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NGI Recipient: Andrew Briggs-Neal

Session Attended: Country Dance and Song Society - Harmony of Song & Dance (2015)

Thank you so much for allowing me to attend Harmony of Song and Dance Week at Pinewoods this year! It was a wonderful experience that I will never forget. Meeting almost an entirely new community of people from one week to another was amazing.

I learned a lot of songs and gained experience in choral singing, which I will use within my own schools chorus, and singing in general which I will use with my band – Odd Men Out. Although we haven’t had any performances yet we have been practicing for a long time, and I will use the experience I received while at Harmony Week.

I loved participating in Peter and Mary Alice Amidon’s Community Chorale class in the afternoon every day. They chose wonderful music that I was both familiar and unfamiliar with. I didn’t dance as much as I would have during Family Week since I didn’t have too many friends there, and I don’t like dancing with people that aren’t close-ish friends. I learned new things about guitar accompaniment that I will surely use with my band to greater improve our music.

Without the NGI scholarship I would not have been able to attend Harmony Week at all, and I’m very grateful that I got the scholarship since I otherwise would have missed out on this wonderful experience.