Oneonta, New York has the privilege of welcoming Canadian Fiddle Champion Ivonne Hernandez (www.ivonnehernandez.com) and internationally acclaimed British jazz violinist Ben Powell (www.ben-powell.com). The workshop and concerts are free and open to the public. Free and open to the public; sounds so amazing that I had to restate it.

On Tuesday, March 30, at 10:00 a.m., the duo will perform a public concert in the Hunt Union Ballroom on the campus of SUNY Oneonta.    Following the performance, at 12:30 p.m., the duo will teach an improvisation workshop to any interested musicians from the community.  Be sure to bring your instruments to the afternoon session.

A second concert will be performed at 7:30 p.m. in IRC 3 (Instructional Resource Center) on the SUNY campus. The evening concert is part of the Hewitt Pantaleoni Memorial Concert Series and is partially funded by the Catskill Conservatory.

Julie Signitzer, music director of LDYE, invited Hernandez back to Oneonta after hearing her play last year with the Folk Arts Quartet who accompanied Eugene Friesen in the annual workshop.   “Ivonne is a young, hard hitting fiddler who has five times been declared the Grand North American Fiddle Champion.   She is also an amazing step dancer. (I was there last year and she was awesome!)

In addition, LDYE invited her friend, 23 year old Ben Powell, to join her.  He is a stellar jazz violinist who has already performed throughout much of the world.  The contrasting styles should inspire the students to explore their instruments in many different ways.  I am sure it will be an exciting event for all who participate”.  The two young fiddlers are recent graduates of the Berklee College of Music in Boston and have successfully launched extensive performance careers.

This residency is sponsored in part by the Foothills performing Arts Center, The SUNY Oneonta Music Department, the A. Lindsay and Olive B. O’Connor Foundation, the Future of Oneonta Foundation, the New York State Council on the Arts Decentralization Program administered in Otsego County by the Upper Catskill Community Council of the Arts and the Catskill Conservatory.

Thank you to these wonderful organizations (and Julie Signitzer) for making these concerts/classes possible to enrich our children and our community.  My daughter is a former member of LDYE so this thanks is heartfelt, and why I especially call attention to Little Delaware Youth Ensemble events.

I do have to warn you, however, if my daughter can’t attend, I may borrow her violin this year, and I’m a little rusty …

Hope to see you there.

Mary Robinson
www.OneontaOnTheMap.com

Welcome back SUNY Oneonta and Hartwick College students.  Are you looking for ways to chill out in Oneonta this semester?

If you like the cold,

• Check out Plattekill Mountain Ski & Tubing Resort‘s website for special events such as $15 lift tickets (Jan. 27-29).
• Hanford Mills Museum’s Annual Ice Harvest claims to be the region’s “coolest tradition.” It’s happening Feb. 6 from 10:00 am-4:00 pm.
• Ice Skating on Hodges Pond in Neahwa Park is an Oneonta tradition, call 432-7997 for daily updates regarding hours and conditions (website: www.Oneonta.ny.us/government/)
• Brrr, it’s time to register for the 15th Annual Goodyear Lake Polar Bear Jump (Feb. 20) benefit.  A Chinese Auction will be held Jan. 31 at Milford Central School to benefit this event. Check the website for Polar Bear Jump pre-registration info: www.PBJump.com; you must pre-register in order to participate.

If you’re the warm-blooded type, looking to hunker down under covers or stay in more temperate indoors, these Oneonta area activities may be just what to do until spring break comes:

• Eat, Sleep, PLAY Oneonta — check out Neverdaunt N8, a MMO (Massive Multiplayer Online) video game created by Oneonta local Calvin Goble. I’m trying to arrange a coffee shop gathering with Calvin; if you’re enthralled by his game and would like to tell him in person, e-mail me mr@OneontaOnTheMap.com.
• Feb. 3 – 21st, Hartwick College’s Department of English and Theatre Arts is presenting DEARLY DEPARTED, Bottrell & Jones’ rip-roarin’ redneck farce about the Turpin family, proving that living and dying in the South is seldom tidy and always hilarious. Check www.OneontaOnTheMap.com‘s event calendar for the dates and times and reserve your tickets online at www.hartwick.edu/x1197.xml
• B. Sharp Gallery is having an Art Exhibition Opening Reception Feb. 6 from 4-8 pm (The exhibition runs through Feb. 21). Plan to attend the reception to schmooze with local Oneonta and NYC artists.
• Feb. 7 is the Sixth Annual UCCCA Chili Bowl Competition; watch for upcoming details.
• Feb. 12 is SUNY College at Oneonta’s Tenth Annual Faculty Research Show.

Hope you’ve enjoyed this smattering of events and things to do when Oneonta cabin fever has got you down. Keep checking our website calendar or follow us on Twitter for continuous updates.  And feel free to add your college events to our calendar by clicking “add event”; we’re a website built by the Oneonta community!

Finally, OneontaOnTheMap.com’s  ”Coupons to your cell phone” business promotion is up and running. Tell your favorite local stores/merchants to add their specials or coupons to our website so we can blog & Tweet about them and you can save $.  How great would it be to have all the Super Bowl Party Pack Specials listed on www.OneontaOnTheMap.com?  Spread the word; let’s have fun with this!

Thanks for listening,

Mary Robinson
www.OneontaOnTheMap.com
SUNY Oneonta ’06

“Also I found out about the website from you. I work at ______ and one day you returned something and asked my coworker if she twittered and I said that I did. You gave me your card and told me about your site. I’m really glad that you did!”

Word of mouth advertising does produce results:) However, Craig B., winner of the $50 gift certificate to Green Toad Bookstore, found out about our site when we placed a couple of ads in the Pennysaver. Craig is a programmer/web developer for the Pennysaver and started following us on Twitter.

At the OH Fest this past Saturday, we raffled off a $30 gift certificate to Kid’s Stuff toy store (on Main Street Oneonta), a $30 gift certificate to the Undercover Eggplant (Oneonta’s West End), and 2 tickets to the Joseph L. Popp, Jr., Butterfly Conservatory. Congratulations to the winners, and special thanks to the Joseph L. Popp, Jr. Butterfly Conservatory for the donation of the two tickets. And of course a HUGE Thank You to SUNY Oneonta and Hartwick College for creating OH Fest IV for our community. We hope you will continue to work together on many OH Fests in the future!

Thanks for listening,
Mary Robinson
www.OneontaOnTheMap.com
Your Hometown Home Page … supporting the Oneonta business community … and having fun doing it!

Last year, my husband’s coworker from NYC said his daughter was considering attending the State University College at Oneonta (SUNY Oneonta), and asked what we could tell him about it. Probably a bit more than he expected; you see, I graduated from SUNY Oneonta in 2006. Although I was an older (my daughter graduated from college in 2004), non-traditional student, I felt eminently qualified to talk about SUCO, especially if someone were planning to major in Human Ecology, Education, or Computer Art. My three years of full time college at SUNY Oneonta were a great experience; I would honestly forget that I was everyone’s mom’s age. Ahhh, those were the days.

So our friend’s daughter did choose to attend SUCO and when he was picking her up for winter break he took us out to lunch. Turns out she loves being a student here, has chosen communications as her field; she’s even become involved with the student newspaper.

I realize now is the time that new students and parents are adjusting to the idea of coming to SUNY Oneonta this fall. I’ve designated myself as the unofficial Oneonta blogosphere welcoming committee, and I’d like to direct both new SUNY Oneonta students and their parents to our hometown online directory www.OneontaOnTheMap.com . Please check it out and follow us on Twitter to get the most out of your years in Oneonta.

O town has many treasures to discover, places to go and things to do. Many people I talk to don’t even realize that Oneonta is home of the National Soccer Hall of Fame! We’ll change this. The next time we visited my husband’s coworker we gave him tickets to visit the National Soccer Hall of Fame & Museum (we had discovered during our lunch that his 12 year old son loves soccer). We really are an unofficial Oneonta NY PR committee (and we’re having fun doing it).

One last bit of advice to parents & new SUNY Oneonta students: check out our website soon for details of our Gift Certificate Give Aways ending April 15. $50 to spend at Elena’s or Green Toad Bookstore would make your next trip here even sweeter!

Thanks for listening,
Mary Robinson
SUNY Oneonta Class of 2006

www.OneontaOnTheMap.com