Appalachian Traditional Music Program for Elementary Schools
with Anna & Elizabeth
We are Anna Roberts-Gevalt and
Elizabeth LaPrelle: two old-time
musicians in Southwest Virginia. We love
sharing music and heritage with kids in
their region. Over the past year, we have
developed a show that uses a creative
multi-media approach to share traditional
music--fiddle and banjo tunes, ballads,
and dance-- and its history in an engaging
way. We have brought their program to
dozens of schools throughout Virginia,
with great success.
What folks are saying about our
program:
"Anna and Elizabeth represent the most talented and passionate of a new generation of old time artisans. They
are fabulous musicians and their accompanying artwork, presented through the old tech media of fabric and
paper is compelling. Their show will hold children of all ages spellbound while introducing them to the
wonderful musical heritage of the Appalachians. I highly recommend Elizabeth, Anna and their "crankies"!!"
Helen White, Founder and Regional Director, Junior Appalachian Musicians, Inc
"Anna and Elizabeth are blazing a trail of exciting, community-building Folk Music. They've found a way to
make these songs come to life for young folks, old folks, and medium folks. I doubt there's a more creative,
vibrant, passionate duo sharing their joy with the world right now."
Caleb Stine, Baltimore Songwriter & Actor
Anna Roberts-Gevalt and Elizabeth LaPrelle brought their show, “Snow is on the Ground,” to two of our
elementary schools... The students and teachers continue to talk about their program and want them back.
These ballad singers, with history, culture and dancing in the mix, provided our schools with the best possible in
education – engagement, information, heritage and story – in a way that students relate to and understand and
teachers can use in teaching their lessons.
David Winship, Washington Co., VA Elementary Gifted Program Facilitator
The creative puppetry and crankies wonderfully complement Anna and Elizabeth's remarkable renditions of
traditional songs and ballads as well as fiddle and banjo tunes. This unique and artful multi-media presentation
brings mountain cultural and music traditions to life in a special way. Last year, children and teachers at Glade
Creek School as well as at the Alleghany JAM program in Sparta, NC were mesmerized by Anna and
Elizabeth's performances and artwork.
Susan Pepper, Past Director, Alleghany Junior Appalachian Musicians Program
Elementary School Programs we offer:
1. Assembly Program (45 minute-1 hour // for grades K-8)
In this program, tailored to suit different age groups, we will do the following:
●Play traditional old-time fiddle and banjo music
●Sing ballads, Appalachian story-songs handed down through oral tradition for hundreds of years
●Teach students about traditional Appalachian instruments (banjo, fiddle, and guitar)
●Demonstrate flat-foot dancing (traditional percussive dancing)
●Share history of Appalachian music: stories of notable musicians from the region, ways of life
when old-time music was everyday entertainment, and how European settlers and African slaves
developed this uniquely American music.
●Share local oral histories
●Share home-made art pieces that illustrate the songs and tunes: puppets and “crankies” (handmade sewn and paper
story-telling scrolls)
●Get students to sing and dance along
2. Workshops (One class period long)
Crankie-making (visual art //Grades K-8)
-A crankie is a visual storytelling device in the form of a scroll. We will lead students
through the process of collaborating as a group to make their own art piece as a group to
illustrate: a local story, an oral history, a song they write, a folktale or a ballad.
Dancing (movement, music // Grades K-8)
-We will teach flatfooting and square dancing to students, two forms of traditional Appalachian
dance. We will share the history of the dance, engage students in moving rhythmically, and
working on dance figures as a group. Active enough to fill a gym period.
Singing (music // Grades K-8)
-We teach harmony singing, Appalachian traditional songs, and traditional play-party games (old
kids’ songs that describe a game, which we can play).
Ballads & Storytelling Workshop (English, music // Grades 5-8 )
-We will teach students about story, form, rhyme, narrative through the texts of traditional ballads
sung in Virginia, those that came from the British Isles through oral tradition, and those that were
composed in Virginia about local events.
3. Residencies (multiple-day // Grades 4-8)
Ballads & Local History Project (3-4 Class Periods over the course of a month)
-Learning this music is also a process of learning about local history, and sharing stories. We love bringing
students into this process, using learning about interviewing and research, storytelling, music, and art, to connect
them to the stories of their local communities. This is a workshop model that is used by a number of traditional
musicians throughout the country, to great effect!
Step 1: We teach students about ballads written about local events, throughout history. We share some of our
research into the history of local traditional musicians and singers, and what we have learned about the history of
Virginia through that research.
Step 2: Students do their own research about town through newspaper, libraries, & conducting oral histories with
elders in their community-- as individual assignments, or a group activity.
Step 3: Students bring together the stories they collected, and we facilitate the writing of a song or narrative about
them.
Step 4: We lead students through the process of collaborating as a group to make their own “crankie”-- a visual
stortelling device in the form of a scroll, to illustrate their story or song.
Step 5: Students share the story with peers, parents, and/or community.
Oral History Project (2 class periods)
A shorter form of the Ballad & Local History Project.
Step 1: We lead students to do research about town through newspaper, libraries, & oral history.
Step 2: We facilitate students in writing a song or narrative about the stories they collected, to share them with
their community.
About Anna & Elizabeth:
Elizabeth LaPrelle, 24, of Rural Retreat, is an acclaimed ballad singer and banjo player. She began winning prizes for
Folk Song at local Fiddler's Conventions at age eleven for her heartfelt and powerful singing. She has dug deeply into the
rich history of mountain music at the Augusta Heritage Center and in her major, “Southern Appalachian Traditional
Performance”, at the College of William and Mary. Elizabeth has now released three traditional music CDs, and
performed and taught workshops at festivals and concerts all over the country.
Anna Roberts-Gevalt, 24, of Floyd, plays fiddle, banjo and guitar; she calls square dances, and flatfoot dances. She has
studied with master musicians throughout Appalachia, and was honored to learn much music and wisdom from Paul
David Smith, the late, great master of Kentucky fiddling. She teaches traditional music and has been on faculty at music
schools across the country, and abroad. A graduate of Wesleyan University, she recently completed an Appalachian Music
fellowship from Berea College, writing about the lives of female fiddlers in Kentucky, stories which were published in the
Old Time Herald.
Contact Anna and Elizabeth:
arobertsgevalt@gmail.com (802) 310-2146
elizabethlaprelle@gmail.com (276) 686-5878