The End of Our Homeschooling Journey

I've been absolutely horrible at blogging since the summer. No excuses other than finding other things to fill my time.

So catching up a bit....

Summer in Dublin was a wonderful experience. We walked all over the city and saw sights we never would have thought to see on a short vacation trip. We spent many days hiking the cliffs of Howth or from Bray to Greystones and took two trips up to Belfast and Giant's Causeway. Haley was fabulous in Riverdance and she loved performing the show and the people she worked with. She loved playing the music and the spaces where she was able to improvise a bit. She enjoyed meeting and making friends with her co-workers. She had her first taste of a real social life with nights out, a few dates, and hanging with friends. I was glad to be there and meet the people she will be touring with for six months beginning in January. Our last week in Killarney was my favorite time. The beginning of the week was sunny and a bit warmer than Dublin. I am not a city-person so preferred the green and the mountains.

While in Dublin, Haley began her final semester of high school and, about halfway through the run, her dual enrollment courses started so she was working hard to meet school deadlines, go to work each evening, and have some time to enjoy the experiences Dublin had to offer. Once we got home from Ireland, eighteen hours later we were on a plane headed to California for a festival with accordion player John Whelan. When we got home from that a day later, we drove to Baltimore, MD for a weekend of music creativity with a new ensemble she is looking forward to working with. A week later, we spent three weeks on the road, driving from NC to Vermont for a tour with Quinn Bachand then south to Philadelphia to visit family, then New York and back to Philadelphia for two gigs with Mick Moloney and friends then home for the month of November.

All the while, she kept up with school on the road. She finished up her final two weeks of dual enrollment courses while putting together and touring A Christmas Celtic S*journ in Boston, MA. My hard-working girl graduated high school in December with a 4.0 GPA and 42 college credits.

She had planned to complete her Associates degree by the time she graduated high school (originally planned for May 2020) by taking the rest of the college courses in Spring 2020 but with the opportunity to tour for six months as fiddler for the 25th Anniversary North American Tour of Riverd*nce, we decided she would graduate early and enjoy tour without the additional pressure of college courses. This provided her the opportunity to determine how much free time she will have for coursework while touring as she transfers to University of North Carolina-Wilmington to earn a Bachelor's degree in International Studies with a concentration in Arts and Literature in the fall. The online degree program will allow her to continue doing what she loves--touring with her music--while completing a degree. All her community college credits will transfer so she is 1/3 through college.

Haley began the 25th Anniversary North American tour in Montreal in January right after New Years and everything was going amazingly well. The company flew her to Dublin, Ireland for a week in February to do their 25th Anniversary shows at the 3Arena, one of which they filmed for movie theaters. Mid-March had her performing at Radio City Music Hall when the coronavirus turned the world sideways. Her daddy and I had flown up for a week to be with her in NYC but by the 3rd day of shows, the company decided to cancel the rest of the tour and we brought her home to North Carolina where we've been quarantined since. (We did go out that first weekend to see Haley on the big screen for the Riverd*nce movie premier then returned to our solitary lives.)

Haley has been keeping herself busy learning Irish, coming up with music projects for herself, practicing, exercising, cooking/baking, blogging, reading, and drawing. Just waiting to see what is going to happen...

Life Lately...

We have been so busy I have neglected to blog. 

After Christmas, we had about six weeks off. We organized the house, Haley studied a lot for school, and we enjoyed some relaxing weekends. We eased back into our crazy life with six days in Kansas City, MO where Haley and Dylan had an official showcase at The Folk Alliance International Conference.

Haley and Dylan doing a private showcase in the wee hours of the morning.

The conference was definitely an experience. I got sick on Day 1, so it wasn't as fun for me as it might have been but the kids had a blast! They performed a great official showcase and four private showcases, saw old friends and met new friends, watched/listened to lots of music, played lots of music session-style, and barely slept...some private showcases were at 2am. The entire hotel was taken up by music. There were three floors with private showcases in each room and walls covered in poster advertisements of where people were performing. There were so many conference rooms for official showcases of every type of folk music available to listen to. 

March Madness began with the yearly gig at Cumberland County College where Haley, Dylan, and Corey performed. The following weekend Haley and I headed to NYC for a show on Broadway at Symphony Space with Mick Moloney and friends for A Celtic Appalachian Celebration. Haley spent the entire day working with the other musicians to put the show together then they performed that evening, receiving two standing ovations! The show received wonderful reviews and was fabulous! The next day we were back at Sacred Heart Church in Camden with Mick, Athena, Liz, and Billy for a fundraising concert.

Haley with 2016 NEA National Heritage Fellow, Billy McComisky

Here's what putting a show together looks like...

The view from backstage at Symphony Space.

 Last weekend, Haley had two shows...one at the Philadelphia Art Museum on St. Patrick's Day and the other at Cathedral Basilica in Newark, NJ. 

St. Patrick's Day at the Philadelphia Art Museum (*photo credit to Ray Banas)

This weekend we are slowing down a bit for a performance at a nursing home on Saturday and a packing event for Feed My Starving Children on Sunday.

Besides the many gigs of March, we have been busy...

-We are firming up plans for a three week "tour" in South Carolina and Florida next month. 

-The charity CD for the Mercy Centre Music for Mercy was released two weeks ago and Haley finished getting it up on CDBaby this week... check it out here. The CD is wonderful and I am so proud of all the work Haley and her friend, Patrick Finley, did on the project.

-Haley and I (as her chaperone) were invited by Mick and Father Joe to visit the Mercy Centre in June. Mick has performances planned with Haley at the Irish Embassy and university in Bangkok and she and I will be able to get to know the children who live at the Mercy Centre. We are very excited!!

-We have our summer camp schedule set and registrations are all finished.

-Haley has been working hard on her school courses and learning new classical pieces, happily practicing hours each day.

-I have been fighting a cough since the conference in February.

Making the World a Better Place...

Over two years ago while in Boston for a gig, we stayed with Brian and Lindsay O'Donovan. Brian had invited Haley and Dylan to perform an opener for a weekly live music show he hosts.

As I readied her breakfast that first morning, Haley read a newspaper clipping on the refrigerator about Lindsay and a music CD she had produced called Lullabies of Love. Lindsay had visited an orphanage in Africa, invited various Irish musicians to record a lullaby, then sold the CD and sent the proceeds to that orphanage. Haley immediately told me she'd like to do something like that but with young musicians.

The idea was tabled for a while as Haley, at the time, was working on recording her first solo CD but every once in awhile the next year or so, she'd write down ideas of who she'd like to approach about her idea and we talked about how to go about it. Last March, we were in Boston again and Haley and I talked to Lindsay about her idea and about how Lindsay had produced her own charity CD. After that talk, Haley started planning more seriously. She wrote out a list of young musicians (under 21 years old) from all over the United States, Canada, and Ireland who she has met through Irish music.

Then Haley had to decide on a charity to support with the CD. She wanted to make sure the project would appeal to young musicians from around the world so a more global than local charity and that the money she raised would go toward the children rather than covering high salaries for people in charge. Her first and final choice was The Mercy Centre in Bangkok, Thailand. For the past four years, Haley has been invited to participate in a fundraising concert in New York City for the Mercy Centre. Mick Moloney and Donie Carroll are two wonderful, generous Irish musicians who have supported and visited The Mercy Centre for years. Last year, Haley wanted to do a little more than perform in the concert so she sold her hand decorated mutes and donated the proceeds to the orphanage. The Mercy Center is a home for abused and neglected street kids many of whom have been born with the HIV virus. The Mercy Centre is everything for those who have nothing.

Once she had her list of musicians and charity chosen, Haley composed an introductory letter telling them about her idea and asking if they would be willing to donate a track.

The positive response was overwhelming!

She created a private Facebook page for the musicians to share information. She found a friend, Patrick Finley, who is not only a wonderful young fiddler but also has a gift for graphic design. She and Patrick spent many evenings messaging back and forth to come up with a cover design. Eventually, the tracks started coming in from the amazing young musicians along with bios and photos. Gabriel Donahue, a multitalented musician and generous soul, agreed to mix and master Haley's project so we met with him one evening to go over tracks.

Once all the tracks were submitted, Haley ordered them, sent the order and bios/photos to Patrick to create a pamphlet to go along with the CD, and developed an Indiegogo campaign to raise enough money to print the CDs (along with a bit extra to help pay the shipping costs to mail finished CDs to the participating musicians in Ireland to sell). Please click on the link above if you are interested in learning a bit more about the project.

I am so proud of all the musicians who participated in this charity project. In an age when people often lament the next generation,  on the Music for Mercy CD are over twenty six young musicians who have studied their individual instruments and practiced to a high standard then happily and enthusiastically put those talents to use helping young people in Thailand who are less fortunate than themselves.

March Madness 2016

March is the best month to be an Irish musician! St. Patrick's Day brings out the Irish in everyone. This year, both Haley and Dylan had a full calendar of events with everything from small performances at a school or nursing home to huge concerts with well over 1200 people attending.

Here's a quick summary of our March fun!

The first weekend of March, Dylan headed off for a weekend long festival in West Virginia with his band, Poor Man's Gambit. They played five shows and Dylan taught a Irish guitar workshop. It was his first group teaching experience and he received a nice note afterward from one of his "students" saying how much he enjoyed the class and that he learned a lot.

A few weeks before Dylan's trip, I had to do some quick thinking and juggling because he was supposed to perform with Haley that Saturday night at the local community college. I remembered Haley's buddy, John Whelan, was performing close to us the night before so asked if he'd mind staying over and helping Haley out with the performance. He agreed!  The concert was an "onstage" concert where they had the musicians with the audience onstage sitting on chairs in bleachers around them with a house concert-like vibe. The two of them had a blast working out a set list Saturday afternoon then performing it that night. They always sound great together!

Afterward Haley went out to meet the audience and autograph CDs. The little guy below was so enthusiastic throughout the concert, clapping and dancing in his seat!

That Sunday, Haley was part of a recording project with other Philadelphia area Irish musician then we made a mad dash back across the bridge where she performed for an area nursing home. The next two days were spent working on completing a recording of Miss Kathy's second audiobook project Bugaboo Bee's Bop with Haley doing the music and sound effects on her fiddle. The book and audiobook will be released on April 4th.

On Wednesday March 9th, we all piled in a stuffed full car with Keegan and his mom, Lynette, for the drive to Long Island to begin a mini-tour. Méara Meara had four gigs in two days out on the end of Long Island all arranged by our friend, Kira McLaughlin, who was also kind enough to put us up and feed us.

We were up bright and early Thursday morning for a gig at the middle school where Kira is librarian, Pierson Middle School in Sag Harbor, NY. Haley worked with the school strings students on a tune she had sent them previously to help them make the tune sound "Irish." (They will be performing the tune as part of their spring concert.) Afterward we took a walk around Sag Harbor then later went back to the school where the band performed a concert and answered questions for all the middle school students.

That night they joined more musicians to perform for the residents of beautiful Peconic Landing. 

Friday morning, Haley, Dylan, and Keegan were part of a group performing for the workers at  Southampton Hospital. They performed during lunch in the cafeteria. After the hospital, Haley and I took a walk with Kira on the beach looking for sea glass while Lynette and the boys stayed back at the house to rest and catch up on school work.

Then we took the ferry over to Shelter Island where they performed for a full house at Shelter Island Presbyterian Church. 

Saturday morning Haley, Dylan, and I were up very early to catch the 7am ferry over to Connecticut then we drove up to Burlington, VT for the next leg of the tour in VT. Haley and Dylan had been looking forward to going to Burlington, VT because they were teaming up with Studio2Stage vocalist Gerlisa for the gig and they hadn't seen her since last summer! We met with Gerlisa shortly after arriving and they worked out their set, mixing songs and tune sets with a little dancing by Gerlisa. We checked into our hotel and settled our luggage then it was time to head over to the venue. The concert was a fundraiser to send the Young Traditions Vermont group to Ireland next month. Haley, Dylan, and Gerlisa performed in the first half then the Young Traditions Vermont Performance group performed. Everyone did a great job and it was an enjoyable concert.

The next morning we took a walk around Burlington to see the shops and Lake Champlain then had some lunch at The Skinny Pancake where they had a Bluegrass band playing live. We then drove to Montpelier where Haley and Dylan performed a house concert hosted by Donna and John, two wonderful people with the cutest pups! There was a nice crowd with a number of young people attending. We had fun talking to and meeting people after the concert then we went to the small cottage in their backyard for the night. (Dylan wants one.)

Monday was an early morning followed by a meet-up with Mark from Young Traditions Vermont then a drive to do two different school programs. The first was at Randolph Elementary School where they played and talked to a gym full of kids and the other at Braintree Elementary, a much smaller school, where after the concert, Haley sat with the 5th and 6th grade girls and Dylan sat with the boys for interviews. They students came up with some great questions and follow-ups and they had some nice discussion…the students will write up their interviews for a class assignment.

After the school programs, we drove through snow to Boston…if you've read about any of our other trips to Vermont, you would know we have not yet been to Vermont without snow involved. We drove straight to the North End, looking forward to home-made pasta at our favorite Italian restaurant. We were not disappointed!  After dinner we drove to Haley and my "home" for the next week with the Coyne family. They are an awesome family of musicians and it was nice to spend some time with them and get to know them better. There were tunes before bed.

Tuesday we sent Dylan on an Uber to the airport where he flew home for five days of gigs with his band Poor Man's Gambit. Haley and I hung out for the day…did a little shopping and spent some time at the Boston Science Museum where we enjoyed the butterfly garden, a talk about astronauts, and a movie about dinosaurs in the huge theater.

Butterfly photos courtesy of Haley…

Wednesday was a very long day of rehearsals for the show A St. Patrick's Day Celtic Sojourn. Haley loved every minute of it. They started at 10am and, I think, we left some time after 5pm. They worked out the show order, multiple different collaborations, and ran through everything until it was ready for tomorrow's performance.

The show ran Thursday night in Worcester, Friday night in New Bedford, two shows on Saturday in Cambridge, and the final show Sunday afternoon in Cambridge. We had a blast! The show was awesome! There were little surprises (the dancer in the green dress for instance), lots of silliness, and instant friendships! The show host and his wife were amazing, the music director was on top of everything, the musicians were all wonderful, and the dancers were fabulous! I never get tired of seeing Haley collaborating with other musicians and sharing her music with an audience. She is completely at ease and her love of the music and fun she is having are so evident! She amazes me!

The photos below are from sound checks...

Haley starting the show.

Irish traditional music…session band.

It will be an experience Haley will never forget!!

Catching Up Post...

Wow! I cannot believe I have neglected my blog for so long! I had a couple posts started then got busy and never got back to them. Life has been a roller coaster ride for the past few months. I feel like I have taken on a second full time job trying to manage the kids' schedules. 

Here is a bit of what we've been up to the last few months…

Around the time Haley and I went to Ireland last fall, Dylan was invited to become the guitarist for a new-ish Irish band/trio called Poor Man's Gambit. They are based about 90 minutes from our house in the Bethlehem/Allentown region and many of their gigs are up that way so Dylan has been doing a lot of traveling back and forth for gigs and rehearsals and the other band members have spent a few weekends in our basement recording tracks for their website and a demo CD.

It has been a wonderful opportunity for Dylan to hone his backing and recording skills. He's started singing a bit and playing more of his other instruments (banjo and bouzouki). It is nice for him interact musically with other young musicians besides Haley, though sometimes keeping schedules straight is like walking a tightrope…this is also complicated by the fact that he's an 18 year old male who doesn't always make his schedule known until the last minute.

They have a lot of gigs booked so looking forward to watching the band grow!

Poor Man's Gambit.

Poor Man's Gambit

Among other things in November, Haley helped out with a fundraising concert at the New York Irish Center with Mick Moloney, Donie Carroll, James Keane, and Gerry O'Sullivan for the Mercy Centre in Bangkok, Thailand. We made a long weekend trip to North Carolina to visit family for Thanksgiving. It was wonderfully warm and we rented a house at the beach so we enjoyed long walks to watch the sunrise and sunsets.

Mercy Centre fundraiser.

In December, Haley was invited by Mick Moloney to perform in his An Irish Christmas shows at Symphony Space in NYC. She has done these shows for the past few years and enjoys the variety of music and the guests. Mick always has performers from other cultural traditions perform. 

Haley and Mick before the show.

One of Haley's favorite parts of performing with bands like this is the pre-show preparation and hanging out with other musicians. She worked with the other fiddle players to come up with a "fiddle" set for the show, learned a couple new tunes from Billy McComisky, the accordion player, and had a great time.

Haley with the fiddlers, Athena, Donna, and Liz.

She got to meet Bill Whelan, the man who composed the music for Riverdance, and hear him play a beautiful composition, on piano with Athena playing fiddle which I think they collaborated on.

Haley with Bill Whelan.

The Irish Christmas Show from backstage. This photo looks like a watercolor painting.

We had a wonderful, quiet Christmas at home. Our family was alone for the holidays so invited some other people spending the holiday alone...our friend, Kira, from Long Island and our neighbors down the street who Dylan helps out now and then. It was a perfect Christmas with food, family, and friends!

Haley and Kira

Between rehearsals, sessions, performances as a duo, Poor Man's Gambit performances, and the holidays, the kids' band, Méara Meara had a number of performances including the one below at Swarthmore Library. The place was packed with over 100 people in a not very large area.

Méara Meara at Swarthmore Library.

They also donated their time and talents to help raise money for the Heart of Camden project. Some other musicians were unable to perform so we invited sisters, Emily and Livia so play and at the end all the kids played a set together.

Celtic Spring at Sacred Heart Church.

The last two nights have been the best. Our friends, Altan, were in the area (kind of) so we were able to   be at two of the concerts on their current tour. Friday night they performed at Longwood Gardens. Haley's friend and bandmate, Keegan, lives close so we went to his house for dinner, went to the concert, then stayed over. What a gorgeous venue!! Haley was able to play a few sets with them and at the end of the concert, they invited Keegan and another wonderful flute player from our area, Paddy, onstage as well.

Haley with Altan

Paddy, Keegan, and Haley with Altan.

Martin having a powwow with Haley onstage…telling her how the song she happened to be onstage for went.

Keegan and Haley with Mairead

That was going to be our only chance to see them. Mairead invited Haley to come to their Saturday night show but it was two hours away and we had a lot to do…the next few weeks are going to be crazy busy so Haley and I went home from Keegan's, stopped at the gym to workout, but on our way to the car after, Haley received a message from her friend from Studio2Stage, Mackenzie, asking if she could come up because Mackenzie was dancing for Altan that night. Haley really wanted a chance to see Mairead's daughter, Nia, who would be at the show, and Mackenzie so we decided to make the two hour drive.

What a great night! We stayed backstage with the band after soundcheck. Sat around talking and eating…I am constantly questioning different musicians about life "on the road" to try to get an idea of what this life my daughter is determined to have is like…good, bad, and ugly. Haley was able to interview Mairead for her blog (www.tunefuljourneys.blogspot.com) and she got to see Nia and her dancer friends.

Ciaran told Haley this would be his signal for her to take her solo during the finale set.

Altan finale

Haley and Nia after the show.

Haley with her Studio2Stage friends.

March Madness begins next weekend…it's the busiest month for Irish musicians. Haley and Dylan have so many really neat opportunities for performances coming in the next few months! I feel like I need a secretary to keep track of everything and talk to all the people we need to talk to to make arrangements and do publicity but it's all worth it. I am so grateful for the people we've met who have taken an interest in spending time with Haley and Dylan and helping them. We have an awesome musical family!!

I love seeing my kids having so much fun doing the things they love to do most! They are getting to the point where they only need me to be the secretary, for Haley the chauffeur, and occasionally as a sounding board when they want help with certain decisions. It is amazing to watch them mature and take control over their musical journeys, discuss and arrange music with other musicians, advocate for themselves, and make decisions on where they want their lives to go.

Stay tuned!!

Studio2Stage 2015 then some downtime...

Haley and Dylan at dress rehearsal.

It's been awhile since I blogged. July was an incredibly busy month. We spent four days home, during which I worked all day long, after Swannanoa then the following Friday, I took Haley and Dylan up to Kean University for Studio2Stage 2015.

Haley did Studio2Stage last year and had the time of her life. She even talked Dylan into going this year by appealing to his love of music ("Dylan there are 80 beautiful dancers and only a few boys.")….he did not regret the decision to go one bit.

In the six weeks prior, they learned and practiced all the tunes and songs for the show together. Some were the same as last year and others were newly composed. Haley helped Dylan with figure out the arrangements and how it was all supposed to sound.

They spent the first few days at camp working with the other band member on the arrangements, harmonies, back up vocals,  etc…By Tuesday, they had all the music ready to go and the rest of the week they performed the music for the dancers and worked out their stage arrangements in rehearsals leading up to the shows on Sunday.

Photo by James Greenan, dancer extraordinaire!

It was work but also a lot of fun. One night they had a quiz night and divided the kids onto teams then gave out prizes. Another night was an Oscar's Night where everyone dressed up and they handed out awards then had a dance and pizza. Last year, Haley was too young to stay on campus so I went back each night and picked her up. We stayed with friends who live five minutes from campus. This year they had no problem with her being on campus so she had a room but I still went and picked her up a few nights so she'd get some sleep.

Boys at Oscar's Night.

Girls at Oscar's Night.

On Friday, I joined them on their trip to New York City. Yes, they trudged 90-something young dancers and musicians onto the train from NJ to NYC, then we walked to Times Square where they performed a number in the middle of Times Square (which luckily ended just as a police officer began to question the man in charge), then back to the train and Kean University. There's a little video of the train ride at the end of this post!!! Fun!!!

The musicians in NYC…

 Eventually the week had to come to an end. They did a dress rehearsal on Saturday then two shows on Sunday. The shows were fabulous! My son, who was reluctant to go to camp initially, now would love to tour the world with an Irish dance show.

Musicians after the show!

This year we were unable to swing the trip to Ireland for the All Ireland competition. We are watching it and enjoying it vicariously through Facebook and rooting for friends who are over there competing this weekend. Without the trip, our August is fairly quiet and calm for a change. Last weekend we actually had an entire day and a half home to clean and catch up on things. I planned the school year for the kids (I'll post that in another post) as well.

Last Sunday afternoon, Haley joined Miss Kathy at the Jersey Fresh Festival where she had a great time (and got over her fear of large furry costumed things) fiddling for the Philly Phanatic…

 This weekend we are home…though we might just sneak into the city for a session tomorrow since my kids can't be away from Irish music too long without going through withdrawal.

The kids' keep marking their wall calendar when we receive notice their album is being played on the radio in different locations. Last weekend, their music was heard as far as Western Canada, Hawaii, and Australia!!!

Studio2Stage takes NJTransit with Liam O'Sullivan, Haley Richardson Haley Richardson Music), Dylan Richardson, Alex Weir, Michelle Lee, Jim Murrihy, Anthony Davis, Aidan Garvey, Miriam Lee
Posted by Donna Richardson on Sunday, August 2, 2015