Monday's Muse

The first week of August hangs at the very top of summer, the top of the live-long year, like the highest seat of a Ferris wheel when it pauses in its turning. The weeks that come before are only a climb from balmy spring, and those that follow a drop to the chill of autumn, but the first week of August is motionless, and hot. It is curiously silent, too, with blank white dawns and glaring noons, and sunsets smeared with too much color.  ~ Natalie Babbitt, Tuck Everlasting

CTO... Black Mountain Music Festival

Registration is underway for the 3rd annual Black Mountain Music Festival held at the YMCA Blue Ridge Assembly October 21 - 26, 2018 in Black Mountain, NC.

Check This Out ... Top-notch teacher / performers for all levels of both hammered dulcimer and mountain dulcimer, with bonus classes in ukulele, autoharp, guitar, and banjo. Offering quite a line-up of classes, concerts, and jam sessions, in the company of old and new friends, smack-dab in the middle of the blazing autumn beauty of the mountains of western North Carolina.

Trapezoids of the Triangle -- This fantastic festival is in our own backyard. Don't miss it. Make plans now!

Pictures and memories from the 2017 festival ... check it out!
Black Mountain Music Festival 2017 blogpost
Bing Futch's youtube video

Monday's Muse

Every creator painfully experiences the chasm between his inner vision and its ultimate expression. ~ Issac Bashevis Singer

CTO... Dan Duggan Teaching / Performing in Cary

The Triangle Hammered Dulcimer Slow Jam will sponsor an all-day workshop and associated weekend concerts featuring Dan Duggan of Red Creek, New York in September.

Check This Out...

Dan Duggan - hammered dulcimer teacher, performer, instrument builder and National Hammered Dulcimer champion - will be visiting the Triangle during the weekend of Sep 22-23. He will conduct a workshop for intermediate hammered dulcimer players at the Kirk of Kildaire, 200 High Meadow Lane, Cary, NC 27511 from 9 AM - 4 PM on Saturday, the 22nd. The next day, Sunday, Sep 23rd, he will play at morning church services, then perform a concert for the Kirk's "Concert for a Cause" program from 3 - 4 PM.

Dan conducted a highly touted workshop in North Raleigh several years ago. He taught "Waiting for Sophie" and "Buckeye Rag". He will be teaching new material this time - tunes to be determined. Read more on Dan's bio at www.esperanceproductions.com/bio.html.

The workshop will be held in the large room downstairs, just outside the choir room entrance in the front where the Triangle HD Slow Jam typically meets. The workshop will be divided into two sessions, morning and afternoon, with a lunch break in between. Dan will teach different tunes in each session... a plus for those who can attend only the morning or afternoon session... but hopefully you can attend both. The schedule is:

- 9:00-9:30 registration and coffee/tea/donuts

- 9:30-11:45 morning session (with short stretch break)

-11:45-1:00 lunch (IHOP restaurant across the street in a private room, for all workshop attendees)

- 1:15-3:30 afternoon session (with short stretch break)

- 3:30-4:00 mini-concert by Dan

Cost: $35 per session or $60 for both sessions (lunch NOT included)

Please make your checks payable to Mark Rose and send to:

Mark Rose

4000 Winston Hill Drive

Apt 101

Cary, NC 27513

Questions? email Mark Rose 

Still Going Strong

I have been taking this week's Monday's Muse seriously. It's go, go, go around this household!

So much has happened in the last few months. Miles have been traveled. Milestones have been reached. Friends and family have come and gone... some never to be seen again on this earthly plane. It's life lived to the max in all its sweet and melancholy glory, and I'm grateful for it.

But, still, there is music to be played! ... and news to share, goals to accomplish, friends to meet, plans to make, blogs to update.

And so it goes. We begin again.

Monday's Muse

Good things come to those who go.  ~ Delta Airlines

Monday's Muse

If your arteries are good, eat more ice cream. If they are bad, drink more red wine. Proceed thusly.  ~ Sandra Byrd, Bon Appetit

Monday's Muse

Music of all the arts has the most influence on the passions and the legislator should give it the greatest encouragement.  ~ Napoleon