Students earn guitar workshop scholarships
Hey savvy news reader! Thanks for choosing local.
You are now reading
1 of 3 free articles.
PABLO — Organizers of the Crown of the Continent Guitar Foundation announced today that five students at Salish Kootenai College have been awarded a $5,000 scholarship to attend this summer’s Crown Guitar Workshop Aug. 30 – Sept. 6 at Flathead Lake Lodge in Bigfork.
Two of the winners have been enrolled in the new guitar education program at SKC that began this past winter and grew out of a collaboration between the Crown of the Continent Guitar Foundation and the Salish Kootenai College Foundation. Tim Torgerson, a former Crown Guitar Workshop Scholarship student, teaches the weekly course that will resume this fall and is open to college-eligible students.
The five scholarship winners from SKC include:
— Doug Ruhman has been a guitarist for more than 38 years and has written close to 60 original compositions, performed as a solo artist, and has been a guitarist in five different touring bands. Doug has taught group guitar classes for school districts, adult education classes, as well as designing and teaching college level courses. He currently teaches at SKC.
— Nick Adamson is a descendant of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribe who says playing the guitar has been a large part of his life for as long as he can remember. He comes from a family of guitarists and received his first guitar at the age of 12. Largely self-taught, he began to excel when his cousin began showing him techniques. His introduction to an acoustic guitar at the age of 14 gave him a new perspective on music and expanded his playing styles.
— Jordan Albert is a self-taught guitarist who has been playing guitar for years in a band with his father and brother, performing at no expense for local nonprofits and community events. His future music plans are to write and play music from the heart.
“Music takes you away, it’s real. It gives you thoughts and feelings you can’t explain. Since I started playing, the dream and adventure of creating my own style and songs have instilled a need and must in my life,” he said.
— Marthe VanSickle, an SKC student, says her musician father created in her an early love for music and from him she developed a passion for the blues. An accomplished violinist, she recently picked up the guitar and registered for the Crown Beginning Guitar class offered at SKC.
“Guitar has given me something to let me be free and find my spirit,” she said. Marthe wants to continue learning the guitar and seeking mentorship with the hopes of performing one day. She is currently pursuing a degree in molecular biology at SKC.
— Jorren Geis is a self-taught guitarist who is currently a student at SKC pursuing a fine arts degree. He joined the beginning guitar class at SKC and says that guitar has played an important role in his life and the class kept him in school at a time when was ready to drop out. Along with playing and song writing, Jorren is also interested in lutherie, the craft of making stringed instruments. He has attended a program to learn how to build a guitar and currently plays one he built for himself out of mango wood. He wants to continue on the path of building guitars from the ground up and to learn to play classical music and compose his own music.
The workshop scholarship provides a rare opportunity to learn from nationally and internationally renowned guitar artists and master teachers in seven guitar genres: jazz, classic rock, blues, classical, singer-songwriter, acoustic and beginner.
Artists scheduled to teach at the workshop include Dweezil Zappa (son of the famous rocker Frank Zappa) along with Tim Miller, a member of the Berklee College of Music faculty; The Grammy winning LA Guitar Quartet; Jon Herington, lead guitarist for Steely Dan for 20 years; singer songwriter Madeleine Peyroux; Jazz legend Lee Ritenour; Brett Dennen, a popular singer songwriter; Texas blues-man David Grissom and Brazilian guitarist Romero Lubambo.
On Aug. 5 a “Live at Finley Point Grill” fundraiser will be held to support the scholarships and programs of the Crown Guitar Workshop and Festival.
The fundraising party begins at 6 p.m. with appetizers and drinks and both a silent and a live auction that offers prizes like tickets to the Adams Center, home of the Grizzlies; a gourmet dinner with music provided by the COCGF, and a Hawaiian vacation. All auction proceeds will support the scholarships and programs of the nonprofit COCGF that produces the Crown Guitar Workshop and Festival.
For more information about the Crown Guitar Workshop or to learn more about the public Crown Guitar Festival, visit the website www.crownguitarfest.org or call 855-855-5900.
