Workshops in 2008

McLallen House, working with four other Trumansburg bed and breakfasts, has organized a series of workshops for January, February and March that invite visitors to the area to spend some time with local musicians, artists and culinary professionals, sample the local wine and food and enjoy our accommodations.


Banjo Workshop March 1, 2008

Guests spent the day honing their banjo skills with Horse Flies' banjo player Richie Stearns.




An earlier workshop

Kevin, Peter and Lem Chaisson (left to right)

Cape Breton-style 
Music & Dance 
Workshops
April 2, 2005
10 a.m. & 2 p.m.
Where?
Michael Ludgate's Studio
Canaan Road, Caroline

How many?
10-15 per workshop

What to bring?
Your instrument and a music stand (if you read)

Format
1. Fiddle & guitar: learning to play characteristic tunes—including strathspeys, hornpipes, jigs—and assembling 'sets' (Peter & Lem)

2. Step dancing: an introductory lesson (Doreen)
Offered at 7 p.m. before the concert at Transorma

Contact for information and reservations
Bill Chaisson, 607-387-3892 or bill@mclallenhouse.com
 

 

ADDITIONAL AREA APPEARANCES

Friday, April 1st
8:00 - 11:00 p.m.
Contradance
Sponsored by 
Tompkins County Country Dances
Bethel Grove Community Center
1825 Slaterville Road, Ithaca


Saturday, April 2nd
8 p.m.
Concert/ceilidh
(Dance lesson at 7 p.m.)
Transorma
4414 Waterburg Road, Trumansburg
 

Sunday, April 3rd
2:30 - 4:30 p.m.
Concert/dance
W.B. Strong Fire Hall
21 Union Street, Freeville

SOME BACKGROUND AND HISTORY

Cape Breton is an island that comprises nearly a quarter of the province of Nova Scotia.  It was isolated and poor for decades, which helped to preserve a traditional music that Scottish settlers brought with them when they displaced the original Acadian French population after the mid-18th century.

Scottish traditional dance music is distinguishable from the Irish style by its driving rhythm and the Cape Breton style represents an end-member in the Scottish spectrum.  In field recordings you can often here the  fiddler loudly stamping out the time with his foot and accompaniment, as with contradance music, is often provided by a piano, adding to the percussive effect.

Eastern Prince Edward Island is within radio range of Cape Breton and, since the dawn of the radio age, traditional music players on that end of the island have largely adopted the driving rhythmic approach of the Nova Scotians. Peter Chaisson is a fiddler from Bear River, PEI.  Lem Chaisson (his distant cousin, but good friend) is a guitarist and singer from Rollo Bay, PEI.  

The Chaissons are one of the original French families that settled "Acadia" in the mid-17th century.  The branch that includes Peter and Lem (and me; we are all sixth cousins) escaped "Le Grand Dérangement" by literally hiding in the forests of Prince Edward Island for several years.  Other branches were deported to France or Louisiana and others fled to Newfoundland and Cape Breton.

Several years ago Peter and Lem resumed playing traditional music after largely putting it aside for a couple of decades while making a living and raising their families.  Peter is a retired iron worker and Lem a former construction worker.  Peter is one of the organizers of the annual Rollo Bay Fiddle Festival (third weekend in July), and both Peter and Lem teach music workshops all summer long at the Rollo Bay Inn, which is built, like the festival grounds, on old Chaisson family land overlooking Rollo Bay.

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 :: McLallen House :: 30 McLallen Street :: Trumansburg :: New York  14886 ::
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