Augusta

Irish Flute
1

It looks like I’ve settled on Augusta for my summer workshop, any thoughts good or bad from folks who have been before?

How are the accomodations on campus? Decent enough or should I spring for a hotel/B&B?

Anybody else going?

thanks,
Eddie

2

Answered the wrong post sorry.

Have fun at Augusta.

MarkB

3

It’s been several years since I’ve been to Augusta but I used to go regularly. I’m not too sure how many B&Bs there might be around Elkins but I’d recommend staying somewhere other than the dorms. If you find the food in the dining hall palatable you can always pay by the meal. The reason I quit staying in the dorms was because I don’t like having roommates, especially some of the weird ones I ended up with. Some of the motels close to campus have folded and I don’t know what’s available any more.

Steve

4

Bear in mind you’re going for the tunes and the workshops, not the gourmet food and luxurious accomodations. In the dorms you’re right in the thick of things. You meet more people, and if you’re going to stay up late playing in sessions, it’s nice to have a short walk to your bed. And when I was there a couple of years ago, I remember going to sleep in my dorm room hearing Louise Mulcahey’s flute echoing through the trees.

The food is average-to-dismal institutional, but again, it doesn’t matter, since you’ll mainly be interested in filling up and getting out to squeeze in a few tunes before your afternoon class. I mainly survived on the salad bar, and I’d packed a coffee press, an electric kettle, and a couple of pounds of French roast so I’d have decent coffee.

5

I actually prefer to go the cheap route, I’ll decide in a week or so before I register.

Good call about the coffee! I hadn’t thought of that. I only in the past years acquired the addic…umm…taste for coffee and would hate to go without.

Eddie

6

Which Augusta would that be? I grew up in an Augusta, but probably not the one you’re referring to. (Georgia)

7

Which Augusta would that be? I grew up in an Augusta, but probably not the one you’re referring to. (Georgia)

8

The Augusta in question is the Augusta Heritage workshop in Elkins, WV. The way I understand it the whole region was in early days called Augusta. All the way up to Lake Erie if I remember correctly. They have conducted summer workshops since sometime in the 1970s. At first they focused on crafts and Appalachian music. The Appalachian music course in those days was about three weeks. Whew! Eventually they added other music theme weeks. I believe Irish was the first to be added to the music offerenings but eventually there were weeks added for bluegrass, blues, cajun, etc. Here’s the websire address. There are some short videos somewhere on the site which will give you the flavor of some of the concerts.

http://www.augustaheritage.com/

Steve

9

The Agusta Heritage Center is at Davis and Elkins College in the middle of West Virginia. It gets it name from the fact that the whole of the Appalachain Mountain range was called West Agusta until the Cival War. When West Virginia refused to succede from Virginia, they named it West Virginia instead of West Agusta. There was a unit in the Revolution called West Agusta.
Anyhow, I used to conduct youth soccer camps at D &E college during the 1970’s-80’s and arranged them at the same time as the Agusta Workshop. The soccer instructors could socialize with the music and dance people all night long. There were a lot of ex-flowergirls, who had migrated to the isolated mountains, in the classes. I have fond memories but no more lead in my pencel, so I am only interested in the music, now.
I now live about 50 miles north of Elkins and am going to the session. If I don’t like the dorm, I’ll move to a local hotel. If I don’t like the food, I’ll eat in a reastruant. Pleanty around a college town.
Anyone who comes early, can stay at my farm, I have private bedrooms. I have already signed up for the course.

This is what the brochure says about the instructer: Flute- Louise Mulcahy is a brilliant flute and tinwhistle player and also a gifted uilleann piper (one of the few women to have excelled on the instrument). At the age of 21 she has won first in numerous Senior competitions and is the only person to have won four All-Ireland titles in one day. Hope this helps,
Nelson McAvoy
(304)788-0728
<webmaster@youth-soccer.com>