O'Flaherty Irish Music Retreat

RETREAT UPDATES

This page contains the updates that have been emailed to our students regarding the 2007 O'Flaherty Irish Music Retreat. They are published here as a resource and are listed most recent update first.

Update Sent 10-22-07

Hello All,
We’re almost there, and things are looking great! Here are some important reminders and updates before you arrive:

Weather
Just took a look at our weather prospects for next week at http://www.weather.com and it says “sunny.” Of course, rarely is the forecast right in Texas, so you need to keep an eye on things as the retreat draws closer. We recommend you bring an umbrella or rain gear and something to cover your instruments as needed in the event of an outbreak of some sort.

Check-In
When you first arrive, we ask that you check-in at our retreat office. Once you’re at the camp, you’ll see signs directing you to the office. The office will be open 5-8 p.m. on Thursday, 8-5 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, noon to 7 p.m. on Sunday, and 10 a.m. to noon on Monday. If you arrive late or need to check out at times other than our office hours, call (972) 238-8724. This number will get you one of our managers. The office when open can be reached at (972) 723-2387 ext. 117. These numbers should be used for emergencies too.

Internet Connection Available at Retreat
The wonderful folks at Camp Hoblitzelle have installed a wireless network that should be accessible throughout the camp. To get on the Internet, log on to the network by entering “hoblitzelle” as both the log on ID and password.

Putt Putt Golf
For those who have the time, particular families of our students, the camp is opening up the Putt Putt Golf course and it’s free. The course is just north of the soccer field across from the pool. The clubs and balls should be at the course and there is no signup required.

Trail Rides
We received enough interest that the Camp will have trail rides at 1 p.m., 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. on Saturday. Just show up with your $10 and you will be given a horse and a guide who will take you around the grounds which are lovely this time of year. You don’t have to sign up in advance. Just go to the stables just before the times mentioned.

Snacks and Coffee
For the first time, the camp will open the Trading Post to sell snacks and drinks each day from 2:30-3 p.m. and 4:30-5 p.m. The Trading Post is located near the Main Office and it will be where the SCMA and Retreat booths will now be located. Coffee stations will be located at the Compton (where the Meet and Greet and Saturday Reception will be held), the front lobby of the Music Conservatory and the Trading Post. Coffee will be available for a donation.

Shuttle from Airports?
Because we only have a few students who signed up for shuttle service from DFW and Love Field Airports, it begs the question -- if we changed the schedule, would more people be served? Send us an email at retreat@irishtradmusic.org and let us know if you could use a shuttle but at other times than those currently scheduled. We might be able to arrange things.

Singers Scramble and Texas Tune Tussle
We have about 50 students participating in the contests and, while not bad for our first event, we sure would like more of you involved. If your staying with us through Sunday night, we encourage you to join in the fun. Participants will deliver our entertainment on Sunday night and, for their efforts, they will be receiving a special award that they will treasure and display ever year after. For singers, there’s the Singers Scramble and for melody and rhythm players there’s the Texas Tune Tussle. If you sign up for either, you will practice three times with an ensemble and perform Sunday evening before the final concert of our guest instructors. It’s not too late to sign up!

Clean Linen
If you have rented one of our motel rooms at the Barn, Alamo and Hacienda or one of our cottages, we are planning to provide you with clean towels each day. However, we only can provide towels for the number of people who have registered in the room. So you if you have folks who are staying in the room with you and we don’t know about them, that’s okay with us but they won’t be getting clean towels. J

Music Uploaded for Retreat CD and Basics Classes
We will be passing out a CD filled with tunes from our tunebooks this year, but if you don’t have the tunebooks, don’t worry because you can download the music from our website at http://www.irishtradmusic.org/retreat/resources.htm. Of course, both of our tunebooks will be available at the retreat. The download for “Tunes of the T.I.M.E.S., Vol. 1, just has the tunes that are on the CD. Also, if you are enrolled in the Irish Basics classes, Gordon McLeod has upload MP3s that you can access on the same resources page. Don’t you love this high tech stuff!

Meet and Greet Thursday Night and Reception Saturday Night
Two of our sponsors are hosting events at the retreat for our participants and their families. The kick-off event will be our Meet and Greet at the Compton hosted by the Trinity Hall Restaurant & Pub at 7 p.m. Thursday night. This will be a great time to reunite with students from past retreats and meet the new ones. Also, we want you to meet our teaching staff. The Reception on Saturday night will be hosted by the Southwest Celtic Music Association and will be held from 7-8 p.m. at the Compton. Both events will serve snacks and drinks and everyone is invited and encouraged to attend.

Class Locations
We have uploaded the most current class schedules WITH class locations included. If you are able, you might print them off and a site map and see where you have to go each day. To access the schedules, go to the CLASSES page at http://www.irishtradmusic.org/retreat/Classes/index.html and choose PDF or MS Excel spreadsheet. The site map is at http://www.irishtradmusic.org/retreat/07SiteMap.pdf.

Previous Updates
If this is your first email from us, you can go view an archive of our previous updates at http://www.irishtradmusic.org/retreat/updates.

We probably will send out a few more emails because we want you to have as much information as you need. If you have any questions, let us know! Thanks and stay tuned. We’re about a week away, and we’re getting excited!

Update Sent 10-17-07

Hello All,
Please pardon our last minute emails as there are things we need to advise you about the retreat that may be of interest. Here’s a few:

Cottage and Alamo Rooms Available
Due to some changes, we have one cottage and several rooms in the Alamo now available. To see them, go to http://www.irishtradmusic.org/retreat/lodging.html. If you need more info, contact Louvain Guiomard, our lodging manager, at (972) 230-2142. You will be able to reserve them now online by logging on to your account.

Interested in a Trail Ride on Horseback?
The nice folks at Camp Hoblitzelle have set aside some time on Saturday afternoon for a lovely trail ride on horseback for just $10 per rider ages 8 and older. The ride lasts an hour which includes 10 minutes of instruction and will be held at 1 p.m., 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. with a maximum of 15 riders per hour. If you’re interested, please reply so I can let them know the level of interest. You can bring your $10 to them when you arrive to ride. This could be a nice outing for families who at the retreat and not attending classes during the times offered. There’s a 250 pound limit for riders.

Weather
Just took a look at our weather prospects for next week at http://www.weather.com and it says “showers.” Of course, rarely is the forecast right in Texas, but you need to keep an eye on things as the retreat draws closer. We recommend you bring an umbrella or rain gear and something to cover your instruments as needed.

Singers Scramble and Texas Tune Tussle
We have about 45 students participating in the contests and, while not bad for our first event, we sure would like more of you involved. If your staying with us through Sunday night, we encourage you to join in the fun. Participants will deliver our entertainment on Sunday night and, for their efforts, they will be receiving a special award that they will treasure and display ever year after. For singers, there’s the Singers Scramble and for melody and rhythm players there’s the Texas Tune Tussle. If you sign up for either, you will practice three times with an ensemble and perform Sunday evening before the final concert of our guest instructors. It’s not too late to sign up!

Class Locations
You may have noticed that the online class schedules currently do not have locations listed. We are waiting to see how the classes fill in the next few days before we assign the classrooms. We should have the locations uploaded on the website sometime Tuesday night. To access the schedules, go to the CLASSES page at http://www.irishtradmusic.org/retreat/Classes/index.html.

Previous Updates
If this is your first email from us, you can go view an archive of our previous updates at http://www.irishtradmusic.org/retreat/updates.

Update Sent 10-13-07

Hello All,
It’s getting close, and we’re down to some minor matters that need your review:

Final Check
We still have a number of student accounts that are incomplete, i.e., missing meals and lodging, not all class slots are selected, balances due, etc. We would appreciate your looking carefully over your choices. Log on to your account and select “Generate Report.” This is what you should print out and bring with you to the retreat. It will give you a complete report on what you have signed up for and/or ordered for each person on your account. If you have any questions, contact our registrar Rick Roberts at oimr.enrollment@gmail.com. We want to make your check in as smooth as possible, so help us resolve any issues ahead of time.

Shirt Orders
We will have adult small, medium, large, extra large, 2XL and 3XL t-shirts and they are WONDERFUL! Thanks again to Emily Bryant for her handiwork. You can pre-order your t-shirt online at the retreat store so you will be guaranteed that a shirt will be waiting for you. You can access the store by logging on to your account and clicking on the “Store” link in the menu bar. Reminder – once you have finished making your selections of merchandise, be sure and scroll to the bottom of the page and click on “Select Purchase” to complete your transaction. You can pay with PayPal or send us a check.

Meals and Snacks
We will soon need to finalize our meals order so the camp staff can order their quantities. You might log on to your account and review what you have selected for meals and make any adjustments that need to be made. Once the retreat begins, you will only be able to add meals, not subtract. We have been told by the camp that there will be vegetarian options available each meal. NEW this year -- there will be coffee stations at several locations and the camp will open its Trading Post to sell snacks and drinks.

CD -- Tunes of the T.I.M.E.S., Vol. 1
This year instead of a tunebook, we will be giving our students a CD containing a number of tunes from our previous tunebooks. Each tune is played up to speed twice and slow once to help you learn the music. Special thanks goes to Gordon McLeod for recording the music and to all of the musicians who volunteered their time and talents.

Shuttle from Airports
So far, very few have signed up for shuttle service from DFW and Love Field Airports. Now would be the time to arrange for the shuttle if you are arriving at either airport. Review the schedule at http://www.irishtradmusic.org/retreat/FAQs.html#shuttle. You can reserve a seat by logging on to your account and clicking on the “Store” link in the menu bar. Scroll down to the shuttle service section and make your choices. Click on “Select Purchase” at the bottom of the page to complete your transaction. You can pay with PayPal or send us a check.

Singers Scramble and Texas Tune Tussle
Just another reminder that we are starting a new tradition at the retreat for student performance. For singers, there’s the Singers Scramble and for melody players there’s the Texas Tune Tussle. These are friendly contests that will be held as a final event on Sunday evening at the retreat. If you sign up for either, you will practice three times with an ensemble and perform Sunday evening for fun awards. You can sign up by selecting Singers Scramble or Tune Tussle during the 5-6 p.m. periods on Friday, Saturday and Sunday in the class enrollment section of your account. When you arrive for check in, you will learn what room your ensemble will be meeting in. A coach will be provided each ensemble but the ensembles will be responsible for their own music, presentation, staging, bribes, etc. Should be a hoot!

Bring Your Instruments, Recorders
All of the “instrument” classes require you to bring instruments, including pianos (electronic). We also strongly encourage you to bring a recording device. You don’t have to bring your instrument to class if you plan to audit a class OR the class is an informance, a class that is designed to be a demonstration of an instrument. By the way, if you want to sell your old or unused instruments, bring them to our retreat booth. We ask a donation of 20% if we sell them for you.

Refunds, Amounts Due
Unless we have arranged to do otherwise, you will receive a refund check at check in for any money we owe you. If you owe us money, please take care of this before the retreat if possible. We will not be able to accept credit cards at the retreat to pay your balances due, so bring cash or checks.

Twelve days to go, and things are looking good. I’ll send out another email next weekend with final details.

Update Sent 9/25/07

Hello Students of the 2007 O’Flaherty Irish Music Retreat,
Time is flying by, and that’s a good thing. For those of us who are working the retreat, we wish it were tomorrow. Needless to say, we’re getting excited and life is pretty busy right now. Here is an update:

Shuttle Service Planned
We have had requests for shuttle service between area airports and our retreat. When we priced them, they were way too costly, so we have decided to operate our own. The cost is $25 per trip from either DFW Airport or Dallas Love Field. If you wish to reserve a seat, log into your account and select “Store” and then scroll down and select “Shuttle Service.” View the schedule options carefully before selecting your trips, and please pay upon completion. For travelers to DFW airport, please allow time to take a Skylink train to the terminal where our shuttle van will pick up. We may add additional times if there are enough passengers to offset our costs. Here is the tentative schedule:

Thursday, Oct. 25th • Pickup from DFW Airport at 6 p.m. at the Skylink station on the departure level (lowest level) between gates C8 and C12. • Pickup from Dallas Love Field at 7:30 p.m.

Friday, Oct. 26th • Pickup from Dallas Love Field at 7:30 a.m. • Pickup from DFW Airport at 8:30 a.m. at the Skylink station on the departure level (lowest level) between gates C8 and C12.

Sunday, Oct. 28th • Depart to DFW and Love Field Airports at 6:30 p.m. and arrive around 7:30 p.m. at DFW at the Skylink station on the departure level (lowest level) between gates C8 and C12 and 8:30 p.m. at Dallas Love Field.

Monday, Oct. 29th • Depart to DFW and Love Field Airports at 7:30 a.m. and arrive around 8:30 a.m. at DFW at the Skylink station on the departure level (lowest level) between gates C8 and C12 and 9:30 a.m. at Dallas Love Field. • Depart to DFW and Love Field Airports at 10:30 a.m. and arrive around 11:30 a.m. at DFW at the Skylink station on the departure level (lowest level) between gates C8 and C12 and 12:30 p.m. at Dallas Love Field.

Tunebook Project Replaced by CD
Instead of publishing another tunebook this year to give to our students, we’ve decided to record a CD of a number of the tunes found in our two existing tunebooks. The tunes will be played up to speed twice and then slow for two more times. We’ve had requests for this in the past, and some of you have said “enough with the tunebooks… we’re still learning the 200 from the past books.” Message received, so look for your copy of the “Tunes for the T.I.M.E.S., Volume 1” at check in.

Sessions by Level
This year our teaching staff will be leading sessions for beginning, intermediate and advanced levels. These sessions will happen after our guest instructor concerts each night on Friday and Saturday evenings. The sessions on Thursday and Sunday nights are open to whoever shows up at the designated locations.

Singers Scramble and Texas Tune Tussle
A new tradition for the retreat are these two friendly competitions that enable our students to form ensembles that will perform on Sunday night during our farewell event. Participants will be assigned to ensembles that will have organized practices at 5 p.m. on Friday, Saturday and Sunday culminating in eight-minute performances later Sunday night at the concert. Awards will be given for “most entertaining,” “best judge bribe,” “most creative,” etc. all in good fun. It’s a great way to meet other players and be part of something that we hope will grow each year and serve as an entertaining end to full weekend of learning. If interested, you’ll need to log into your account and sign up for the practice sessions at 5 p.m. each day in the class enrollment.

Student Packets
If you haven’t been to the retreat before, you will receive more information about the schedule, other activities, sessions, etc. in a packet you’ll receive at check in. A lot of the information in this packet will be online just prior to the retreat in case you want to learn about any last minute changes (of the good variety) and stuff that we think might be of interest. Of course, you can always email us at retreat@irishtradmusic.org with your questions or comments.

Class Limits
For the first time in our history, we have set limits on the size of our instrument classes. We are now placing caps of 25 students on these classes. There is a likelihood that some classes will close soon as a result, so if you have friends that are on the fence, you might advise them to make up their minds soon or they may miss out.

Coffee Stations
You asked for them, so we’re going to have them. It will only be a short distance to the nearest coffee station traveling to and from classes. We’ll accept donations per cup to pay for it.

No Vendors, but Booths Will Be Open
We’ve tried to interest music-related vendors to come and sell their wares, but because of our narrow focus and enrollment numbers, we haven’t have any takers yet. If you know of some group or business that might be interested, have them contact us. As with previous years, we will have our retreat booth and SCMA will have its booth, so there will be a variety of items to buy. SCMA will be selling retreat instructor CDs and other merchandise while we will be selling our tunebooks, “Live at Trinity Hall” CD, t-shirts, key chains, etc. You are also welcomed to bring instruments or other musical items you’d like to sell to our booth. However, if you display and sell them at our booth, we ask for at least 20% to be donated to the retreat. We are very thankful to the many of you who have donated items for our donations table and contributed the entire sale to the retreat. Please continue this wonderful tradition in support of O’Faleherty’s.

Paying for Your Enrollment
A number of you have not paid for the retreat yet, and the October 1st deadline is approaching. If you don’t plan to attend this year and you have set up an account and enrolled into classes or reserved lodging, please let us know and we’ll clear your account for you. On the other hand, if you need more time past the October 1st to pay, send me an email at retreat@irishtradmusic.org and share your circumstances. We can work something out.

Retreat Benefit this Saturday at Trinity Hall Pub
For those of you in the Dallas/Fort Worth Area, we will be having our annual O’Flaherty Retreat Benefit at Trinity Hall Pub this Saturday, September 29th to raise funds for the retreat. The music is being donated by some of our area’s finest and will get underway at 6 p.m. and go until closing. There will be drawings and Trinity Hall is donating a portion of all meal sales. Admission is free. Please join us in support! Here is the schedule: 6 p.m. – Trinity Hall Session Players; 7 p.m. – Shift; 8 p.m. – Spriggan; 9 p.m. – Jigsaw; 10 p.m. – Beyond the Pale; 11 p.m. – Amberhawke; 12 midnight – Trinity Hall Session Players

For complete information about this year’s O’Flaherty Irish Music Retreat, go to www.irishtradmusic.org/retreat. To contact the retreat office, call 972-238-8724 or email us at retreat@irishtradmusic.org. Looking forward to seeing you all very soon! It’s going to be another great retreat.

Update Sent 8/22/07

Hello Everyone,
It’s a little less than three months away, and the O’Flaherty Irish Music Retreat online registration has already enrolled nearly a 120 students. That’s quite above what we would normally have registered by this time, so we thought it might be good idea to send out a reminder with an encouragement to enroll soon as we may have to limit enrollment in some of the classes.

In its fourth year, the O’Flaherty Irish Music Retreat has undergone some changes as it has become a full three-day music camp in 2007. This year’s retreat will begin on the morning of Friday, October 26th and end with a closing concert on the evening of Sunday, October 28th. •

Classes will begin at 10 a.m. each morning to allow students and teachers more sleep time to recover from the late night sessions. There will be three 90-minute classes and one 60-minute workshop offered each day. We have also extended the time between classes to 30 minutes. •

A new tradition for student performances will be offered this year featuring a “Singers Scramble” for singers and a “Texas Tune Tussle” for instrumentalists. Both are fun and friendly music contests that will be held Sunday evening at the close of the retreat. The students who participate will be assigned to ensembles and will attend three rehearsals at which time they will prepare performances up to eight minutes. Judges will award various titles to the winning ensembles, the “Most Entertaining” being the most coveted. •

The instructor concerts that are always a highlight at the retreat will be held each night instead of one long concert on Saturday night as with previous years. This will give students more time for sessions or to practice or socialize. For non-students, the concert series ticket gives admittance to all three concerts. By the way, our visiting instructors include such wonderful players as Matt Cranitch (fiddle), Patrick Ourceau (fiddle), Tommy O’Sullivan (guitar), Catherine McEvoy (flute/whistle), Mickey Dunne (uillean pipes), Pat Broaders (bouzouki), Mark Stone (bodhran), Therese Honey (harp) and others. •

In addition to classes in fiddle, flute, harp, uilleann pipes, tinwhistle, bodhran, guitar, piano accordion, button accordion, piano, concertina, harp, mandolin, tenor banjo, bouzouki, singing (English and Gaelic), singers voice lab, and learning by ear and by ABCs, some new classes offered this year include several on operating sound systems, voice performance classes, music of Sliabh Luchra, the importance of Irish pipes to the traveling community, forming bands, Irish music for classical players, and still more. •

Lodging on campus will be available from Thursday evening through Sunday night with check out by 11 a.m. on Monday the 29th. Meals will be offered Thursday dinner through Monday breakfast. •

Finally, the retreat website has a new look and a new online enrollment process. Please check it out.

For complete information about this year’s O’Flaherty Irish Music Retreat, go to www.irishtradmusic.org/retreat and see why the retreat is becoming a nationally respected camp for learning Irish music.

A few more thoughts. If you know of someone who might benefit in coming to our retreat, please forward this email to them. Also, if someone wants to come but can’t because of financial difficulties, we do have a limited number of financial need and music scholarships available. All of our scholarships are underwritten by the Southwest Celtic Music Association. For an application, go to http://www.irishtradmusic.org/retreat/scholarship07application.pdf.

The retreat is produced by the Traditional Irish Music Education Society (TIMES) and is sponsored by the Southwest Celtic Music Association, Trinity Hall Restaurant & Pub and Dr. Fred Stribling and family. To contact the retreat, call 972-238-8724 or email us at retreat@irishtradmusic.org. If you would like to be removed from this email list, please reply and enter “REMOVE” in the subject field.

Update Sent 5/20/07

Hello Friends of the O’Flaherty Irish Music Retreat!

Thanks for giving us your name and email address at the North Texas Irish Festival. Sorry for the delay in getting in touch with you about our retreat, but we were waiting to present our new website at http://www.irishtradmusic.org/retreat/ and new online registration process. We have long waited for this moment to announce “We are now taking enrollment for the 2007 O’Flaherty Irish Music Retreat!” Here are some updates:

• Mark your calendars – the retreat is October 26-28 at the beautiful, relaxing, and musical Hoblitzelle Camp and Conference Center in Midlothian, Texas.

• We are now officially a full three-day retreat. Classes begin Friday morning and our retreat ends Sunday night. We expect many of our students outside our area will arrive Thursday night and leave Monday morning.

• Each day (Friday, Saturday, Sunday) there will be three 90-minute classes and one 60-minute workshop. Classes now begin later each morning at 10 a.m. giving instructors and students extra sleep and session recovery time.

• We’ve got a superb lineup of instructors this year, including such wonderful players as Matt Cranitch (fiddle), Patrick Ourceau (fiddle), Mickey Dunne (uilleann pipes), Tommy O’Sullivan (guitar/singing), Catherine McEvoy (flute/whistle), Pat Broaders (bouzouki/singing), Mark Stone (bodhran), Therese Honey (harp), and many more.

• Due to a lack of dancers, we will not have a ceili and the accompanying student ceili bands. In its place and to really spark a tradition for student performances, we will have a “Singers Scramble” for singers and a “Texas Tune Tussle” for instrument players. Every student who signs up for one or the other will be assigned to an ensemble when they arrive. They will have three coached rehearsals and then participate in a fun and friendly contest on Sunday evening as part of our closing event. Various awards for most entertaining, most creative, best bribes to judges, etc. will be handed out.

• Instead of one long concert on Saturday night, we will now have “instructors concerts” for several hours on Friday and Saturday nights with a 30-minute farewell concert after the student performance contests on Sunday night.

• Lodging on campus will be available from Thursday evening through Sunday night with check out by 11 a.m. on Monday the 29th. Meals will be offered Thursday dinner through Monday breakfast.

• Our goal this year is to house as many of our students on campus who want to stay. That required us to design a lodging rate plan that gave incentives for students to add other students into their rooms. You’ll get room discounts by adding additional guests ($10 each per night).

• We now have a new online registration process! We are fortunate in that a new product developed by Glenn Standefer for enrolling students online is making its debut on our website. It should make things easier for you and our staff. Please refer to the help screens (click on the blue circles with the question marks) when you need answers. And please, give us your feedback as to how we can improve the process.

That’s it for now. Please visit our website soon and give it a test drive. We’re not through with it, but we wanted to get this year’s retreat information to you so you could begin planning to be there. Our hearty thanks to Emily Bryant who re-designed the site. And finally, spread the word to your local players, friends and family who would enjoy an extended weekend of Irish music this fall. Hope to see you there!