2009 Accent on Music Guitar Seminar
July 20 - 26, 2009

2009 Seminar Wrap Up

View Photo Gallery from the 2009 Seminar

We had lots of fun at the seminar this year. It was a wonderful group of people; the atmosphere was great, the summer heat held off until the week after the seminar, and the music was spectacular! We had a great week of classes, highlighted Tuesday evening by Chris Proctor's interactive workshop/concert, a jam session in the dorm lounge Wednesday eve, student recitals spread out over Thursday and Friday eves, and Doug Smith's performance on Saturday morning.

The Saturday evening public concert by the three instructors was great. I think it was worthy of the standing ovation that we received! Three hot solo sets were followed by half a dozen wonderful worked-out/improvised trios, including Satie, samba, and swing. To top it off, Greta sang the Irish ballad "Foggy Dew", backed up by a true Celt, a Kentuckian and a Scandinavian. How ecumenical!

After witnessing the trio set that ended the Saturday show, Greta commented that this trio topped all the others in the 12 years we have hosted the seminar. That is saying something, with Tommy Emmanuel, Laurence Juber, John Renbourn, Guy Van Duser, Alex deGrassi, Doug Smith, and many others included in that list! Tony, Pat and I jammed Monday evening for over an hour after the introductory teacher-concert for the students, witnessed by most of the attending students. With that as a kick-off we got a good feel for playing together right from the start of the week.

Saturday afternoon we rehearsed for several hours to learn and hone the tunes for the concert that night. The work showed! We played a cool three-part African-inspired piece by Pat; my favorite, "Bye Bye Blues", from the now deceased legend Les Paul; a lovely Canadian waltz and a Satie piece that Tony brought to the ensemble; and several others.

Students packed up and left Sunday morning, and I cleared out the dorm leftovers and headed home. It was great to have them all here - both the students and the teachers. We all had a good time!

-Mark Hanson, August 2009