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Today’s Email Announcements

Upcoming Events at the Watauga Humane Society

SNIPS Spring Fling Celebration

Tuesday, May 9th4 – 9 p.m.

Come out and enjoy great food, drinks, crafts and more at BBQ, Burger & Brews!  BBQ, Burger & Brew is helping to support SNIPS, our Watauga Humane Society Low-cost spay neuter program by donating 15% of ALL proceeds.

SNIPS 8th Annual Spring Plant, Porch & Patio Sale

Saturday, May 13th8 a.m. – 12 p.m.

Plants, Plants, Plants! Get your growing season started off right by joining us at the Precision Printing parking lot for Perennials, Herbs, Shrubs, and more!

We will also be having our Camp Cats and Canines coming up June 22 and our Reading for Paws program starting June 13.

Spring Concert at the Chapel of Rest Features Ciompi Quartet with Clarinetist Doug Miller

The Chapel of Rest will host its Spring Concert on Sunday, May 7 at 4pm, and the public is cordially invited. The concert will include music by Mozart, Benjamin Britten and Antonin Dvorak, and will be followed by a champagne reception with the artists.

The Ciompi Quartet was founded at Duke University in 1965 by the renowned Italian violinist Giorgio Ciompi. All its members are professors at Duke and play a leading role in its cultural life, in addition to traveling throughout the year for performances. In a career that includes many hundreds of concerts and spans five continents, the Ciompi Quartet has developed a reputation for performances of real intelligence and musical sophistication, and for a warm, unified sound that is enhanced by each player’s strong individual voice. With a maturity and insight born of wide experience, the Ciompi Quartet projects the heart and soul of the music in a repertoire that ranges from well-known masterpieces to works by today’s most communicative composers.

Recent concerts have ranged across the U.S. including North Carolina’s Eastern Music Festival and Highlands Chamber Music Festival, and abroad from China to France, Italy, Germany, Prague, Serbia and Albania. The group’s latest recordings are on Toccata Classics and Naxos, and on numerous other discs with music from Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven up through the present.

Lenoir clarinetist Doug Miller first played with the Western Piedmont Symphony over 50 years ago while still a member of the Lenoir High School Band, and has been Principal clarinetist with the Orchestra for 37 consecutive years. He made his New York debut in Carnegie Recital Hall in 1973 as winner of the Artists International Management Competition and has performed with many orchestras and chamber groups. Doug has been a member of the Berkshire Music Festival at Tanglewood, the Mozarteum Festival Orchestra in Salzburg, the International Hindemith Festival in Los Angeles, the Wintergreen Music Festival and the Kalmen Opperman Clarinet Choir in New York.

Locally, he has played with the Roanoke Symphony, Roanoke Opera, the Winston-Salem Symphony, the North Carolina Symphony, the Greensboro Symphony, the Broyhill Chamber Ensemble, and with the Appalachian Woodwind Quintet. He joined the faculty at Appalachian State University in 1980 and has started his 38th year of teaching there. He may be heard on Richard Stoltzman’s “Aria” album on RCA and has also recorded on the Centaur label.

The Chapel of Rest is located nine miles north of Lenoir on Highway 268, adjacent to the campus of the Patterson School. Admission to the concert is $15 and includes the champagne reception with the artists. For more information, call 828 / 758-0906.

Vintage Valle Music Returns to Baird’s Creek Presbyterian Church 

MAY 21:  Vintage Valle Music kicks off its season on May 21, 2017, with the exciting classic bluegrass music of The Dollar Brothers!  There’s no better way to share the gift of music with neighbors than a healthy helping of bluegrass and gospel favorites joyfully offered up by Watauga County’s favorite sons!  Joining them on the May bill are The John Cockman FamilySarah & Mark McGuire, and storyteller ReVonda Crow!

JUN 18:  June brings an exciting new act, the multi-talented Sound Travelers.  This husband/wife duo entertains audiences up and down the east coast with their unique blend of good ol’ popular American and folk music, along with a generous sprinkling of lively tales to enthrall audiences of all ages and interests. Back again this year, are The Burnett Sisters. These talented shooting stars are wowing audiences, winning awards and accolades near and far with their traditional string music and beautiful harmonies.

JUL 16:  Popular favorites Folk & Dagger join Vintage Valle Music in July, offering our community an opportunity to enjoy their mix of nostalgic folk and popular culture songs, hidden gems they’ve discovered, and beautiful originals penned by Doris Bazzini. And, speaking of gems, it is an honor to have champion Scottish fiddler and violinist Maura Shawn share her spellbinding talents while on a rare visit back home in the High Country. Also in July, folksinger/hunger action advocate Bryan McFarland will entertain with his message songs and reminders that we can help our hungry neighbors with the gift of food.

AUG 20:  Finally, it’s yin and yangThe Threshold Singers will share their joyful choral music with the community on the final bill – they wowed everyone last year! And on the other hand – a tradition now at Vintage Valle Music -Vintage Valle Music closes the summer with the soul-touching, toe-tapping, rafter-rattling music of The Junaluska Gospel Choir!

Come as you are, stay all afternoon or just sit a spell and enjoy the gift of music our neighbors bring to the imaginary “back porch” of Baird’s Creek. The music is an eclectic mix of bluegrass, folk, gospel, country, patriotic, pop, jazz, old-time and new, familiar and original – whatever the artists feel led to share.  Come and join us. There’ll be no preaching, nor passing the hat, just good-time entertainment and neighborly visits.

Entertainment is from 4 to 6 p.m.  Held indoors, concerts are informal.  Admission is FREE!  Each month, Vintage Valle Music features a local need with suggestions of items to add to that month’s drive.  In May, we are collecting personal hygiene items, such as toiletries and paper goods, for a local family caring for a family member at home.

Baird’s Creek Presbyterian Church is located at 2147 N.C. Hwy 194 S, Vilas NC 28692, just 2 miles north of The Original Mast General Store, in Valle Crucis.

Author Christine Simolke to Speak at High Country Writers

Author Christine Simolke, Children of Italy, (Hawkins Publishing Group, June 2016) will present “Steps in the Publishing Process for First Time Authors” at the regular meeting of the High Country Writers at the Watauga County Library on Thursday, May 11, 2017 at 10:00am.

Her presentation will focus on the traditional publishing process (not self-publishing) for authors who wish to learn the steps involved in searching for a publisher. She will provide a detailed handout with information covered in the presentation and welcomes questions from the audience. Christine is a former middle school language arts teacher with a master’s degree in education and will be a faculty member at the Writers Who Run Retreat (Fontana Village Resort, NC) in June 2017.

She is founder of a writer’s group in Marion, NC and the chairperson of the McDowell County Library Board.

High Country Writers has been “energizing writers since 1995!” Regular meetings are at the Watauga Public Library on the second and fourth Thursdays of most months from ten until noon and speakers’ programs are co-sponsored with the Library. HCW members present writing skills workshops on the first Thursday of the month and have recently partnered with the Watauga Arts Council in hosting these workshops. In the event of inclement weather which dictates the closure of the Library, the High Country Writers Program will be canceled. For more information and a current calendar, visit the website: http:/highcountrywriterstripod.com/. Guests are welcome.

Upcoming Events at CCC&TI Landscape Gardening Program

Greenhouse Sale, Open to the Public

Caldwell Community College and Technical Institute’s Landscape Gardening program will host a plant sale that is open to the public. The greenhouse on the Caldwell Campus in Hudson will be open on Wednesday, May 3from 2:30 – 4:30 p.m.; on Thursday, May 11 from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. and on Friday, May 12 from 1:30 p.m. to 3 p.m.  The sale will feature a variety of plants, grown by students during the Spring Semester. For more information, contact Landscape Gardening Director Debbie Mitchell at 828-726-2362.

Make and Take “All About Herbs” Class

Caldwell Community College and Technical Institute’s Continuing Education Division will offer an “All About Herbs” course on the Caldwell Campus in Hudson that will focus on growing and harvesting herbs, pairing herbs with food, freezing and preserving herbs and making herbal products. The class is a “Make and Take Class” that will allow students to plant, maintain and take home their class herb projects. The course will be taught by Master Gardner Debbie Mitchell and will be held on Mondays from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m, May 22 through June 26. (There will be no class held on Monday, May 29 due to the Memorial Day Holiday.) Cost for the course is $70.  For more information or to register for the class, call 828-726-2242.