The Gateway Dulcimer Music Festival is held annually in August in Fairview, Illnois near St. Louis and features instruction and performance in mountain and hammer dulcimer, autoharp, and ukulele. In 2024, I was hired to teach the autoharp section and to give a solo concert after my friend, Ivan Stiles could not fulfill the contract due to medical issues. I had 2 weeks to learn the material he had planned to teach over ten hours of instruction and that had been sent out to the registrants, already. It all went very well and I performed my favorite public domain tunes (as requested by the director) in my concert. I am looking forward to returning in the future, but next time I’ll be able to teach my own material.