Wednesday, May 28, 2014

The New Old Time Chautauqua seeks local musicians

The New Old Time Chautauqua (NOTC) is a group of volunteers comprising of performers, musicians and educators who have since 1981, been touring the Northwest from Alaska to Northern California and Oregon to Montana. The group will be here in Orofino a little later this summer, July 31 – Aug. 3. Typically the group makes a three-day visit to each community they tour

The first day of their arrival, a huge potluck dinner is shared to enable everyone to meet, greet, eat, and share a few laughs.

The second day of their tour is comprised of community service. The band, performers and educators will visit State Hospital North, the prison, and the Teweepuu Center on Highway 12 outside of Orofino.

On the last day of their visit, a parade leads onlookers to the workshops. The family style Vaudeville Show will be held at the high school as a grand finale.

In Idaho, they have performed at Salmon, Boise, Sandpoint and Coeur d’Alene over the past 30 years. This year NOTC plans to make a special trip to Orofino as their final stop; the reason being, that their eldest member, folk singer, Faith Petric passed away on Oct. 24, 2013, at the age of 98.

To honor her and the land she came from, the final show of this year’s tour will take place in Orofino.

Faith was raised as the daughter of the Methodist Circuit Rider, Stephen Merrill Craig. Her grandfather was Thomas Curry Craig, a Chaplain who came to Idaho following the Civil War.

As a young girl, Faith attended the Chautauqua which came to Orofino almost one hundred years ago. The show must have made a huge impression on her because Faith eventually joined the organization in 1982. “She was the best ice breaker ever and literally knew over a thousand songs by heart, many of them she learned in Orofino.” said Paul Magid, coordinator of this year’s New Old Time Chautauqua.

There are many photos of her taken by her mother that will be featured at the Clearwater Historical Museum beginning in mid June.

The exact location of the Craig homestead was ambiguous for quite some. After many questions and a great deal of searching, the coordinator of the group discovered through the Clearwater County Assessor’s Office that the old Craig cabin homestead was located on the North Fork of the Clearwater River, near Grandad Bridge. A few close family members and members of the NOTC group were hoping to disperse her ashes near the Craig homestead while they were here.

The Chautauqua group is very proud of their marching band and is inviting all local musicians to perform with them in the parade.

The group will even send the music ahead of time so you can start warming up now. Those interested may contact Mrs. Kathleen Tetwiler (the music director at OJSHS) via email at tetwilerk@jsd171.org. to receive sheet music written specifically for their instrument or to receive music with the lyrics of the song to accompany the choir.
 
Another area of the Chautauqua in which the public is invited to participate is the workshops, which will be held after the parade on day three (Aug. 2).

The workshops are an eclectic mix of song swaps, quilting workshops, juggling classes, knot tying, local cartography, etc. Chautauqua encourages members of the community to share whatever workshops they would like to lead as well.

For questions, workshop ideas or more information, contact Paul Magid at pauldmagid @gmail.com.

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