MLAG

September, 2026

Hello Fellow Autoharp Enthusiasts and Friends!

It’s the brink of autumn, and that means your MLAG Board of Directors is getting ready to launch registration in the next few weeks for our THIRTY-FIFTH Mountain Laurel Autoharp Gathering! You will want to read this message all the way to the end, because there are exciting things brewing for 2027 and important information to know!

Our 2027 featured performer lineup is going to reflect the timeline of our Gatherings through the years, from 1991 all the way up to the 2026 contest winner. Before the Gathering was even public, Ivan Stiles and George & Mary Lou Orthey envisioned it as a festival where autoharp players could meet, learn, share, and enjoy. Because of their dream, the first public MLAG took place in 1991. The next year, many of us got to meet Bryan Bowers for the first time as the Ortheys brought him to the farm for his first appearance. Then, fine multi-instrumentalists like Lucille Reilly started coming, winning (multiple) MLAG Championships, and sharing their great knowledge and talent. They attracted newer players like Cindy Harris, who took off like a shot and has shared her enthusiasm with many others along the way. As “old hands” kept coming and spreading the word at other festivals, friends like Wayne & Arthetta Long began attending and bringing their great duet sounds to share. And just this year, our 2026 MLAG Champion Kyle Burke took home the gold at only his second MLAG and has joined our family as the newest jewel. All these folks will be at 2027’s MLAG to entertain, teach, jam, and keep the traditions going.

Our wonderful workshop and concert facilities in Shippensburg University’s Ceddia Union Building (CUB) are secured for June 7-13, 2027, so mark your calendars. We are really excited to announce that next year, due to some university policy changes regarding outside groups, we will be moving our lodging from the dormitories to the absolutely fabulous Courtyard Marriott, on campus and only a short half-mile from the CUB! While the dorms were quite nice, the Courtyard Marriott affords all the comforts of hotel living, with no more need to bring your own towels, bath mats, bedding, lamp….  You fill in the blank. The short drive to the CUB lower parking lot puts you just as close or closer to our venue as the dorms were, with an accessible entrance on the lower street level and an elevator just inside the door to take you up to “our” level. We will have breakfast in the hotel, and then eat lunch and dinner at the Reisner Dining Hall as in the past.

You will be pleased to hear that going into our anniversary year, our registration fee will not increase, and our lodging & meals pricing will still be all-inclusive, with very little adjustment in price per person for double occupancy.  All bookings will still be done in one step, through our MLAG registration portal.

While this change was not initiated by us, we came to realize that there are far more pros than cons to staying at our wonderful workshop and concert facilities, while moving to yet more comfortable accommodations. Along with our block of rooms, we will have the use of both indoor and outdoor spaces for congregating and jamming. More information will of course be on the way as we get closer to our registration opening.

An important thing that the Board would like the MLAG community to know: When we made the move from Little Buffalo State Park to Shippensburg, the late Lynda Cohen and Bob Grappel generously and anonymously subsidized the increased expense of dorm housing to make it more affordable for all attendees. Now that they are gone, we can give them the recognition they so richly deserve for this gift. Originally, it was to be a temporary assist over the hump of moving, but we now have learned that they provided for a continuation of that subsidy through a bequest to MLAG. We are very happy to be where we are and will continue to be indebted to Bob and Lynda for helping make such an incomparably comfortable and enjoyable festival possible.

So… another chapter in our MLAG journey, and much more music to be made at our 35^th Gathering!

Musically yours,

The MLAG Board of Directors:

Kathie Hollandsworth (Director), Rick Fitzgerald (Assistant Director), Coleen Walters (Secretary), Erina Fitzgerald (Treasurer), Jim Adams, Gregg Averett, Frank Baker, Pete Daigle, Maggie Dodd, Niels Jonker, Michael Poole, Deb Schreiber, Greg Schreiber, and Neal Walters