An internationally touring family show band, playing contemporary, traditional, and Celtic music.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/palmbeach/sfl-bc11rvmar11,0,3846195.story

TUNES TO GO

Parents and their four kids leave a life in Boca Raton to form a traveling band.

By Rhonda J. Miller
Staff Writer

March 11, 2005

Four years and 1,000 performances into their odyssey, the ShaeLaurel family band is booked a year in advance.

A 35-foot RV is their only address.

"I thought we'd do it for a year. I didn't know if I'd like it, because I'm a homebody," Janet Witchger said about selling the family's three-bedroom Boca Raton house and launching a traveling troupe.

For classically trained pianist and composer Andrew Witchger, the most wrenching part of going on the road was leaving his grand piano.

Everything else that Andrew loves, he has in the RV -- his wife, Janet, 38, sons Andy, 16, and Christian, 11, and daughters Jessica, 14, and Kathyrn, 13.

The Witchgers went to California with a guitar, drums, bass fiddle, violins, mandolin, bagpipes, banjo, harp and the Celtic bodhran, an Irish hand drum. They started as buskers, the British word for musicians who play in public for tips.

Bookings grew more regular, including performances at Busch Gardens in Tampa and the annual Michigan and Florida Renaissance Festivals. The family band will perform at private country clubs in Atlantis and Gulf Stream this month.

ShaeLaurel performed in Delray Beach at the First Night New Year's Eve celebration and at the Irish Cottage Pub.

"They're grown so much in the two years they've played here. Each one has their own talents," said Paula Glazer, co-owner of the 90-seat Irish Cottage Pub on Federal Highway, where the band was booked for 10 Thursday nights. "They pull in a full house."

The Witchgers consider South Florida home because of regular bookings and longtime friendships.

Andrew, 41, has a degree in music from Central Michigan University and studied at the Conservatoire de Paris. He was music director at a church in South Bend, Ind., and taking theology classes at the University of Notre Dame when he met the Rev. Marty Devereaux, chaplain at Lynn University in Boca Raton.

Devereaux told Witchger about an open position at St. Joan of Arc Catholic Church in Boca Raton.

It was a good fit. Witchger was music director from 1996 to 2001 at St. Joan, where he led choirs for preschoolers, elementary age children, teenagers and adults.

Witchger won the 2000 Clyde Fyfe Award from the Palm Beach County Cultural Council for artistic development and community service.

"Andrew has a way of bringing out the gifts of other people," Devereaux said.

The family's three oldest children went to elementary school at St. Joan of Arc, and Christian hadn't yet started school, when they decided that home schooling would give them more family time.

"Dad had this huge job at church and we never saw him," Jessica said.

Janet, a Boston University graduate with a degree in economics, helped teach her children the Suzuki violin method.

Tuesday evenings after choir practice was often family time at Daniel O'Connell's Irish Pub in Boca Raton. One night, Andy played fiddle. Another evening, Jessica joined him. Soon the family had a regular Tuesday night gig playing Celtic, folk and bluegrass music at the pub.

Janet filled in the rhythm section, transferring what she learned from the Suzuki method to the bass fiddle. Invitations to perform multiplied.

Jessica chose the band's name for the hardy, widely grown laurel plant and the Gaelic word for six. She thought it would be fun for the band to travel.

"The kids used to play these little violins. They always loved to perform," said Bernie Molinksi, assistant to the music director at St. Joan of Arc. "Andrew is a good composer and always wanted to do something with the kids, so it didn't surprise me when they hit the road."

The teens say they enjoy spending time with their parents. To find individual space, they go for walks. Christian does wood burning. Kathryn designs and sews her own fashions. Jessica weaves on a loom and writes fantasy novels. Andy practices mandolin.

The Witchgers say their lifestyle includes plenty of athletics and socialization. They play basketball when they're near a net, ski in the mountains, surf when they visit grandma and grandpa in Vero Beach and spend time with friends across the country.

Their school year is every day, with science museums always a first stop. They are often invited to perform in classrooms.

"We play at schools all the time and I just don't want to live in that kind of style," said Christian.

"The parents go off, you never see each other. Being with your family, I think that's the best thing."

Much of their focus is on the perseverance needed to perform.

"It can be tedious, doing the same show a thousand times," Jessica said.

They invent ways to keep it fresh, with costumes, new music, adding a jig, tossing in new jokes.

They occasionally work with vocal coach Mark Goff of Orlando, whose clients include Disney.

"It's unique to see a family as gifted as they are come together," Goff said of the Witchgers, the first such group to seek his expertise in 20 years of coaching. "Especially at a time when it's hard to find good quality family entertainment, it's very endearing."

Rhonda J. Miller can be reached at rjmiller@sun-sentinel.com or 561-243-6605.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/palmbeach/sfl-bc11rvboxmar11,0,3509416.story

If You Go

March 11, 2005

If You Go

What: ShaeLaurel family band

When: Performances 10:30 a.m. and 12:45, 2:30 and 4:30 p.m. Saturdayand Sunday, festival hours 10 a.m. to sunset

Where: Grove Stage, Florida Renaissance Festival, Quiet Waters Park, Powerline Road just south of Hillsboro Boulevard, Deerfield Beach

Admission: Adults $17.50, children 5 to 12 years $6, under 5 free

Information: 954-776-1642 or toll-free 1-800-373-6337 or www.ren-fest.com

When: Performance at 2 p.m. March 26, event hours noon to 3 p.m.

Where: Spring Fling, Children's Museum of Boca Raton, 498 Crawford Blvd.

Admission: Free

Information: 561-368-6875 or 561-393-7806 or www.ci.boca-raton.fl.us