Arts & music
Wellsboro Community Concert Association There was Rosa Hamilton, a talented local voice teacher who had sung at Woodrow Wilson’s memorial service. And pianist Mercedes Dunham, classically trained but with a soft spot for ragtime, who had played the organ for silent films at Wellsboro’s Arcadia Theater. And Alma Webster, who, without formal training, learned and then taught piano (in addition to teaching in various one-room schoolhouses). And Lyda Green, a pianist trained at Ithaca College of Music who memorized her favorite music so thoroughly that after her hundredth birthday, when her eyes had long gone bad, she could still play Chopin. These Wellsboro ladies, tied together by the inevitable interdependencies of small-town life, and in particular by a profound love of music, began to wonder in the settling years after World War II why their little country locale shouldn’t enjoy some of the same artistic entertainments found in the bustling cultural crossroads of the big cities. So in 1948, in uniquely capable and determined style, Rosa, Mercedes, Alma, and Lyda arranged contracts with the then well-known booking company Columbia Concerts, thereby giving birth to the Wellsboro Community Concert Association and seeing to it that quality music and dance—live and first class—would come reliably and affordably to their doorsteps. No one can say for sure if the four imagined that their organization would survive for long, but endured it has, for nearly seven decades, with the dedicated help of a long string of local volunteers, year after year bringing top-notch arts and entertainment to Wellsboro and Twin Tier residents. Now housed in the Deane Center for the Performing Arts at 104 Main Street in Wellsboro, the WCCA is entering its seventieth season and invites you to join the thousands of music lovers who have through the years enjoyed the efforts of Rosa, Mercedes, Alma, and Lyda. This season’s line-up includes Tusk, the ultimate Fleetwood Mac tribute band, on Friday and Saturday, October 6 & 7, 2017; Sultans of String (pictured above), a JUNO (Canadian music award)-nominated world music group featuring master sitar player Anwar Khurshid, on Saturday, November 4, 2017; River City Brass Quintet, a subset of River City Brass of Pittsburgh, AKA “America’s Favorite Brass Band,” on Saturday, December 16, 2017; The Gibson Brothers, an iconic bluegrass band known for super-fine instrumentalism and tight harmonies, on Saturday, February 24, 2018; Rob Ickes and Trey Hensley, Grammy-nominated guitar and dobro virtuosos, on Saturday, March 24, 2018; and April Verch Band, a JUNO-nominated Canadian fiddler and step dancer, on Saturday, April 7, 2018. Visit www.wellsborocca.org for more information about the organization and the upcoming concerts, or call the Deane Center at (570) 724-6220.
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