P.S.
• If you know someone who’s considering a college, our Admissions Office would like to know about them! Contact them at 1-800-934-3536 or <admit@warrren-wilson.edu>
• If you’re considering joining us and are wondering what kind of environment you can expect, just remember that the Swannanoa Gathering is not a conference center or resort, but a music camp held on a college campus (Remember camp? Remember college?). Although the support services of the college do a great job accomodating our requests, they also have their own schedules and other duties. We may not be Club Med, but we work hard to make everyone feel welcome. And, unfortunately, until we can afford that biodome, I’m afraid we can’t control the weather, either.
• If you’re interested in carpooling to the Gathering, check out the ‘RideShare’ page at our website.
• One common question on our evaluations concerns why different instructors teaching the same class are scheduled at the same time, since many folks expressed a desire to study with both. The reason we have additional sections of the same class is not to provide a double shot of the course to the same group of students, but to allow more students to take the class. To achieve this, we schedule them at the same time to have people choose. The good news is that we work hard to ensure that any choice will be a winner. And for you Celtic and Old-Time Week fiddlers, Fiddle Week should offer you a second opportunity to take classes in your favorite styles.
• Children under 12 may continue to stay in a room with two adults, at least one of whom is a registered student, at no charge. The accompanying adult should provide bedding for the child and the second adult must agree to the arrangement, otherwise it will be charged as a single room.
If you got this newsletter in the mail, you’re already on our mailing list. Please check to make sure that we have your current address and notify us if we need to update it. If this newsletter came to you by some other means, be sure to provide us with your contact info to make sure that you’ll receive a copy of our catalog in March. You can email, call or mail in the form here, but the best way is to fill out the form on the ‘Join Our Mailing List’ page at our website. You can find it under the first menu item at the top labeled ‘About Us’. If you’re online, you’ll find that the text of this newsletter and our catalog will appear at our website around the time hardcopies appear in the mail. It’s a good idea to check the website occasionally for any program and/or staff updates.
From the course schedule found in our catalog, each student can plan a curriculum tailored to his or her needs and interests. Although it’s possible to register for as many courses as there are class periods for that week, we recommend that students consider carefully how many classes they want to take, since too many may not leave enough opportunity and/or practice time to absorb all the material presented. Those taking a double-length fiddle class during Celtic Week, for example, may find it to be all they can handle. Also, because class space is limited, we ask that students adopt a “take all you want, but want all you take” attitude out of consideration for their fellow students. That being said, however, overachievement is certainly available for those type-A’s who thrive on that sort of thing. Evening activities include open mikes, staff concerts, student showcases, jam sessions, song swaps and more. Each week’s schedule has its own characteristic variations, but in general, the sample schedule below shows what a typical day’s activities might be.