2007 Lancaster Festival Diary

Note: I’ve played the Lancaster Festival (Lanfest) since July, 1989 and I’ve been a Festival Board member since 2003. My opinions make be slightly effected by the love forces that I have been surrounded by for eighteen wonderful years.

Tuesday, July 17th, after my afternoon kids concert at Easton Town Center’s Splash Fountain, I cleaned up and headed for Lancaster and the Ohio University Lancaster Campus for a welcome picnic for the participants of the 2007 Lanfest, including performers, volunteers, professional service suppliers, executive staff , friends of the Lanfest and board members.

The rain clouds and I parked at the same instant and in no time Maestro Gary Sheldon and his bride, Janet, were rushing their new twins, Jacob and Ruby under cover in a nearby campus hallway. Despite the drizzle, my attraction was to the picnic buffet, which was under cover and needing to be guarded by me and a few other brave souls. I personally protected a large, well-done frank by dressing it onion, relish, a gourmet mustard and no bun, but the pasta salad was less safe. I allowed it to be attacked by a dinner fork and it was surrendered.

When the drizzle disappeared and peace returned to our little lawn party, Lanfest executive director Lou Ross welcome old and new friends to the opening of the event and board president Nils Gustuvson introduced volunteers honored by inclusion in the Lanfest Walk of Fame. Lou distributed the new staff garb, copies of the 2007 Lanfest program booklet, then we all returned to kissing, hugging, taking pictures and visiting the beverage bar.

In addition to Gary Sheldon, Eleanor Hood, Barbara Hunzicker, Dr. Jonathan Nusbaum, Steve Rosenberg, Ann Chess and Carol Abbott, longtime brain trusts of Lanfest, Diane Schick, piccolo and flutist and violinist Darryl Murray are among the most enduring friends of Lanfest. Diane, an A plus party animal, exudes so much joy for life that she is a love magnet. Darryl is a fiddler of many styles and he loves to jam, as does Dr. Steve Cox, an active board member who has “tramboned” with me on my tribute concerts for three years.

Lanfest director Lou Ross and I share the secret world of New Orleans music together, since he was a student at Tulane and learned his craft as an arts presenter during those Big Easy years. We both “know what it means to miss New Orleans.”

The Chicago Brass Quintet joined the picnic and we renewed our friendship with hugs and conversations about their travel. Ross Beaucraft and James Mattern have been blowing beautiful and challenging brass notes at world audiences forty-five years or more. Recent travel has taken then from Chicago to South America, Brazil and after Lanfest they were heading back to Columbia.

I shared hugs with David Meade, Live Tech president and owner and his wife. I had sent them some love two weeks before, in honor of their daughter, photographer Rebecca Meade, who died in an Athens skateboard accident in November, 2005.

The lawn party eventual ended, only to continue at the Fairview Lounge where Lanfest board member Bob Wolfinger bought the first round and told the legend of the Fairview, a tavern that has lived on since the American Alcohol Prohibition Era in the 1920s. I had a good beer or two and met Dmitri Pogorelov, violin and Ian Maksin, cello, two hugely talented players, born in Russia. Ian was also a licensed airplane pilot and flying enthusiast, as am I. We made plans to go to Dayton and visit the birthplace of aviation.

I left the Fairview Tavern in a dark rainstorm, hoping for green grasses and clear skies for the rest of the 2007 Lanfest.