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| Our mission is to teach,
promote and support the advancement of all forms of American music and
its influences, and to pass on the grand traditions of American-based roots music to future generations. |
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Director’s Message Hello Everybody,After nine years and counting, Americana Music Academy is going strong. We are having a wonderful year and we expect the coming 12 months to be even more successful. In June we had our first free music festival, the Killkenny, in Lawrence's South Park . It was a grand success--which we expect to duplicate and even surpass in 2010. Combined with the two generous grants we received earlier this year for scholarships and our income from Kilkenny, we are on track to be in the black for the first time in our nine-year history. Can I get an "Amen!"? Our annual holiday concert at the Lawrence Arts Center was a great success. We were happy to welcome Cowgirl Swing as our headliner -- Judy Coder, Diane Gillenwater and the rest of the band gave the audience a night to remember. That Judy was a student here and Diane is one of our favorite instructors gave us special reason to be proud. We're already planning ways we can improve and expand this annual event and, we hope, deepen our relationship with the Lawrence Arts Center in the coming year. We have had so much help over the last few months that some thanks are in order. First off a shout out to our ever-intrepid board secretary Nancy Trober for all her hard work. Nancy has overseen our volunteers this summer during Kilkenny and the Kansas Fiddling/Picking contest. If you spot her at the Americana or around town, let her know how much she is appreciated. For those of you looking to play (or sing) well with others, please remember our weekly jam session on Wednesday nights from 7:30-9:30 p.m. at Signs of Life bookstore, 722 Mass. St. in Lawrence. Wednesday’s is our sing-a-long night. It’s a good time for all and a lot of folks come who are just beginning their jamming experience. Feel free to bring an instrument -- even if it's only a kazoo -- and join in. Saturdays from 3 - 5 p.m. we have a great folk jam right here at the Academy, 1419 Mass. St. Greg Pelligreen and J.B. King (of the Flying Pelegrinis) run a session every week and several excellent players in the area show up to trade chops and songs and take advantage of the opportunity to really make some music. Bring your gear and join us. Finally a very special thanks goes out to our outreach co-coordinator Emily Russell and her husband Joe Hollowell. Over the last nine years we have been able to count on them for moral, financial and business support, without which Americana Music Academy would not have been able to keep going. They’ve been a little sidelined recently do to a family illness, but our prayers are with them. If you see Emily at a jam give her a hug and a big Americana thank you. If you're a student or a parent of one of our students, we also thank and appreciate you. It's an incredible honor to work with people in all stages of their musical development, and to see how right we were nine years ago when we bet that many different communities would arise out of the work we began at the Americana. And if you aren't a student and have always wondered how it would be to play the guitar, the mandolin, or any other instrument, come on down and join the fun. We're saving you a place! Keep on the music path!
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