Paula emcee the events. Acoustic musicians and music lovers to come out to play and listen. There is enough time in one evening for about a dozen different acts.  The events are open to the public and FREE. Food and nonalcoholic drinks are welcome.

Musicians may play as long as 15 minutes for a warm and appreciative audience. While Meadowood turns a blind eye to electric pianos and basses and include them in the open mic, all other instrumentation must be acoustic. The musical selections must be appropriate to a family audience.

If the weather looks questionable, call or check the Meadowood web site. Because the open mics are outdoors in open air, we cancel in the event of rain or insufferable heat.

Players may sign up to perform at the open mic or call Meadowood in advance to secure a slot - first come, first served. Audience members are welcome to bring chairs/blankets, though the store does provide about a dozen chairs that folks are welcome to use if they don't bring their own.

The dates for this year are May 21, June 18, July 23 (moved to the 4th Saturday to avoid a scheduling conflict), August 20 and September 17. We hope to see and hear you there!

HIGH SCHOOL & COLLEGE GRADUATIONS

OPPORTUNITIES TO GIVE GIFTS THAT LAST A LIFETIME

Some families have traditions for graduation gifts that span generations. Others wing it. Over the years, Meadowood has helped a lot of families in both camps give their graduates musical instruments as gifts. While we are admittedly biased, we are delighted - we believe a musical instrument is a gift that lasts a lifetime - sometimes more than one lifetime. 

In our first months of business, our first pair of graduation-gift-parents bought a Seagull guitar for their son when he graduated from high school. He was not going to study music in college or perform professionally, but he loved playing music and his parents wanted to get him something that would give him joy. Seventeen years later, he still plays the guitar. That boy is now a man. A year or so ago his mom and wife brought his son to one of our summer open mics. The toddler danced with glee as people played music... maybe he will be getting a guitar when he graduates in a dozen years or so. Maybe it will be a twenty-nine-year-old Seagull guitar.
 
Recently, the parents of a girl who took violin lessons at the store for years purchased a vintage violin for their daughter with which she could pursue a music degree at university. She is nearly done her undergraduate studies and plays the violin every day. She performs with it and teaches.

We have many stories of parents, husbands, wives and children who got guitars, violins, banjos and other instruments that became the treasured possessions of their high school and college graduates. We are grateful to be a part in those stories and hope to help create still more stories in this year.

Below are commencement dates taken from the web sites of some of the schools where we know students who are graduating.

SHAMELESS COMMERCE SECTION

These items are just a few of the things in the store that we think are especially cool.