This page undergoes frequent revision! Please visit us often!
Latest Update: Spring 2008
Jim & Maggi Dalton's rather Eclectic Guide
to CULTURAL RESOURCES
Links of Interest, Usefulness, and Amusement
Performance/Production/Publishing/Studio
Concerts, Workshops & Residencies
Understanding History Thru Music ™
Specialists in 19th- & Early 20th-Century Music From Parlor and Stage
American & Celtic Traditions
Period Instruments *** Historically-Informed Performance
PHOENIX MANDOLINS
Visit the Phoenix Mandolin site.
Jim Dalton endorses and plays a Neoclassical Phoenix Mandolin.
Incredible work by Rolfe Gerhardt.... Study Phoenix Mandolin Construction.
Find out where you can shop for your own mandolin. Get great advice on the Phoenix "Care and Feeding"
Quoted from the website:
"The only American mandolin specifically designed for full sound with extra-light strings (up to Dr. Thomastik mediums) for mandolin orchestras, and also for easy playing of folk, jazz, Celtic, and modern classical music...."
end quote
ORDER JIM'S BOOK HERE....
Jim's book, Mandolin for Beginners, has been published by the National Guitar Workshop and is selling very well!
It's available online and in retail stores both nationally and internationally.
You can learn everything from how to hold/ tune a mandolin, how read tablature and strum --
to reading music, tremolo techniques, improvising.
Jim packed it full of interesting tunes and practical advice... and his trademark mellow humor shines thru, too.
There's a CD in it, so you can hear as well as read all the good stuff in the book. 48 pages Book & CD Order it online: NGW Store
Our Favorite "Home Away From Home"...one of our most cherished (and longest-lasting) relationships!In 2007, a very important celebratory year for Virginia, come visit us at Christmas as we share "300 Years of Christmastime in America" !
The Boston Singers Resource A WORLD-CLASS TREASURE, BRILLIANT MUSICAL RESOURCE SINCE 1867, and our "home" since the dawn of this millenium...
The Boston Conservatory trains exceptional young performing artists for careers
that enrich and transform the human experience.
Known for its multi-disciplinary environment,
the Conservatory offers fully accredited graduate and undergraduate programs
in Music, Dance, Theater, and Music Education, and presents over 200 performances each year
by students, faculty, and guest artists.
The intimacy of our class settings provides a student-centered atmosphere
that is uniquely intensive and supportive.
Since its founding in 1867,
The Boston Conservatory has shared its talent and creativity with the city of Boston,
the region, and the nation, and continues to grow today as a vibrant community
of artists and educators.
Armed with new energy and new ambitions,
the Conservatory is in the midst of a revitalization from top to bottom,
setting the stage for new achievements for the institution and our students.
Another "home away from home," the indispensable resources of the Phillips Library, part of the Peabody-Essex Museum, in Salem, Massachusetts.
The Salem Gazette Salem, Massachusetts. Maggi is a regular columnist and writer of features for the Gazette on history, arts and culture.
Devoted to the Salem community...and full of great stories for everyone, regardless of place of residence.
OK! Now for some individual musicians, artists, etc. 
Here are some other wonderful, talented, incredible Musicians we know, love, respect, cherish--and encourage you to visit!.... 
************************************Musicians, Composers, Songwriters, Performers, Teachers, Writers, Artists ...
His talent has inspired countless students, and his music has been played and loved by an impressive array of national and international performers.
His book,The Songwriter's Workshop: Harmony, by Jimmy Kachulis published by the Berklee Press, is available here: THE SONGWRITER'S WORKSHOP
We've been friends and colleagues for nearly...well, folks, it's been a wonderfully long time!
Both of them are musicians of incredible talent, flexibility, skill, and SOUL.
Don't miss getting their books, or listening to their wonderful recordings: you can find out about them here and here
Check out his Lyric Contest Win
Wait 'til you see the amazing books and recordings Ryan offers you...wow! or try Captain Fiddle Music
Check out his label, the innovative Brave Records
is founded and directed by Donna Dodson, an artist and artist's advocate living & working in Jamaica Plain, MA.
She's a truly inspiring person, really "good people."
You can join in an online discussion group she runs at Art Salon Boston--you'll be well-rewarded!
Salem History Society, Salem, Massachusetts 
Maggi is Founding President and Jim Founding Vice President of the Salem History Society.
WE RECOMMEND (and are members)
The Society for the Encouragement of the Arts ( seARTS)
The Society for the Encouragement of the Arts is a recipient
of The Massachusetts Cultural Council John and Abigail Adams Arts Fund
for Cultural Economic Development
seARTS includes individual artists -- painters, sculptors, photographers, graphic artists,
performance artists, creative writers, architects, craftsmen, musicians,
dancers, actors, directors, film makers -- and individuals and organizations
that support the arts. Through association with seARTS,
members build community and economic ties to strengthen the cultural economy
of Gloucester and Cape Ann.
seARTS works with City agencies, businesses, art lovers,
and other arts and cultural groups.
WE RECOMMEND (and are supporters)
The Artists Foundation
The Mission of the Artists Foundation
We are an organization that support artists and their visions rather than artists supporting our organization's vision.
- Kathleen Bitetti, Executive Director
The mission of the Artists Foundation: is to nourish excellence in the arts
by enhancing the public role and economic position of artists;
to build community among practicing artists
and new communication between this vital community and the public;
to support access to essential resources for artists in all disciplines,
particularly low income and under served artists' access to health care
and other social services; and to sponsor exhibitions of art for art's sake
as well as innovative uses of art to promote public consideration of issues
vital to diverse social, political, and economic groups.
WE RECOMMEND (and are supporters)
ArtistsUndertheDome.org is an effort to provide a State level forum for Massachusetts artists of all disciplines.
The goals of which are to foster a dialogue across artistic disciplines
& to assess and address overlapping concerns and needs of the artist community.
This website is an artist run site and is privately funded.
Special thanks to the following: Liz Nofziger for the website design (www.nofzilla.com).
Ean White for hosting this site and administering the listserve (www.incendiaryarts.org).
Kathleen Bitetti for content and upkeep (www.theprincessproject.com).
Matt Barron (ruralvotes.com) who "coined" the name of this initiative. Sophia Solar Michalski for the funding for the site.
ArtDesy - An Art Directory Some fascinating and wide-ranging links to art, music, literature, history, etc. resources.
Don't forget to keep in touch ... and feel free to sign up for our FREE newsletter, The Singing String News.
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