Old Town School of Folk Music

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The Old Town School of Folk Music celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2007.

The Old Town School of Folk Music is a Chicago teaching and performing institution that launched the careers of many notable folk music artists. Founded by Folk musicians Frank Hamilton and Win Stracke, the School opened in Old Town in 1957 offering guitar and banjo lessons in a communal teaching style and hosting performances by well-known folk musicians. Currently the School enrollment is about 6,000 students per week, 2,700 of them children.^[1]

1 History
2 Today
3 See also
4 Footnotes
5 External links

[edit] History

[edit] Founding

"We wanted to make music accessible to everyone, we wanted to bypass the formal educative type of note-reading you'd get in a music academy and emphasize the social aspects of music. We wanted to see involvement by people who wouldn't normally think they had musical talent, and bring out whatever they had."

^[2]
-Frank Hamilton

The Old Town School was originally founded by musicians Win Stracke and Frank Hamilton and opened December 1, 1957. Win was a classically trained singer and Frank was a young multi-instrumentalist and teacher of folk music; Frank had previously studied under Bess Lomax Hawes, wife of folklorist John Lomax. Win and Frank met at the Gate of Horn nightclub in Chicago where they were both performing. Together Frank and Win developed a classroom technique based upon traditional oral and folk teaching methods: listening, watching, trial and error, and playing by ear. Where other music schools taught sight reading and performance, Win and Frank wanted the Old Town School "method" to retain its emphasis on participation and development of aural skills. Early Classes were held in dining room at the home of co-founder Dawn Greening ^[3] ^[4]

Several of the early faculty at the Old Town School were past members of Win Stracke's the "I Come For to Sing" review. A folk review performed by a rotating group of artists, the program was a variety show in which each program revolved around a particular topic, the songs and readings presented would all deal with that topic. Win Stracke, Studs Terkel, Big Bill Broonzy, and Fleming Brown were all members of "I Come For to Sing" at different times. The school would also publish a folk magazine by the same name from 1975-1987. ^[5]

[edit] Songbook

The initial version of the Old Town School Songbook was an unbound stack of pages to be added to a three ring binder. A collection of 94 songs mostly North American in origin, but selections from Israel, Ireland, England, Chile were added. In keeping with the teaching philosophy of the school it favored lots of songs which were suitable for group involvement. On each page was a short history of the song, the chord progression, rhythm indicators, a transcription of the melody and lyrics for the verses. Chord fingering charts were provided for guitar and banjo.^[6]

[edit] 1960s and early 1970s

Pete Seeger, Mahalia Jackson, Jimmy Driftwood, Big Bill Broonzy, and Josh White all performed at the Old Town School in its early years.^[7] Early teachers at the school included Chicago blues guitarist Big Bill Broonzy, and banjo player Fleming Brown. The formation and growth of the School coincided with the folk music boom of the 1960s and early 1970s.

Throughout its existence the School has focused on offering both instruction and performance with many performing musicians also acting as teachers and mentors. The School also proved a rich ground for collaboration. The late 1960s were a peak of success as several musicians associated with the School rose to national prominence, including Roger McGuinn of The Byrds, Fred Holstein‎, John Prine, Steve Goodman, Bonnie Koloc, and Bob Gibson. The school moved into its first home at 909 West Armitage Ave.^[8]

[edit] 1970s & 1980s

Enrollment peaked in 1975, but as the folk revival declined in the mid-1970s so did the fortunes of the School; although it continued to provide music lessons to hundreds of students the School suffered financial difficulties and was on the brink of bankruptcy in 1981. It was discussed at this time to move the school from its aging facilities on Armitage Ave. to the Suburbs. A new group of directors took over shortly afterwards, increased fund raising efforts and slowly brought the School back into profitability. They also expanded the school's curriculum to include ethnic and traditional world music.^[9]

[edit] 1990s

After occupying a building at 909 West Armitage Avenue in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood for several decades, the Old Town School in 1998 expanded into a new and larger main branch in the former Hild Library at 4544 North Lincoln Avenue, with a 400-seat concert hall. The move allowed the school room to expand its music education program significantly.

[edit] Today

Founder Frank Hamilton teaching a workshop. November 2007

As of late 2003, Old Town School has occasionally held or sponsored concerts in the 1525-seat Harris Theater for Music and Dance located mostly underground in the downtown Millennium Park.

Today, the Old Town School continues to offer music, dance, art and theater classes and performances for adults and children at both locations and children's classes in some suburban branch locations. Students from all over the Chicago area attend weekly classes taught by dedicated professionals. Students can also take ensemble classes, working with others on the music of groups like the Beatles, The Grateful Dead, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, and many others. Most classes perform at the end of the eight-week term in the "Big Gig" or at local venues. The current enrollment is about 6000 students per week.

Many well-known folk, world, bluegrass, jazz, blues and country musicians from all over the world perform at the Lincoln Avenue location.

There are two music stores called the Different Strummer and the Different Strummer Armitage that sell musical instruments for children and adults, books, CDs, accessories and more. Students of the school may also rent instruments.

Each summer the Old Town School hosts the Chicago Folk & Roots festival in nearby Welles Park.