George Weisenborn
George is a Washington State native and lives Northeast of Vancouver, about 25 miles from Mt. St. Helens. He discovered the autoharp in 1989 while living and working for awhile in Memphis, TN. His first autoharp was a Korean-made Oscar Schmidt 21 bar chromatic, purchased sight unseen, on a recommendation. Being mainly self-taught, he attended festivals and workshops in Memphis and also at the Ozark Folk Center in Mt. View, AR for about 8 years while “cutting my autoharp teeth”, mostly on Appalachian, Old-Time mountain and early Western music.
After relocating back home to the Pacific Northwest late in 1996, he didn’t know a single autoharp person in this corner of the map, so his autoharp spent a few years in the closet. Eventually, a Memphis friend told him about Cyberpluckers and through them he found out about the Willamette Valley Autoharp Gathering, WVAG, and started attending – “at ‘The Farm’ ” at that time. From there he followed the group to venues at an RV campground in Florence, OR, the Western Mennonite School in Salem, OR, Ananda College in Laurelwood, OR and now at Rainbow Lodge in North Bend, WA.
When WVAG came to an end after 20 years, George was one of the major instigator’s in a small group of volunteers who, together, organized the NorthWest Autoharp Gathering in 2013 to continue in the WVAG tradition. He has been a member of the NWAG Executive Committee since 2016. He has attended WVAG and NWAG every year, except one, since 2003. “Each of those years has been a memorable experience with one of the finest group of people and instructors that I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. It’s particularly exciting this year because NWAG will be celebrating it’s 10 Year Anniversary”.