I only made it back from Ireland to attend the last two days of classes (thursday and friday). Attendance was way up over last year and an announcement was made that plans were in place for next years Zoukfest! I did attend two concerts at the Fort Burgwin campus... the performances were great and the sound quality also very good. The outdoor concert on Friday afternoon was marred somewhat by the backdrop of a lightning-caused forest fire on the Taos Indian Pueblo land to the east. Very dramatic, and a week later the fire is still not out and we're all hacking and coughing from the smoke (I live here). A few students had to leave early in order to make it to Willie Week. Overall the event was a wonderful success.
Grey Larsen had a number of wooden flutes for sale and I bought a 6 key Grenadilla Casey Burns flute which is the first full size D flute that has a hole spacing that actually allows me to play the low D with my third finger rather than my little finger. This is after coming back from Ireland with a keyless Martin Doyle flute that I bought at the Doolin music store. Needless to say I'm in hock up to my earlobes and can't even blow the darn things until the coughing subsides after the forest fire is out.
Chris
I was there for the whole week. I started out with five classes per day but quickly realized that this left no time for practicing and socializing. I dropped the zouk classes and concentrated on Randall Bays' fiddle class. Randall is a great teacher.
It was truly a marvel to watch Alec Finn and Kevin Macleod play together. Kevin has an original and very rhythmic approach to the mandolin and Alec's understated contrapuntal accompaniment on Greek bouzouki was the perfect foil for Kevin's playing.
There were so many great musicians on the staff. During the evening staff concerts we got to hear various permutations, such as Randall Bays and Grey Larson backed up by Roger Landes and Alec Finn.
Dan Beimborn was teaching Celtic mandolin, but he played a variety of American tunes in informal jams as well. He had one mandolin tuned in an open D tuning and played it in a sort of frailing, dulcimer- or banjo-like fashion.
I attended several open sessions which tended to go on until about 2 AM. I don't get to play in sessions of this caliber at home so this was probably the high point of the week for me.
All in all a wonderful gathering of musicians in a very pleasant setting; I hope I can attend next year!
Any Zoukfest 2003 attendees out there?
Any Zoukfest 2003 attendees out there?
I would like to have attended this year, but couldn't because of work conflicts.
So I am curious. How was it?
# Posted on July 9th 2003 by blowfly
Re: Any Zoukfest 2003 attendees out there?
There is a lively debrief and photos on the yahoo cittern group website. Sounds like it was fabbo.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cittern/
Cheers,
Greg
# Posted on July 9th 2003 by octogreg
Re: Any Zoukfest 2003 attendees out there?
I only made it back from Ireland to attend the last two days of classes (thursday and friday). Attendance was way up over last year and an announcement was made that plans were in place for next years Zoukfest! I did attend two concerts at the Fort Burgwin campus... the performances were great and the sound quality also very good. The outdoor concert on Friday afternoon was marred somewhat by the backdrop of a lightning-caused forest fire on the Taos Indian Pueblo land to the east. Very dramatic, and a week later the fire is still not out and we're all hacking and coughing from the smoke (I live here). A few students had to leave early in order to make it to Willie Week. Overall the event was a wonderful success.
Grey Larsen had a number of wooden flutes for sale and I bought a 6 key Grenadilla Casey Burns flute which is the first full size D flute that has a hole spacing that actually allows me to play the low D with my third finger rather than my little finger. This is after coming back from Ireland with a keyless Martin Doyle flute that I bought at the Doolin music store. Needless to say I'm in hock up to my earlobes and can't even blow the darn things until the coughing subsides after the forest fire is out.
Chris
# Posted on July 10th 2003 by unique
Re: Any Zoukfest 2003 attendees out there?
I was there for the whole week. I started out with five classes per day but quickly realized that this left no time for practicing and socializing. I dropped the zouk classes and concentrated on Randall Bays' fiddle class. Randall is a great teacher.
It was truly a marvel to watch Alec Finn and Kevin Macleod play together. Kevin has an original and very rhythmic approach to the mandolin and Alec's understated contrapuntal accompaniment on Greek bouzouki was the perfect foil for Kevin's playing.
There were so many great musicians on the staff. During the evening staff concerts we got to hear various permutations, such as Randall Bays and Grey Larson backed up by Roger Landes and Alec Finn.
Dan Beimborn was teaching Celtic mandolin, but he played a variety of American tunes in informal jams as well. He had one mandolin tuned in an open D tuning and played it in a sort of frailing, dulcimer- or banjo-like fashion.
I attended several open sessions which tended to go on until about 2 AM. I don't get to play in sessions of this caliber at home so this was probably the high point of the week for me.
All in all a wonderful gathering of musicians in a very pleasant setting; I hope I can attend next year!
# Posted on July 13th 2003 by Layers