Happy New Year from the Family Folk Machine!

We are excited to begin rehearsals for our spring session, “Love in the Harmony,” celebrating the 10th anniversary of the FFM! When we first gathered in January 2013, we couldn’t imagine what the coming ten years would bring. It will bring great joy to gather friends old and new this Sunday to begin our work together for this spring.

Our spring session will combine “greatest hits” of the past ten years of FFM concerts with some new songs about how music works on our world, including two brand-new originals. Other highlights include songwriting workshops for kids (with Nicole Upchurch) and adults (with Christine Moad) and a harmony-singing workshop with Annie Savage and Greg Blake.

Is the time right for you to sing with us? Send an email to jean@familyfolkmachine.org if you’d like to join us! We rehearse on Sunday afternoons at 3:00 p.m. at the Iowa City Senior Center.

And it is not too late to support our work with a donation to the 10th Anniversary edition of the FFM Annual Appeal! You can send a check to our P.O. Box or donate securely online using the “Donate” tab above!

Save the Date
The Family Folk Machine spring concert will take place at the Englert Theatre on Saturday, May 13 at 3:00 p.m. Hope to see you there!

We have launched the FFM Annual Appeal! Coming up on our 10th anniversary in January of 2023, please consider supporting our work with a donation of any size! We hope to keep singing and building community for 10 more years, and 10 after that. You can make a secure online donation here:

https://secure.processdonation.org/familyfolkmachine/Donation.aspx

or you can send a check to

Family Folk Machine
P.O. Box 1421
Iowa City, IA 52244

Thanks for your support! We wouldn’t be here without our community!

Hope to see you at the Englert on November 13 at 3:00 p.m. for Carry On: Songs for Living!

Carry On: Songs for Living

We can’t wait to present our fall concert, Carry On: Songs for Living, at the Englert Theatre on Sunday, November 13, at 3:00 p.m.!

Join us this Saturday, May 14, at 3 p.m. at the historic Englert Theatre for the spring concert of the Family Folk Machine! Sing a Song: To Noisemaking! will feature songs about the joy of singing together and will get you singing along. Hope you can be there!

We are so pleased to present a special collaboration with the Eulenspiegel Puppet Theatre as part of the performance. Led by Monica Leo, the FFM kids will present a puppet shadow play accompanied by an original song by FFM teen Tessera Rippentrop.

The concert is family-friendly and free. Donations will be accepted with gratitude. If you can’t join us in person, you can tune in using this link:
https://youtu.be/eP68czIkSL4
either in real time or anytime after the concert.

You can also catch members of the FFM at the Iowa City Public Works open house, an all-day party on Saturday, May 21 at the new public works building at 3810 Napoleon Lane. Our set will be 11:00 to 11:30; find all the details here: https://www.icgov.org/news/upcoming-public-works-open-house-features-day-family-fun-─-roller-skating-quilts-more .

We’ll start our Fall 2022 session, Carry On: Songs for Living, in mid-August! Drop us a note if you might like to join us then.

The Family Folk Machine will present our spring concert, “Sing a Song: To Noisemaking!” on Saturday, May 14, 2022 at 3:00 p.m. The concert is free with donations gratefully accepted. We will be celebrating the joys of singing together in this song-themed concert. As a musical centerpiece, we will feature a puppet shadow play presented by the FFM kids under the direction of Eulenspiegel Puppets’ Monica Leo. The shadow play will be set to an original song by Tessera Rippentrop.

Hope you can join us on May 14!

The Family Folk Machine is having our first rehearsal for our Spring 2022 session, The Spark Between Our Hearts, this Sunday, January 9, at 3:00. We are going to hold our first few rehearsals on Zoom and begin meeting in person with safety precautions when local virus transmission levels are lower.

We have a great group of songs planned for the choir this spring! Lots of songs about singing and hope for the future. Would you like to join us? You can attend the first couple of Zoom rehearsals and check things out before making a commitment.

To join, or for more information, send an email to jean@familyfolkmachine.org. We’ll get you the Zoom link for rehearsals and all the other info you need.

Year in Review! Designed by Aprille Clarke.

Thanks to the readers of Little Village Magazine for voting the FFM the Best Community Music or Theater Group! You can check out all the winners in the 2021 Best of the CRANDIC here.

The Family Folk Machine seeks donations through our Annual Appeal to support our programming. Please consider making a donation today, by sending a check to

Family Folk Machine

P.O. Box 1421

Iowa City, IA 52244

or securely online. We appreciate your support!

You can view a video of the Fall 2021 Family Folk Machine concert on our YouTube Channel!