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Mission Statement
The Blue Ridge
Irish Music School (BRIMS) is dedicated to teaching the living art of
traditional Irish music, as well as to fostering a dynamic environment for it in
our community. We are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based in
Charlottesville, Virginia. BRIMS offers regular classes in Irish traditional
music on various instruments, and presents educational workshops, social events,
and ceilis. We sponsor master classes and field trips and actively support the
local session scene. BRIMS is constantly seeking new opportunities to teach
Irish traditional music and its social context to our more than 100 members and
our community. Our performing group and instructors perform extensively in the
local community, both formally and informally, contributing to its cultural
richness and diversity. We are dedicated, in all our educational efforts, to
nurturing and supporting musical integrity and the learning process. We always
welcome new members.
Irish
traditional music was developed by the Irish people, both at home and in
countries where they have emigrated in the last several centuries, and is now
played and enjoyed by many without any familial connection with Ireland. An oral
tradition, Irish traditional music is ideally transmitted from one generation to
the next and from musician to musician.
In our early
stages, members of BRIMS traveled to Ireland in April 2000 as part of our
commitment to teaching and to keeping the tradition alive and true to its roots.
By traveling to Ireland, the members of BRIMS discovered the music in its
original contexts, learned repertoire, technique, and perspective from local
musicians, and returned to Central Virginia able to further enrich the community
through performances, session playing, and presentations in the area. Alex
Davis, a 13-year-old fiddle student, wrote, "I hope to bring back to the
community more tunes to share, stories of new Irish friends, and a deeper sense
of what my music and instrument are all about." Irish traditional music is alive
and well in the United States, and its popularity has been steadily growing in
Irish-American communities and beyond.
With the quick
rise to prominence Irish music and culture have seen in the last few years, the
average American listener has access to productions such as Riverdance and even
to concerts by Altan, Dervish, and other traditional groups. These increasingly
commercialized means of getting the music to the consumer, however, often leave
little room for the transmission of context or the traditional musician's
perspective. To musicians in Charlottesville, VA, the urban centers of the East
Coast are both geographically and conceptually distant, and without convenient
access to urban Irish-American centers such as New York City or Boston, many of
our members first discovered the music at concerts and through recordings. They
later learned of the non-commercial, social contexts in which the music is most
usually found, and now seek opportunities to experience the living tradition.
The Blue Ridge
Irish Music School does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national
or ethnic origin, religion, gender, age, or sexual preference in membership or
any school administered programs.
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