Benefit concert

Benefit concert

at 4-H Center

Madeline MacNeil, who combines exquisite playing of the mountain and hammered dulcimers with a crystal-clear singing voice over a wide range of music, appears in concert on Saturday, Aug. 19 at 7:30 p.m. at the 4-H Amphitheater outside Front Royal. The concert is sponsored by the Blue Ridge Arts Council, and is a benefit for “Camp Fantastick”.

“My work is difficult to classify,” she says. “I play traditional music tempered with classical and jazz. Folk musicians would say I’m a classical musician, but classical musicians wouldn’t agree. I think it is a blessing that I can appeal to people who enjoy many forms of music.”

However her music is portrayed, Ms. MacNeil has pleased audiences throughout the United States and Europe, appearing at folk festivals and in concerts ranging from Wolf Trap Center for the Performing Arts to the National Cathedral, from .intimate concert halls to college auditoriums. This Summer her performances have taken her to North Carolina, Texas, Wisconsin, Illinois, Kentucky and several other states.

Critics have hailed her ability to “blend the beautiful and rare combination of voice and hammered dulcimer,” proving she is “as expressive a singer as an instrumentalist. ” Described as “an affecting singer and a master of both the familiar Appalachian fretted dulcimer and the less common hammered dulcimer,” Ms. MacNeil’s performances have won her praise and honors from several sources.

In June 1987, Ms. MacNeil was honored by the Summer Solstice Traditional Music Festival in Northridge, California, and recognized by the Senate Rules Committee of the California State Legislature for her contributions to acoustic music through performing, books, and recordings. She is a Touring Virginia Artist for 1989-90 under a grant from the Virginia Commission for the Arts.

For information about the concert contact the Blue Ridge Arts Council at (703) 635-7171.

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