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World Class Guitar Talent Comes to Bigfork

By Beacon Staff

Crown of the Continent Guitar Foundation will host a guitar virtuoso concert on May 1 in Bigfork, featuring nationally recognized musicians, and it has also scheduled a weeklong guitar workshop and festival for later in the summer.

Not bad for an organization started as an idea among friends in late 2009, founder David Feffer said.

The foundation began as an idea batted around the kitchen after a night of music last summer, Feffer said. A group of local and visiting musicians had gathered after a fundraising concert at Flathead Lake Lodge and discussed how fun the night had been and wished the entertainment could continue.

“There ought to be a way of doing more of this,” Feffer remembers them saying. “We just kept talking and the ideas kept getting bigger and bigger.”

The idea of a guitar foundation for the Flathead stuck with Feffer. He said he decided to check interest in the foundation’s possibility and, after receiving positive feedback, the idea became a reality.

Crown of the Continent Guitar Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to celebrating guitar across all genres, Feffer said, inspired by the unique environment near Glacier Park and in the Flathead. The mission is to build the Flathead’s reputation as a national center for guitar study, composition and performance, he said.

Feffer said he set his sights on programs for summer 2010 because of Glacier National Park’s centennial celebration. This decision came in the second week of December, 2009, Feffer noted.

“Not a single person thought we could pull it off this summer,” Feffer said, laughing.

But pull it off they have, and in notable style. The first offerings from the foundation come on May 1, when they host a guitar virtuoso concert at the Bigfork Center for Performing Arts featuring nationally acclaimed musicians Doug Smith and Andrew Leonard.

Michael Boshka, a musician raised in Bigfork, was also scheduled to join in the festivities with his three-movement piece, “Triple Divide Peak,” commissioned for the event. But due to medical complications, he will be unable to perform at the May 1 concert, Feffer said.

“We very much look forward to premiering (“Triple Divide Peak”) in Bigfork at a later date,” Feffer said.

Smith comes to the Flathead from Portland, Oregon, and is a champion finger-style guitarist. He is also a Grammy winner and brings an inviting and energetic presence to the stage.

Leonard lives and teaches guitar in Hatfield, Mass., and is a classical guitarist. He performs songs from Spain, South America and Turkey, along with classical music and tunes inspired by American folk music. He ran the guitar department at the University of Kentucky before moving east in July.

Leonard remembers taking part in the initial conversations about a guitar foundation for the Flathead. He was visiting his longtime student, Feffer, and played at the fundraiser. It was also his first time hiking through Glacier Park, an experience that partially motivates his return to Montana in May.

“I’ve basically been jumping at any other chances to come back and perform,” Leonard said in an interview last week.

The Bigfork concert also offers him an opportunity to work with Smith again, Leonard said. The two toured together for about five years earlier in the decade, but haven’t played together since.

“This is very exciting on a number of levels,” Leonard said.

The May 1 concert is the foundation’s debut experience, but an even bigger event is scheduled for Aug. 29 through Sept. 5 – the foundation’s first weeklong guitar workshop and festival.

Smith and Leonard will teach classes along with other guitar greats, including renowned jazz guitarist and composer Pat Metheny, Grammy-award winning classical guitarist Scott Tennant and Grammy-nominated finger-stylist Alex de Grassi.

Feffer said there are already seven scholarships funded for the workshop, one specifically designated for a student under 17 years old.

The foundation hopes to make the workshop an annual tradition and part of accomplishing that is making sure the families of those involved – both teachers and students – experience Montana as well, according to Cheryl Richmond, who sits on the foundation’s board of directors.

This means providing fun activities, such as hiking trips or cooking and painting classes, for those not participating in the musical aspect, she said.

“We want them to go away with the idea that they’re going to be coming back,” Richmond said.

Tickets for the May 1 performance are available at www.bigforktheater.org and cost $22.50 for adults, $15 for children. Tickets are also available in downtown Bigfork at Electric Avenue Gifts and The Coffee Cellar and in downtown Kalispell at Colter Coffee Roasting.