getting schooled at the music festival!

Nineteen chairs, taking a bite out of the stage.
Nineteen chairs, under the lights at the Lucas.
Nineteen chairs, waiting for sixteen stringed-instrument students and their three instructors.
This Friday night performance at the SMF was designed for one purpose: to showcase the talented youth who have traveled from all over the nation to participate in the week-long Acoustic Music Seminar Program. The Stringband Spectacular was their final exam, so to speak, to share with the world what they had learned.
What types of instruments?
Violins and mandolins, double basses and banjos, guitars and fiddles!
What types of music?
Bluegrass and hot club jazz, modern-day American stringband and classical swing, old-time and Celtic!
The students played in ensembles, with each having the chance to be the lead musician. In total, there were fourteen compositions played tonight, fourteen student ensembles, usually quintets.
That's a lot of music!!!
There were eight original compositions, from the following students.
Grant Flick, 16, Bowling Green, OH (Violin): "Percolation"
Sam Armstrong-Zickefoose, 20, Santa Fe, NM (Banjo): "Mona" {written for his grandmother, the fiddle player}
Wilhelmina FrankZerda, 16, Blodgett, OR (Violin): "New Heart" {in which she sang, too!}
Gordon Neidinger, 20, Pittsburgh, PA (Mandolin): "The Green Leaf Club"
Caleb Dostal, 21, Missoula, MT (Banjo): "Balvenie" {about a brand of Scotch}
Ethan Setiawan, 17, Middlebury, IN (Mandolin): "Untitled 8" {pretty self-explanatory!}
Joseph D'Esposito, 21, Ithaca, NY (Violin): "Ill At Ease" {about making peace with the learning process and feeling overwhelmed}
Joe Vilardi, 21, New York, NY (Guitar): "Song of the Redwood Tree" {inspired by the poem by Walt Whitman}

Amazing!!!

The remaining six performances featured original arrangements, from the following students.
Jake Howard, 20, Munroe Falls, OH (Mandolin): David Grisman's "Dawg Patch"
Mike Gaisbacher, 21, Charleroi, PA (Bass): Bela Fleck's "Big Country"
Josh Turner, 22, Indianapolis, IN (Guitar): "Diamonds on The Soles of Her Shoes", Paul Simon & Joseph Shabalala
Mike Robinson, 22, Boulder, CO (Guitar): Roger Tallroth's "One Hour In Hungary"
Bella Betts, 14, Boulder, CO (Mandolin): the traditional "Bulgarian Dance"
Gabe Terracciano, 22, Portland, ME (Violin): Bruce Cockburn's "Lovers In A Dangerous Time"

Noah Harrington, 18, Lexington, MA (Bass) was the featured bassist in five of the above ensembles.
Jacob Warren, 19, South Lyon, MI (Bass) was the featured bassist in another five of the above ensembles.

All are so very gifted!
Some have been here before and will most likely return next year.
For several, this was their last year with the AMS program. The cut-off age of 22 will render them no longer eligible.
That's not to say they won't return as performers on the main stages, though! Won't that be wonderful?!

I'm going to hope that videos will be posted for some of the original compositions. While it's true that no one is supposed to be videotaping the performances, you can bet some daring parent made some!
Meanwhile, I can enjoy these from the 2014 Stringband Spectacular.
part 1, with two of the 2015 students (Wilhelmina FrankZerda (Violin) and Gabe Terracciano (Violin))
part 2
part 3, with the 2014 performance by Wilhelmina FrankZerda (Violin), "Don't Look Back"
part 4, just the three instructors, Mike Marshall (mandolin), Julian Lage guitar), and Casey Driessen (fiddle)
part 5, with two of the 2015 students (Wilhelmina FrankZerda (violin) and Jake Howard (mandolin))
part 6
part 7

Fabulous!
And I've found out something: I like Mike Marshall. You know, that mandolin strummer? He reminds me so much of my bfe. His looks, his manner of movement, his style of talking - all speak to me of the physicist.
Small world!