Youth Scholarship to Augusta Heritage Center
Hiawatha Music Co-op/Augusta Heritage Center Youth Scholarship
March 21, 2008, was the deadline to apply for the 2008 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 12-18, who have an applied interest in traditional, American music.
Although this year's application deadline has passed, you may review details by clicking the Application Letter and the Application links below.
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 Scholarship session
The scholarship student will attend Week 5 of the Augusta summer schedule. 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.
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 an additional $350.
For a printable PDF version of the Youth Scholarship Application letter, please click here.
For a printable PDF version of the Scholarship Application, please click here
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.
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.
