HISTORIC HAMMERED DULCIMER MUSIC IN NUNDA

On Sunday November 15 at 3 pm lively 19th century melodies on the hammered dulcimer will once again ring in the village of Nunda. The Nunda Historical Society is sponsoring a program by the Striking Strings Hammered Dulcimer Ensemble of the Eastman Community Music School at Trinity Church of Nunda. The group, directed by well-known folk musician Mitzie Collins, specializes in dance tunes and hymns that were popular in the 19th century. Collins is deeply interested in the local history of the hammered dulcimer. “Most people don’t know that in the 1860s and 1870s Nunda was a center of hammered dulcimer playing.”

Mitzie Collins is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music, and teaches Music History and hammered dulcimer in the Eastman Community Music School. In recognition of her many years of performing folk music, she was named 2011 Artist by the Arts Council of Greater Rochester. Mitzie was also honored as “Musician of the Year” in 2014 by the Alumna Chapter of Mu Phi Epsilon and is a member of the international board of the Cimbalom World Association,

Striking Strings was started in 2008 by Mitzie Collins. The group quickly became popular and has since performed throughout Western New York State. Members of the ensemble have played in Evart, Michigan, at the biggest hammered dulcimer festival in the United States, and also in Budapest, Hungary, at the 11th Congress of the Cimbalom World Association. Closer to home, Striking Strings is featured annually at the Genesee Country Village Fiddlers Fair.

This program will also feature the mountain dulcimer – in recognition of the Genesee Valley Mountain Dulcimer Club which meets twice monthly at the Nunda Historical Society. Sue Hengelsberg of Perry is a member of the Dulcimer Club and of Striking Strings. She is one of five Striking Strings members that recently attended the 13th Congress in England this October.

While the hammered dulcimer may not be well known today, for a brief period of time Nunda was the center of hammered dulcimer activity. M. and J. M. Ransom advertised that they were “Wholesale and Retail Dealers in Piano Dulcimers”, in Nunda. For several years they sold hammered dulcimers manufactured in the Ransom family’s previous locations. Mitzie Collins has pursued the history of these hammered dulcimers and notes “I have located more than a dozen hammered dulcimers made by the Ransom family that are still in the Genesee Valley.”

In addition to the modern instruments which ensemble members play, Mitzie Collins, and Sue Hengelsberg will bring 19th century dulcimers for display. Audience members will be welcome to play the instruments at the conclusion of the program.

The program will be held at the Trinity Church at 25 East Street in Nunda. Admission is free but donations to the Nunda Historical Society will be gratefully accepted. This performance is made possible with funds from the Decentralization Program, a re-grant program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Council on the Arts and administered by Livingston Arts, home of The Genesee Valley Council on the Arts. For more information can call 585-465-0971