Mountain Empire Community College Press Release

Press Release
MECC • 3441 Mountain Empire Road • Big Stone Gap, VA 24219
Phone 276-523-7480 • Fax 276-523-7430
E-mail: sfisher@me.vccs.edu

Some of the young people honing their musical skills at the 5th Annual Mountain Music School this summer in Big Stone Gap got some extra lessons from Brad Paisley and Alison Krauss at the White House.

Mountain Empire Community College received an invitation from the White House to send fifteen Mountain Music School students to a music series celebrating arts and demonstrating the importance of arts education.

Attending were Tyler Hughes, Starr Braize, Anna Skinner and Sydney Skinner (Big Stone Gap); Molly Slemp and Andrew Taylor (Norton); Anna Fugate and Blake Fugate (Duffield); Trinity Mumpower (Mendota); Evan Collins (Dryden); Brook Garrett and Torrey Garrett (Pennington Gap); Mary Katharine Cohellia (Harlan); and Marlena Green and Jacob Tilley (Kingsport).

Accompanying the students were Mountain Music School director, musician, playwright and composer Ron Short, music instructor Joan Short, and Sue Ella Boatright-Wells, director of MECC’s Center for Workforce Development.

According to Boatright-Wells, seventy students ranging in age from ten to ‘whatever,’ enrolled in this summer’s week-long Mountain Music School, learning to play banjo, guitar, fiddle and other instruments in the old-time mountain style.

Another invitation from the Virginia Community College System brought three of the Mountain Music School students on stage in Richmond last week before a large gathering of community college leaders from across the state.

Molly Slemp, Tyler Hughes and Jacob Tilley sang and played traditional songs and instruments with their director Ron Short, ranging from coal mining blues to Carter Family classics.

MECC’s Mountain Music School is dedicated to the preservation and continuation of Appalachian music and culture, bringing together young and old to spend a week taking beginning, intermediate and often advanced classes.

As summer leaves take on autumn colors, many of the students and their instructors will be found on the stage at Home Craft Days, the premier festival celebration of Appalachian culture and music in the region.

The 2009 Home Craft Days celebration will begin with a concert on Friday, October 16 in the Goodloe Center on the campus of MECC. More music and crafts will be on display and for sell on October 17 and 18 from 10:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.

Fifteen of the younger students enrolled in this summer’s Mountain Music School were special guests at the White House to attend a music workshop celebrating arts and the importance of arts education. They were accompanied by (back row, l to r) Sue Ella Boatright-Wells and Joan and Ron Short.