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Yorkshire Meditations Roland Waite was born in 1928 in Yorkshire, England. He grew up there, became a design engineer, got married and started a family. In 1966 he moved with his family to Charlotte, North Carolina were he still resides. Roland started painting in the 1980’s as a post retirement hobby. Intrigued by the pioneering photography of Frank Sutcliffe who photographed the Yorkshire coast and vicinity during the Victorian period, Roland painted from those photographs. The north Yorkshire coastal villages are all now part of the North York Moors National Park and remain largely unchanged. Roland was a faithful viewer of The Joy of Painting with Bob Ross on PBS and taught himself landscape painting first in oils but switched to acrylics early on. At 91 he still watches painting shows on PBS, stretches his own canvasses and paints a dozen or so paintings a year. Roland has painted villages, abbeys, dales and moorland scenes from all over Yorkshire. As he paints he finds himself transported back to the area and reconnects with the timelessness of the terrain, the history and way of life in the dales, moors and coastal villages as well as his own memories. |
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Guitarist Michael Furry Michael Furry is the bluegrass ensemble director and building coordinator at the University of Denver's Lamont School of Music. In 2013, Furry graduated summa cum laude from the University of Colorado at Boulder where he received a masters in music theory. He also holds a bachelor of arts in guitar performance from the University of North Texas. Furry is an experienced educator at both the undergraduate and graduate level. He has established relationships in the non-profit community of Denver, including Swallow Hill Music, by assisting with their communication outreach workshops through the Denver Public Library System. He organizes and participates in volunteer performances at the Goddard School of Early Childhood Development, performs at the Parkside Village Retirement Community and performs with his bluegrass/folk/americana group, Hilltop Harvest Band. On top of maintaining an active performance schedule, Furry is an active competitor in guitar competitions across the country. Furry is the 2018 Utah State Instrument flat-picking champion, the 2008 Dallas Observer Music Showcase flat-picking champion, the 2018 Utah State Instrument finger-picking runner-up and the 2016 and 2017 RockyGrass flat-picking runner-up. Furry has toured the U.S. as a guitar player for more than 15 years and has opened for some of the biggest names in the industry including Grammy award-winning artist Snarky Puppy, Rebirth Brass Band, The Motet and Cornmeal. Performance highlights include Austin City Limits, South By Southwest, Wakarusa Music Festival, RockyGrass Bluegrass Festival and the Ogden Bluegrass Festival. |
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