Traditional Appalachian Music Workshops at the 2024 Music In the Mountains Festival!

SPRUCE PINE, NC (August 30, 2024) ⇒ Workshops are a fantastic way for festival attendees to engage with performers in an intimate setting while learning and are great for those who are looking to participate in addition to watching the evening performances.

This year we are excited to offer three unique workshop opportunities from some exceptionally talented musicians. Choose from Harmony Singing with Suzannah Park, Banjo with Travis Stuart and Fiddle with William Ritter.

Workshops cost $35 per person and will run from 2-3:30. Please register online here.

Suzannah Park comes from a family of three generations of traditional singers, storytellers and dancers. She has been touring and teaching for the past twenty-plus years, both in the USA and abroad. A native of Asheville NC, she grew up bouncing back and forth between Asheville and Chicago where she was immersed in the folk music scene in both communities. Growing up there was always a song to sing, a harmony to add, a dance to jump into or a story to tell.

Travis Stuart, a Bethel native and Haywood County resident, is a banjo player who has been performing old time music rooted in Western North Carolina for over twenty years. The backbone of bluegrass, old time string band music carries a legacy that is inescapable, and from his earliest days growing up, Stuart was steeped in that legacy.

William Ritter is an old-time musician from Bakersville, NC.  For nearly 20 years, William has focused on the music of the Toe River Valley, making a special effort to learn music firsthand from local tradition-bearers–especially Ray Dellinger, Bobby McMillon, and Bruce Greene.  In addition to fiddle, William plays banjo, guitar, and other “string-ed things.” He is particularly interested in old mountain folkways, foodways, and humor–ever eager to swap lies, half-truths, tales and seeds. 

Music In the Mountains Folk Festival will be on Saturday, September 14, 2024, at Homeplace Beer Company & Hog Hollow Pizza in Burnsville, North Carolina. We’ll be honoring local legend, Terry McKinney.

The festival is free to attend although we do have a suggested donation of $15. If you would like to support our commemorative t-short fundraiser, you can do so by purchasing some MITM swag from our Bonfire website. All proceeds from shirt sales go to the festival to help us keep up this celebration of our regional music heritage.

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