From the President:

I am very thankful for the GPDA and to stay in touch with other like minded musicians. I just want to say too, that everyone really seemed to step-up for the WUP and I was very sad and disappointed that I could not go. I hear everyone had a wonderful time.

Winfield is over for another year and I was able to attend for a short time on Friday to watch the Dulcimer contest. I was able to talk to the winner just before the announcement of the top five and she was very humble and kind. Congrats to her and I am sure she was very grateful to have won and deserving.

Seems like we all have things to be grateful for. Erin just told us there is an offer from Winfield Arts and Humanity to help us purchase cases for our cardboard dulcimers from a grant they received. So exciting and supports Erin’s mission to teach kids to play the instrument. WOW!

Some of us have been ill, but recovering well now. Thank God for that.

Now on to more grateful items. The end of the year means Thanksgiving and Christmas. We have so much to plan for and getting several requests to play some gigs. Be sure to attend our general meeting to get in on the scoop of things to come!

For those in the Orchestra, once again we were not able to play and I know you all worked very hard to learn the music and how to play parts with others. It was so awesome the last time we practiced! We can keep those pieces for next year.

Let’s look at forming a Christmas orchestra though! I would really like to see a GPDA orchestra that learns new pieces and plays year long. No, you don’t have to join FNDO, just practice with us and let’s see where it takes us. This is not just for dulcimer players either.

Debbe and I are going to Black Mountain to play with the First National Dulcimer Orchestra in October. There will be between 30 to 40 players in the orchestra. It is going to be awesome. We practice with the whole group on Tuesday nights and they provide sound files to practice with and Debbe and I practice our parts together. Amazing music and so much fun.

Many events coming up to sign up for, Christmas Party to end the year! Good friends, fellowship, and music, oh and yummy cookies!!! What more could we want!

Keep the music in the air,

NancyJ