Music Circle. Send more pictures!

the unofficial webpage of the
Whatcom County Homemade Music Society

Disorganized since 1976

Last updated Sept 20, 2011
(Upcoming Concerts list is updated separately)

Friends Of The Roeder Home website
Webmaster: e-mail or home page.
All events co-sponsored by Whatcom Family and Community Network.

Oral History. Interviews of some WCHMS members have now been made available to the public.

Music Circles / Concerts / The Roeder Home / Previous Concerts / Who Has Performed Here? / Pictures

Is this a Society?  More like a loose association of volunteers committed to the value of participation in music. With the help of the Whatcom County Parks and Recreation Department we have been hosting events at the Roeder Home for over 30 years. For more information, contact concert coordinator Fl!p Breskin or 360-671-4511.

How do we choose performers?  The way we arrange concerts is a bit unusual. We have found that the concerts are more successful if they are organized by a host who is really interested and excited about getting people to come and hear the performer(s). So, instead of picking an act, we start by soliciting hosts, and the hosts are given the freedom to invite any one they want. Usually they choose someone they are already a fan of rather than someone who has sent a CD for review.

Where is Bellingham?  On the western side of Washington state, between Seattle, WA and Vancouver, BC, roughly 90 minutes from each. See also the website for BIMA, the Bellingham Independent Musicians Association.

Music Circles

Music Circles are evenings when anyone is welcome to sing, play, or listen. Admission is free. When your turn comes around you can lead a song everyone knows, play a song you wrote your self, ask if anyone else can sing a song you heard once... You get the idea.

The Circles gather anywhere from five to twenty-five people. A typical evening will see guitars, autoharps, mandolins, and fiddles, with the occasional accordion, bass, banjo, whistle, ukulele, dulcimer. . .

Music Circles are usually the first and third Wednesday of the month, (and the fifth Wednesday, if there is one). Occasionally they get moved around or bumped in favor of a special Concert. Most of the year they are in the Roeder Home, 7:30-10 pm. During the summer and the holiday season, they are in people's homes. Call 360-671-4511 or 671-3480 for more information.

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* Concerts

There are folk music concerts in the living room of the Roeder Home on the second and fourth Wednesdays of most months. There is no sound system and there are usually between 25 and 75 people attending. Usually a donation is requested on a sliding scale from $8-12.

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Photographs Right now, the web page is cheerfully decorated with a picture of a music circle. It's the only picture the current webmaster has. You must have more photos, so send 'em in and soon there will be a snappy picture-randomizer and you'll never know who will pop up in the place of honor.

About the Roeder Home

Roeder Home
2600 Sunset Drive
Bellingham, WA 98225

The Roeder Home, at the corner of Sunset and Broadway, was built at the turn of the century by Victor Roeder, a banker and the son of one of Whatcom County's first White settlers. The Home was designed by Alfred Lee, the architect responsible for two of Bellingham's other most famous buildings: Old Main at Western Washington University, and the Whatcom County Museum of History and Art (formerly City Hall).  Mrs Donald Keyes donated the building to the county in 1971 and it is now a park, managed by the Whatcom County Parks and Recreation Department. It is used for concerts, classes, art exhibits, etc. It can also be rented for weddings and parties. For more information call 360-733-6897.

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