Appearing on the Bear on the Square Mountain Festival’s MainStage for the second consecutive year are students from the Georgia Pick and Bow Traditional Music School Program, an after school program for Lumpkin County students. Georgia Pick and Bow is a bluegrass and old time mountain school for kids grades 4 through 12. Students are taught by top music instructors who are skilled in playing traditional string instruments.

The Georgia Pick and Bow Traditional Music Program, in cooperation with the Georgia Appalachian Studies Center at North Georgia College & State University, seeks to preserve the traditional “roots” music of North Georgia with a series of 10 lessons for participating students each semester at Lumpkin County Middle School. Each semester series ends with a recital featuring the students. In addition to appearing at the recital, several individual students from the program have appeared onstage at the Mountain Music and Medicine Show at the Historic Holly Theatre in Dahlonega. Last October, the program’s representatives received a standing ovation following their performance at the SouthEastern Bluegrass Association (SEBA) Silver Anniversary Super Star Concert at the Gwinnett Performing Arts Center. The program also took second place for its float in Dahlonega’s 2009 Old Fashioned Christmas Parade.

To help gain financial support for the Pick and Bow program, which was founded in fall of 2007, the program’s steering committee is sponsoring a raffle for a Devil’s Box, a fiddle which was hand decorated and contributed to the program by renowned musician and artist Whit Connah. This stunning work of art is valued at approximately $3,000. Raffle ticket sales have been underway since last Thanksgiving, and the limited number of remaining tickets will be sold during the Bear on the Square Festival in the MainStage Tent in Hancock Park and at the Information Booth on the Historic Public Square. The drawing will take place on Sunday, April 18, just prior to the festival’s closing concert. Tickets are $5 each or five for $20, and the winner is not required to be present for the drawing.

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