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Questions?
Email Barbara
bcgiamalvo@aol.com
or
Fuey
fueyherring@gmail.com
Registrar:
June Fessenden
jsfess@acn.net
or 602.765.2832
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The Arizona Autoharp Club sponsors monthly meetings in Phoenix, as well as sponsoring autoharp workshops at festivals throughout the state. In January, 2006, we held our first Arizona Autoharp Festival, which has now become an annual event held on or around Presidents Day Weekend in February of each year.
Our meetings are held on the second Saturday of each month, year-round. The facility where we meet is centrally located in downtown Phoenix in the Fellowship Hall of the Church on Fillmore. It’s easy to find, on Fillmore between 7th and 9th Avenues. A monthly reminder email about the meeting is sent to all who sign up for the email list.
To be added to the email list, contact June Fessenden at wwjdsurfer@gmail.com or call her at 602.765.2832.
If you would like to put on an autoharp workshop at an Arizona Festival, or to discuss any autoharp related questions, contact Barbara Giamalvo at bcgiamalvo@aol.com.
First AZ Autoharp Club Gathering April 2003
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LINDA HUBER
Personal Reflections from Barbara Giamalvo
Thanks to Linda Huber there are autoharpers gathering in droves in Phoenix AZ, Tucson AZ, Prescott AZ and at every bluegrass, folk and old-time fiddle festival in the state....How did Linda start such a revolution?? Well, Linda’s son, Gary Hellick, was a student at ASU. Linda would visit her son, for years, during the winter, during the Phoenix Folk Festival. In 2000, I attended her workshop and sing-along and heard her telling the *head honcho* of the Phoenix Folk Festival, Lon Austin, that her son was going to be graduating and she would not be returning to Phoenix in the winter. I butted in and said to Lon....I would love to take her place !! Me who had never taught ABC’s to anyone yet....me who can’t read music....me who decided I’d better get my act together....found out that Fuey was moving down the road from me....asked Fuey how many autoharps do you have? Can we put harps in people’s hands if we can put together a workshop? Miss Positive Fuey said sure. The next year....there we were...beginning autoharp 101....
So thanks to Linda Huber we now have over 200 autoharpers on our email list....at sometime or another each one has passed thru the state of Arizona and played with one of us. “Members” are folks who have asked to be put on our calendar list....attended festivals with us and shared the joy of learning a new tune....or an old one....stood on stage to sing....with our harps....joined us at our Christmas concert at Encanto park....played at skilled care nursing homes where friends’ children or relatives now reside....cruised together to Alaska (in less than 4 hours we were performing at a benefit we put together for Talkeetna's high school burning down the day before we arrived) ....sat on a stump in the middle of the dessert jamming till all hours, with the sheer joy of hearing our heavenly music...attended a meeting, learning how to field strip and gut their harps and then put them back together again and still work!!
Our club has grown.... so many talented folks....so much more fun to be had…. so many great memories! Jamming on an empty river bank....in a pouring down monsoon....in front of a roaring fire....or with Tommy at our regular monthly meeting....
Thank you, Linda.....and thanks to your son for coming to Arizona! [Gary received his Master's degree in Bass Trombone Performance and Pedagogy at ASU in 2000.]
More Club History from Fuey:
Soon after our first organizational meeting in April, 2003, we were very fortunate to meet Tommy Tharp, who had been offered the use of an autoharp by The Church on Fillmore, which is centrally located in Phoenix. Soon after, Tommy had arranged for us to meet in that Church's Fellowship Hall and the club has been meeting there for monthly meetings every since. It's been a big asset for the club to have a regular meeting time and location. The church has been generous with us, and we have done our best to contribute to them, as well.
During our first 3 years, we were able to bring in a number of out-of-town guests to our monthly meetings--most of whom presented workshops and/or concerts. The list includes Bryan Bowers, Cathy Britell, Gordon Baker, Pete Daigle, Adam Miller, Jon ten Broek and Todd Crowley. For several of these guests, we arranged visits to our "satellite" groups in Tucson and Prescott, AZ, where their workshops were very popular and drew more members for our mailing list.
In the winter of 2005, Cathy Britell was a guest at our club, and she encouraged us to sponsor a winter autoharp festival. Through her good graces, the First Annual Arizona Autoharp Festival was held in January, 2006 at the Church on Fillmore. She was the featured performer and workshop leader at the one-day event, which also included workshops and performances by Hal Weeks and beginners’ workshops by Barbara Giamalvo.
Important Links to autoharp related sites:
Cyberpluckers: An international autoharp discussion group: www.autoharp.org
Autoharp Quarterly: A source for autoharp resources; including a quarterly journal subscription and autoharp supplies: www.autoharpquarterly.com
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