Walt Michael

Common Ground on the Hill, a music and arts festival that brings hundreds of students and notable performers to Westminster every summer, operates most of the year out of a small, cluttered office in the basement of a McDaniel College building. Walt Michael, 57, founder of the festival and the college's artist-in-residence, toils amid bookcases filled with CDs, videos, music memorabilia and academic texts. He composes music on the same laptop in which he writes curricula, class schedules and performance dates for Common Ground.

Common Ground on the Hill is branching out from its roots in Westminster and launching a concert series in Baltimore. The 18-year-old music and arts organization, founded at McDaniel College in Carroll County when the school was still called Western Maryland College, will be "Breaking Up Christmas" on Friday with music that has echoed through the hills of Appalachia for generations. The evening's festivities at Brown Memorial Woodbrook Presbyterian Church on North Charles Street will hark back to an era when people in mountain villages celebrated the season with house parties.

Musical renaissance man Peter Rowan and other acclaimed performers will perform at the second American Music and Arts Festival tomorrow and Sunday at the Carroll County Farm Museum outside Westminster. Sponsored by Common Ground on the Hill, the festival spotlights a range of music from blues to folk, bluegrass to gospel. Rowan, who will perform Sunday, is perhaps best known from his early days with Bill Monroe's Bluegrass Boys, but his career spans four decades. He wrote the "The Walls of Time" and "Panama Red."

Kindermusik open house Dec. 2 Debbie Henning, director of Kindermusik of Carroll County, will hold an open house for the program that brings music and movement to children ages birth to 6 years old. The free open house for parents and children will be held from 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Dec. 2 at Coffey Music, 31 E. Main St., Westminster. Kindermusik teaches fundamentals of music, singing, dancing and playing instruments. The open house will include activities, demonstrations and materials.

Common Ground on the Hill's summer workshops might provide the shortest route between Africa and Appalachia. Classes take participants from the banjo to the tribal drum, from the Native American flute to Scottish bagpipes. Although the cultures seem worlds apart, they have much in common. "As we are pitted against each other, usually we lose touch of the fact that our traditions have the same roots," said Walt Michael, founder and director of Common Ground on the Hill. "We could not have bluegrass without the influence of African-American music and we could not have black gospel without Western sacred music.

SUNDAY MARKS the return of "Common Ground on the Hill," a week-long festival at Western Maryland College which emphasizes the multi-cultural unity of creation.Or as festival founder and WMC alumnus Walt Michael put it, "Arts are the window. We have to reach out and get the shades to go up, so we are really communicating. People will see that music breaks down the barriers.""Traditions: Native American, Black & White" is the theme of this year's event. Programs range from African and Yiddish dancing to Native American storytelling and basket-weaving.

Common Ground on the Hill will sponsor a concert series at 8 p.m. the first Saturday of each month, from next month through April, at the Carroll Arts Center, 91 W. Main St., Westminster. Tickets are $17 for adults, $15 for Arts Council members, seniors age 60 and older and children age 12 and younger; or $100 for adults and $95 for others for all seven concerts. Scheduled performances: Oct. 2: Northern Lights is a progressive veteran bluegrass band from New England that has performed for more than two decades.

The annual Fiddlers' Convention will be held from 9:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. June 10 at the Carroll County Farm Museum in Westminster. Competition prize categories include: Bluegrass Band, Old-Time Band, Bluegrass Fiddle, Old-Time Fiddle, Bluegrass Banjo, Old-Time Banjo, Guitar, Mandolin, Vocalist, Bass Fiddle, Dobro, Young Performer and Special Performer. Contestants may register for the competition beginning at 8:30 a.m. the day of the convention. More than $3,000 in cash prizes will be awarded.

Carroll County Arts Council's Art in the Park fine arts show and sale will be held from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. tomorrow at Westminster City Hall Park and Grounds.Art in the Park is a regional "open air" show and sale featuring painting, sculpture, photography, pastel, pen and ink and mixed media.More than 40 regional artists will compete for ribbons and cash prizes.The winner of the Maryland Wine Festival Poster Contest will be presented with a check and honorable mention posters will be displayed.

Common Ground on the Hill will present a monthly Saturday concert series at the Carroll Arts Center in Westminster. All shows will begin at 8 p.m. and cost $15, $13 for those ages 65 and older and $10 for children younger than age 12 and students with identification. A five-concert series subscription costs $65, $60 for senior citizens and $45 for children and students. Scheduled programs are: The Tony Trischka Band on Nov. 1: From New York, this eclectic band will deliver a sound drawing on bluegrass, jazz, rock and classical.

Common Ground on the Hill will sponsor a concert series at 8 p.m. the first Saturday of each month, from next month through April, at the Carroll Arts Center, 91 W. Main St., Westminster. Tickets are $17 for adults, $15 for Arts Council members, seniors age 60 and older and children age 12 and younger; or $100 for adults and $95 for others for all seven concerts. Scheduled performances: Oct. 2: Northern Lights is a progressive veteran bluegrass band from New England that has performed for more than two decades.

Common Ground on the Hill, a music and arts festival that brings hundreds of students and notable performers to Westminster every summer, operates most of the year out of a small, cluttered office in the basement of a McDaniel College building. Walt Michael, 57, founder of the festival and the college's artist-in-residence, toils amid bookcases filled with CDs, videos, music memorabilia and academic texts. He composes music on the same laptop in which he writes curricula, class schedules and performance dates for Common Ground.

Common Ground on the Hill will present a monthly Saturday concert series at the Carroll Arts Center in Westminster. All shows will begin at 8 p.m. and cost $15, $13 for those ages 65 and older and $10 for children younger than age 12 and students with identification. A five-concert series subscription costs $65, $60 for senior citizens and $45 for children and students. Scheduled programs are: The Tony Trischka Band on Nov. 1: From New York, this eclectic band will deliver a sound drawing on bluegrass, jazz, rock and classical.

Art inspired by Africa trip on exhibit at Main St. store Sculptor and artist Bart Walter of Westminster will exhibit his latest works from a recent trip to Africa tomorrow through Feb. 1 at Ain't That a Frame. An opening reception will be held from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the gallery at 31 W. Main St., Westminster. The public is welcome. Walter's sculptures of animals from the wild are known around the world and are in museums and private collections. The charcoal drawings reflect the origins of Walter's latest sculptures of African animals, including a chimpanzee, a vulturine guinea fowl, lions and cheetahs.

The annual Fiddlers' Convention will be held from 9:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. June 10 at the Carroll County Farm Museum in Westminster. Competition prize categories include: Bluegrass Band, Old-Time Band, Bluegrass Fiddle, Old-Time Fiddle, Bluegrass Banjo, Old-Time Banjo, Guitar, Mandolin, Vocalist, Bass Fiddle, Dobro, Young Performer and Special Performer. Contestants may register for the competition beginning at 8:30 a.m. the day of the convention. More than $3,000 in cash prizes will be awarded.

Common Ground on the Hill's summer workshops might provide the shortest route between Africa and Appalachia. Classes take participants from the banjo to the tribal drum, from the Native American flute to Scottish bagpipes. Although the cultures seem worlds apart, they have much in common. "As we are pitted against each other, usually we lose touch of the fact that our traditions have the same roots," said Walt Michael, founder and director of Common Ground on the Hill. "We could not have bluegrass without the influence of African-American music and we could not have black gospel without Western sacred music.

Kindermusik open house Dec. 2 Debbie Henning, director of Kindermusik of Carroll County, will hold an open house for the program that brings music and movement to children ages birth to 6 years old. The free open house for parents and children will be held from 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Dec. 2 at Coffey Music, 31 E. Main St., Westminster. Kindermusik teaches fundamentals of music, singing, dancing and playing instruments. The open house will include activities, demonstrations and materials.

Art inspired by Africa trip on exhibit at Main St. store Sculptor and artist Bart Walter of Westminster will exhibit his latest works from a recent trip to Africa tomorrow through Feb. 1 at Ain't That a Frame. An opening reception will be held from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the gallery at 31 W. Main St., Westminster. The public is welcome. Walter's sculptures of animals from the wild are known around the world and are in museums and private collections. The charcoal drawings reflect the origins of Walter's latest sculptures of African animals, including a chimpanzee, a vulturine guinea fowl, lions and cheetahs.

Musical renaissance man Peter Rowan and other acclaimed performers will perform at the second American Music and Arts Festival tomorrow and Sunday at the Carroll County Farm Museum outside Westminster. Sponsored by Common Ground on the Hill, the festival spotlights a range of music from blues to folk, bluegrass to gospel. Rowan, who will perform Sunday, is perhaps best known from his early days with Bill Monroe's Bluegrass Boys, but his career spans four decades. He wrote the "The Walls of Time" and "Panama Red."

Native American ideas on aiding youths to be topicStrategies that use Native American ideas to deal with troubled youths will be presented by Martin Brokenleg in a free lecture, "The Circle of Courage," at 7 p.m. tomorrow in McDaniel Lounge at Western Maryland College.Brokenleg is a professor of Native American Studies at Augustana College in South Dakota and a member of the Rosebud Sioux. He believes there are strategies that can help parents raise respectful and courageous children without punitive discipline.