Youth Scholarship to Augusta Heritage Center
Hiawatha Music Co-op/Augusta Heritage Center Youth Scholarship
March 24, 2010, was the deadline to apply for the 2010 Hiawatha Music Co-op youth scholarship to the Augusta Heritage Center in Elkins, W.Va. The scholarship is open to Marquette-area young people, ages 12-20, who have an applied interest in traditional, American music.
Another opportunity
While the deadline passed for the Hiawatha Scholarship to Old-Time Week at Augusta, the Cajun Music Community in Minneapolis is also offering a scholarship to Augusta for Cajun FIddlers.
John Hugelen was a prominent Cajun fiddler in the Twin Cities, and in his memory, there is a competition for the 2010 round of John Hugelen Cajun Music Scholarships with an emphasis musicians from the Upper Midwest - including the U.P. Scholarships will provide tuition support for musicians at Cajun/Creole Week at Augusta Heritage Center, West Virginia.
PDF files that explain the selection criteria, as well as a fillable application form can be downloaded at http://www.krewedewalleye.org/. Qualifications include a clear dedication to learning to play Cajun music as well as financial need. Priority will be given to musicians from the Upper Midwest (Iowa, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin) and to first-time attendees or musicians under the age of 30. The application needs to be accompanied by a one-page letter of recommendation and, importantly, needs to be postmarked by April 20, 2010.
This Cajun Music Scholarship is not affiliated with Hiawatha and should not be confused with the Hiawatha Youth Scholarship to Old-Time Week at Augusta. Please use the website link in the article above for any questions about the Cajun Scholarhip. No one at the Hiawatha office will know anything more about the Cajun Scholarship than the information above. Thank you!
Augusta Heritage Center
The Augusta Heritage Center is nationally and internationally renowned for activities relating to traditional folk-life and folk arts of many cultures with an emphasis on the Appalachian region.
The Hiawatha Scholarship session
The scholarship student will attend Week 5 of the Augusta summer schedule: August 8-15, 2010. The specific themes of Week 5 are Old-Time Music, Dance, and Vocal. The week also includes the Augusta Festival over the final weekend. The program offers a wide selection of classes taught by top musicians.
There will also be workshops with master artists and performers, extensive jamming, formal concerts, and dances.
Instrumental classes are available in fiddle, claw-hammer banjo, mandolin, and bass. Specialty guitar classes cover flatpicking, finger style, and back-up. More than 20 vocal topic classes ranging from early country harmony to African-American Gospel will also be available. Additional information is available on-line at Augusta Heritage Center.
The focus of Augusta classes and instructors is not to develop polished competitors or stage performers. Rather the major objective is to develop an appreciation and love for the music and the people through which it developed and evolved.
Application
Please click here for a printable version of the Hiawatha Augusta Youth Scholarship Application and cover letter. This is a five-page PDF document. You will need the current version of Adobe Acrobat Reader to use this file.
For additional information concerning the Hiawatha Music Co-op Scholarship and/or the Workshop, please contact us at 906-226-8575 or info@hiawathamusic.org.
Scholarship fine print
The recipient will be reponsible for all transportation costs and arrangements to and from Augusta. Anyone under age 18 who attends the Augusta Heritage Center must have a chaperone. For a $100 fee, the chaperone can attend all group sessions, concerts, dances, jam sessions, and the Augusta Festival - anything except formal classes. The chaperone may also arrange room and board at Augusta for approximately $375.
Sonja Prychitko of Marquette (center) won the first Hiawatha Music Co-op/Augusta Heritage Center Scholarship in 2007. She attended a week-long summer session at the Augusta Heritage Center in Elkins, West Virginia. It was Hiawatha's first year to sponsor the scholarship, which is open to Marquette-area youths ages 12-18. The award was partially funded by a "Songs of the Carter Family" workshop conducted by Augusta regulars Annette, Phil and Salem Watts of Marquette.
Sonja and her father, Dave Prychitko (left) returned to start a monthly "slow jam" in Marquette, sharing some of the tunes and techniques she learned at Augusta.
