Page 3 - 2015 New Harmony Music Festival Program Book

FROM THE FESTIVAL DIRECTOR

christopher layer

Welcome to season four...
Rivers, Waterways, and Streams of Life!

Welcome festival friends to the fourth New Harmony Music Festival & School! Welcome
to community, freedom, and the harmony of sounds in soaring spaces, old ballads in
historic theaters, and morning serenades out of doors while nature bestows her gifts upon us in
this harmonious spiritual mecca for the soul. I invite you to bring your own joy and enthusiasm
for musical creation to bear on our offerings in this cradle of life and sharing. Drink deep from the
font of exploration and linger long in the land of things creative. On behalf of Clem Penrose and
all of the New Harmony Artists Guild, dear listener, you are invited!
This season...

This year we celebrate rivers and waterways like the one that quite literally surrounds New Harmony, the mighty
Wabash. Wah-Bah-Shik-Ki, Ouabache, Wea...one river, many names. A water road from before colonial
times, the river has its origins in the meltwaters of a glacier over 14,000 years ago. It was witness to the rise and
fall of Spanish and French claims on its long valley and lush, fertile flanks. Likewise the Mississippi, Amazon and
Ohio Rivers will be the source of inspiration for much of this week’s music, art and film. We are thrilled to be
performing an outdoor concert with this theme on Saturday morning, July 11 in the Philip Johnson Roofless
Church featuring a Steinway concert grand piano courtesy of H&H Music in Evansville.
Since last season...

This spring, friends and relations of the late Jane Blaffer Owen came together in the Rapp-Owen Granary to
mark her centenary birthday. The festival family salutes “Miss Jane’s” 100th year! No doubt she still lingers
with us, quietly tending the flowers, historic buildings, and little “pleasure boat” she loved so dearly. The title of her
newly-released memoir, Like a River, Not a Lake, inspired this year’s festival theme.

Last December 6, festival artists came together at the Murphy Auditorium to perform A Midwinter Night’s
Dream. The seasonal music included ancient Irish Airs, sacred hymns, colonial music of Christmastide, and
LOTS of good old-time fiddling! Festival summer school students Katie Lesesne and Kelsey Georgeson, and
Joshua Janik lent their excellent volunteer skills, and festival assistant Miriam Graham kept the troops in order
for the weekend. Kelsey and Katie first arrived in 2012 and 2013 as NHMF students; this week they will be
leading their fellow students, performing for seniors at the New Harmony Health Care Center and Charles Ford
Memorial Home, and playing our free “pop-up” concerts at lunchtime around town.

In April of this year the Murphy Auditorium played host to festival performers including blues phenomenon,
Jerron “Blindboy” Paxton, and wizard of the glass armonica, William Zeitler, along with Mazz Swift and a student
ensemble form the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University. The concert, Music From Thomas Jefferson’s
Monticello, was also filmed by our friends at WNIN Public Media for later broadcast. We are so very grateful for
all that has passed the year!!!

I’d like to thank a few special friends who helped and mentored me along the way: John Streetman, whose warmth
and guidance has been most appreciated; John Martin, Owen Lewis, Clem Penrose, and Jerry Wade, who along
with Miriam Graham and Kathy Sale, watch the music factory whenever I am away on musical business. Bravo, dear
friends! (Welcome letter continued on next page)

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