By Tiffany Edwards , University Relations
Bob Carlin (banjo). Photo by Mac Carbonell.
The School of Music will celebrate North Carolina’s musical heritage April 7 with some of the top string band performers in the state, including cross-picking legend George Shuffler.
N.C. Music Fest is a one-day event celebrating, discussing, and evaluating the string band traditions of North Carolina. The event will include several opportunities to interact with these traditions – workshops, films, presentations and a free public concert.
The concert will be held at 7:30 p.m. in the School of Music Recital Hall. Featured performing artist George Shuffler, who spent 20 years with the Stanley Brothers, will be joined by Bob Carlin (banjo), Doug Rorrer (guitar), Josh Goforth (violin), Laura Boosinger (banjo) and Taylor Rorrer (guitar). Alan Jabbour, a fiddler and folklorist, will host.
Dr. Gavin Douglas, ethnomusicologist at the UNCG School of Music, is organizing the event. He says he hopes it will help broaden the scope of musical styles studied at the school.
“Most string band music never shows up in a music school. We want to include those who play this music seriously; we have fabulous musicians right here in North Carolina,” he says. “In the process, we hope to attract audiences who wouldn’t necessarily come into the School of Music, and likewise to educate our students about other traditions they wouldn’t necessarily have been exposed to.”
Friday morning from 10 until noon, Goforth, Carlin and Doug Rorrer will lead workshops for fiddle and guitar. The workshops, which are open to the public, will provide a unique opportunity for musicians to learn from the professionals a style of music that has been passed on mostly as an oral tradition. Enrollment is limited.
After the workshops, scholars and filmmakers will share their perspectives on string band music from 1:30 to 5 p.m. Speaking will be Cece Conway, associate professor of English at Appalachian State University, and filmmaker Iris Chapman. Conway is the author of “African Banjo Echoes in Appalachia” and has produced several films that have appeared on the WUNC “Visions” series. She is currently collaborating on a multimedia exhibit, “The Banjo: America’s First Musical Invention,” which will stand in the National Museum of History in Washington.
Chapman will present her documentary on African-American fiddler Joe Thompson.
Douglas is pleased to welcome scholars who are looking into African-American contributions to string band music.
“As scholars chew on this we’re discovering there has been a lot more traffic of ideas [between ethnic groups] than the bins in the record stores indicate,” he says.
In keeping with that philosophy, the UNCG School of Music intends to foster the exchange of ideas among contemporary music students, scholars, audiences and artists of all backgrounds on an ongoing basis. N.C. Music Fest will be the first in a series of celebrations held every two to three years that showcase less recognized musical styles.
Funding for N.C. Music Fest was provided in part from a grant from the N.C. Humanities Council. For more information about the festival, visit www.uncg.edu/mus/StringFest.html.
