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Abby Newton is well known for her groundbreaking work in the revival of the cello in American and Scottish traditional music. She began her career touring with Jay Ungar and John Cohen in the Putnam String County Band, the first modern string band with a cello. Although classically trained, she improvised the cello parts to traditional tunes.
She has produced and performed on over a hundred folk recordings including 17 CDs with Scottish singer, Jean Redpath. Abby's solo CDs "Crossing to Scotland" and "Castles, Kirks, and Caves" have earned her critical acclaim both in the US and abroad. She has been the director and cellist of the Shokan Chamber Artists, Trillium Piano Trio, and currently performs in the Celtic Trio "Ferintosh", "Celtic Crossing", the "Mother-Daughter String Band" and "Esopus Chamber Orchestra".
Mel Bay has published two books of Abby's transcriptions of Celtic tunes for the cello: Crossing to Scotland and Castles, Kirks and Caves. The combination of her teaching, performing and publishing have inspired many amateurs and professionals to play traditional music on the cello.
Alan Kaufman is a fine old time fiddler, guitarist, mandolin player and singer. He is incredibly knowledgeable about a variety of traditional American folk music genres of the 20th century, and a well-known yodeler. A fiddle teacher in the Boston area, Alan has an excellent tune repertoire, leads many jam sessions, and is a fine teacher and fiddle tune composer. Alan partnered with Don Stratton last year to record a well-reviewed CD of 23 of their original tunes, called "All in Good Time."
Many years ago, Alan wrote the book "Beginning Old Time Fiddle," which influenced a lot of would-be oldtime fiddlers. He has played with many bands over time, including the Wretched Refuse String Band and the cast band in the original Broadway production of "The Robber Bridegroom."
Alex Hargreaves will be at Fiddle Hell Thursday and perhaps more days. Alex is an innovative, cross-genre violinist described as "one of the greatest improvising violinists in America today" by virtuoso mandolinist/composer Mike Marshall, and "the best young jazz violinist in America" by Matt Glaser, artistic director of Berklee College of Music, American Roots Program. Since 2008, Alex has been performing regularly on stages around the world, including Austin City Limits, Panama Jazz Festival, A Prairie Home Companion, Grand Ole Opry, Cambridge (UK) Folk Festival, Newport Jazz and Folk Festivals, Bonnaroo, Telluride Bluegrass Festival, as well as in France, Italy, Spain, and South Korea. He joined the Turtle Island Quartet in January, 2016.
Alex has recorded and toured with bassist Paul Kowert (Punch Brothers) and Mike Marshall in The Big Trio, and for 7 years with Grammy-nominated singer/multi-instrumentalist, Sarah Jarosz. He has toured with Jerry Douglas, David Grisman, Bela Fleck, Danilo Perez, Darol Anger, Noam Pikelny, Leftover Salmon and has performed with many others including Mark O'Connor, Chris Thile, Brian Blade, Tim O'Brien and Sam Bush.
At age 15, he won the Grand Champion division at the National Oldtime Fiddlers' Contest in Weiser, Idaho, and won the 2009 Grand Masters Fiddle Championship in Nashville. At the 2010 Monterey Jazz Festival, Alex was awarded the Jimmy Lyons Scholarship, a full tuition scholarship to the Berklee College of Music. While completing the Berklee Global Jazz Institute there, Alex toured with pianist Danilo Perez, and recorded on Perez's album, Panama 500. Alex's debut album, Prelude, features Mike Marshall, Grant Gordy and Paul Kowert, and guests Bela Fleck and Noam Pikelny. "[Alex] plays with wit, authority and soulfulness belying his years," comments David Grisman, adding "in my opinion, he's destined to be one of the fiddle giants of the 21st century." Currently living in Brooklyn, NY, Alex performs regularly with a range of artists including Michael Daves, Roy Williams, Grant Gordy, Eddie Barbash, and Jacob Jolliff.
Allison de Groot combines love for old-time music, technical skill and a creative approach to the banjo forming her own sound – unique and full of personality. Although firmly rooted in old-time and music, she has shown her ability to collaborate and create outside this genre, pushing the boundaries of the clawhammer banjo.
Allison has toured all over the world with various groups, performing at venues such as Newport Folk Festival, Stockholm Folk Festival, Winnipeg Folk Festival and Tønder Festival in Denmark. The music scene in her hometown of Winnipeg, Canada, immersion in Appalachian old-time communities, a performance degree at Berklee College of Music in Boston, and touring extensively throughout North America and Europe have all had a great impact on her playing. She is dedicated to honoring old-time music, the community that music creates and exploring the clawhammer banjo style. She is currently performing with Bruce Molsky's new project Molsky's Mountain Drifters and The Goodbye Girls, among others.
Andrea Beaton comes from a long line of musicians, composers and dancers. She is an award-winning fiddler, tune composer and recording artist who is known for her powerful bow and driving style. She tours internationally and is in great demand as a teacher at music camps and fiddling/dancing workshops all over the world.
Andrea has released six solo albums, one duo album with her father, Kinnon Beaton, and three books of her original tunes. She also recorded an album with her family "The Beaton family of Mabou" in 2007 for the Smithsonian Institute. Most of her solo albums were nominated for awards, and her 2010 CD, 'Branches,' won the Canadian East Coast Music Awards "Instrumental Recording of the Year!"
Beaton-Plasse is the name of Andrea's most current project - a fiddle duo with Véronique Plasse from Québec. They have just released their first album, a lively and sensitive mix of traditional and original music from Cape Breton and Québec. With whichever combination of musicians, Andrea is sure to get your toes tapping and put a smile on your face.
Andy Reiner, an award-winning fiddler, composer and educator originally from Lexington, MA, began playing at age five with the Reiner Family Band. He has since developed his own style featuring creative, rhythmic melodies, and thoughtful fusing of world styles. Check out Andy's very helpful "River of Suck" podcast - "You have to suck at something before you can be good at it. River of Suck is real-talk about struggles with confidence, self-doubt and becoming the youest you. Host Andy Reiner and guests ranging from musicians to scientists parse tough questions about maintaining a healthy attitude in the face of impossible obstacles to the tune of bespoke music." Downloads, sheet music, lessons, and more from Andy are right here.
Earning a Bachelor's Degree in Violin Performance from Berklee College of Music in Boston launched Andy into a flurry of touring and teaching around the globe - including Heavy Metal with Devil in the Kitchen, Folk/Hip-Hop with FiddleFoxx, Swedish/Appalachian with Blue Moose and the Unbuttoned Zippers, Electronic/Celtic with Firecloud, and Bluegrass with The Earth Stringband, which toured Southeast Asia on the 2011 American Music Abroad tour.
Also known as the "Skiing Fiddler," Andy skis every month of the year and many of his compositions are influenced by mountains and nature. Andy currently tours both as a solo artist and with groups Half Pelican (where Andy is joined by Joy Adams on cello and vocals) and Whitewater Ramble (high-octane Rocky Mountain dancegrass). He composes fiddle tunes, songs, new works, and arrangements for string orchestra. He teaches improvisation, composition and fiddle styles privately and at music camps across the US. Andy also runs his own amazing campfire jamming camp, Rustic Roots, now in Colorado.
"Andy Reiner is an exceptional creative presence in this rapidly evolving Fiddle world, and he stands tall among his peers as an agent of positive change." - Darol Anger, Fiddler / Composer / Producer
Art Bryan has been playing contra dance, Celtic and old time string band music since 1964 and has performed and recorded with many groups including the Canterbury Country Dance Orchestra, Strathspey, String Theory and the Bound to Have a Little Fun Stringband. In 2007 Art lost the index and middle fingers of his left hand in a workshop accident, and has learned to play fiddle left handed; he still plays guitar, mandolin, 5-string banjo, cello banjo, melody banjo and tenor banjo right handed.
Art plays with George Fowler and others in The Montville Project, whose goal is to record essential dance tune repertoire from New England.
Art Schatz has been a mainstay bluegrass and country fiddler in the Boston acoustic music scene for more than 30 years. Classically trained as a child, Art began fiddling in high school after hearing John Hartford, Vassar Clements, Byron Berline, and Richard Greene play with his favorite country, rock and bluegrass bands of the day. Art has played with Southern Rail, Honky Tonk Masquerade, and the Reunion Band, and currently plays with the Boston country and western swing band The Beantown Buckaroos.
Autumn Rose Lester is a versatile fiddler whose passion for traditional fiddle music is clear from the energy and infectious joy of her playing. Currently living in Keene, New Hampshire, she grew up in the Central New York contra dance community, both as a musician and as a dancer. Autumn Rose feels at home playing Irish, Old Time Appalachian, French Canadian, New England, and contemporary contra dance music.
She can frequently be found in contra dance halls around the Northeast performing with Eric Eid-Reiner (of The Moving Violations), Everest Witman (of Nova), Laurie Hart and Tim Ball, and many other musical collaborators. Her background also includes many years of classical training, which brings a unique perspective to her fiddling. In addition to being a contra dance fiddler, Autumn Rose enjoys playing concerts and teaching whenever the opportunity arises.
Barbara McOwen gained her B.A. in Music from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1971, and concurrently began her Scottish fiddle career as a dance and concert musician, band leader, music arranger, teacher, and researcher/collector of Scottish music books. After moving to Boston in 1979, she founded her band Tullochgorum which has performed all over America, Canada, and Scotland. Barbara co-founded three community Scottish music organizations, in Boston, New Hampshire and New York City, the annual Boston Branch RSCDS concerts, the New Hampshire Highland Games, Stockton Folk Dance Camp, and the Boston Harbor Scottish Fiddle Camp.
She is experienced in teaching all ages, all levels, and many instruments, and has developed a course for teaching Scottish fiddle from the beginner through advanced levels. She has taught Scottish music courses throughout North America, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand, including the Ceilidh Trail School of Celtic Music in Cape Breton. Barbara currently teaches private Scottish fiddle lessons full-time at home and at the New Hampshire School of Scottish Arts and is a member and performer at the Gaelic Club, which brings her into regular contact with the traditional Cape Breton music scene in the Boston area.
Baron Collins-Hill grew up playing the mandolin in Maine and graduated from Hampshire College with a degree in music performance and ethnomusicology. Versed in traditional fiddle music, bluegrass, and jazz, he is known for his rhythmic experimentation and unique harmonic sense on both the mandolin and the tenor guitar. Baron plays with fiddler Julia Plumb in their duo Velocipede and runs MandoLessons, a website offering free online mandolin lessons. He's a thoughtful teacher and experienced performer, and also teaches at Maine Fiddle Camp.
Bennett Hammond is a superb finger-style guitarist and recent convert to the five string banjo. He names "the three Bs," Bach, the blues and Buddy Holly, as major influences. Lorraine Hammond will be teaching singing at Fiddle Hell. Together, The Hammonds are versatile musicians, engaging entertainers, and fun teachers. Their warm stage presence is punctuated with wry humor, and their command of their instruments and musical genres is without flaw. The Boston Globe calls them "a dazzling, witty, eclectic, delightful duo." Their repertoire ranges in style from classical through Celtic, blues and contemporary. They sing both traditional and original songs and can be heard on over thirty recordings as featured artists, or enhancing the work of performers including Archie Fisher, Lui Collins and Bob Franke. Christine Lavin and Heidi Mueller are among the artists who have covered Hammond originals.
Bennett's most recent releases, on the independent folk label Snowy Egret Music, are Jingalo Gypsy featuring the duo, and his own Rockafolky Banjo Tapes.
Beth Bahia Cohen is a violinist of Syrian Jewish and Russian Jewish heritage. Inspired at a young age by the sounds she heard at family gatherings, she went on to study with master musicians from Hungary, Greece, Turkey, and the Middle East. She plays the violin, viola, Greek lyras, Turkish bowed tanbur and kabak kemane, Norwegian hardingfele, and Egyptian rababa.
Beth has performed with Led Zeppelin, Itzhak Perlman, Eubie Blake, Phillip Glass, numerous orchestras, and Greek, Turkish, Hungarian, and Klezmer ensembles. Her recordings include Errol Morris soundtracks, PBS Nova and American Experience shows, the film music of John Kusiak, and work with Dunya, EurAsia Ensemble, Ziyia, and Weaving the Worlds (solo). Beth has received scholarships from the National Endowment for the Arts/Artists International, American Research Institute of Turkey, and Radcliffe Bunting Institute.
Beth is an Assistant Professor of Strings at Berklee College of Music in Boston.
Bethany Waickman accompanies some of the country's finest players at dance halls, pub sessions, and on the concert stage. She started piano at an early age and played traditional and classical music along with her fiddle- and cello-playing brothers. She discovered DADGAD guitar tuning while studying with Keith Murphy at Meadowlark Camp; this modified tuning offers unique harmonies and rich drones well suited to supporting traditional music and to the driving, rhythmic guitar playing for which Bethany is known.
At UMass Amherst, Bethany joined the contra dance band The Hip Bones. At Pinewoods Camp, she formed the energetic contradance trio Anadama with fiddler Amelia Mason and accordionist Emily Troll in 2007. After college, Bethany traveled in Ireland, moved to Boston, and signed on as Lissa Schneckenburger's guitarist, recording on her album "Dance" and touring with Lissa's band throughout the US, Canada, Sweden, Denmark, and Belgium.
Bethany moved to Maine in 2013, and co-founded Fódhla with Nicole Rabata on Irish flute and Ellery Klein on fiddle. The trio brings traditional Irish music to festivals, sessions, and concert series around New England, and recorded a 6-track EP. Bethany has also worked with Ari and Mia Friedman, Mark Roberts and Laurel Martin, Ryan McKasson, Jeremiah McLane, Rose Clancy, Ed Pearlman, Katie McNally, Eric McDonald, Tashina Clarridge, Simon Chrisman, Nic Gareiss, Rodney Miller, Dave Langford, Julie Metcalf, Glen Loper, and Alden Robinson. In 2014 she toured Germany with The Southgate Band.
Bob Alessio Bob plays fiddle, guitar and mandolin, and leads the "Three Quarter Time" Waltz Group, and "Amici della Musica Italiana" = "Friends of Italian Music." He plays, leads sessions, and teaches locally. Bob has attended all 14 previous Fiddle Hell Massachusetts gatherings, including the very first "Friday Snowstorm Session" at the Stagecoach Inn in 2005. At Fiddle Hell, Bob has led the legendary and enjoyable Waltz Playthrough sessions for many years. Bob's also into outdoor sports (running, biking, sailing, kayaking, skiing, swimming), languages, children and grandchildren, and vegetable gardening.
Bassist and vocalist Brittany Karlson is an adventurous musician with roots in jazz, American old time, Swedish, and improvised music. She has performed across the USA, Canada, and Europe in a variety of ensemble settings, including Letter Castle and the Goodbye Girls (with Allison de Groot, Mollie Tuttle, and Lena Jonsson). She has performed with Darol Anger, Joe Walsh, and John Mailander. Brittany often works in freely improvised settings, ranging from solo bass to duos with bassist Ian Kovac to collaborations with musicians like Sam Lisabeth, Jesse Collins, Nick Neuberg, Matt Delligatti, and Jeb Bishop.
Brittany Karlson performs original songs under the moniker Karl, having released debut album "Feast Day" on Lungbasket recordings in 2015 and will release her upcoming album "And the Green Grass Grows all Around" in 2019.
Brittany, based in Boston, is enrolled in a three-year Alexander Technique Teacher Training course under the direction of Ruth Kilroy, and is scheduled to be an AmSAT certified teacher by October 2019. At Fiddle Hell, she'll teach a few bass workshops, sing a bit, and play bass for The Whomp!, the Cellosaurus Stomp Flash Mob, and a variety of jams and workshops.
Bruce Molsky is one of the most revered "multi-hyphenated career" ambassadors for America's old-time mountain music. For decades, he's been a globetrotting performer, ethnomusicologist and educator, a recording artist with an expansive discography including seven solo albums, well over a dozen collaborations and two Grammy-nominations. He's also the classic "musician's musician" – a man who's received high praise from diverse fans and collaborators like Linda Ronstadt, Mark Knopfler, Celtic giants Donal Lunny and Andy Irvine, jazzer Bill Frisell and dobro master Jerry Douglas, a true country gentleman by way of the Big Apple aptly dubbed "the Rembrandt of Appalachian fiddlers" by virtuoso violinist and sometimes bandmate Darol Anger. Molsky digs deep to transport audiences to another time and place, with his authentic feel for and the unearthing of almost-forgotten rarities from the Southern Appalachian songbook. His foils are not only his well-regarded fiddle work, but banjo, guitar and his distinctly resonant vocals. From tiny folk taverns in the British Isles to huge festival stages to his ongoing workshops at the renowned Berklee College of Music, Molsky seduces audiences with a combination of rhythmic and melodic virtuosity and relaxed conversational wit – a uniquely humanistic, downhome approach that can make Carnegie Hall feel like a front porch or parlor jam session.
2019 is Bruce's fourth year at Fiddle Hell, and the third for his band, Molsky's Mountain Drifters, with Allison de Groot on banjo and vocals, and Stash Wyslouch on guitar and vocals.
Cathy Mason specializes in American traditional fiddle music, primarily Old Time string band and vocal styles, as well as the Cajun and Creole music of Southwest Louisiana. Cathy's solo and ensemble playing conveys the soulful, haunting beauty and the quirky, rhythmic drive of these styles. She also plays guitar and tenor guitar.
After migrating from the south, Cathy played fiddle music for many years in the Northeast, first traveling around NH with her dance caller uncle, Dudley Laufman, playing for the burgeoning contra dance movement of the 1970's and 1980's. She honed her fiddle skills just after college and the ensuing years with Roaring Jelly and was a founding member of Unstrung Heroes, a popular dance band in New England during the 1980's and 1990's. Cathy eventually returned to her first love - Southern fiddle styles, including Appalachian Old Time and Cajun and Creole music. She has studied Cajun and Appalachian fiddle with a number of traditional and revival master musicians from both areas.
Cathy performs at dances, parties and concerts all over the east coast and south with her bands, The Dead Sea Squirrels and The High Strung Strummers as well as with other musicians. She has won several awards at the Lowell Fiddle and Banjo contest, been on the staff at dance and music camps and was a founding member of both The Rhythm Method String Band, Grand Bois, a popular local Cajun band during the 1990's and early 2000's and The Hi-Tone Ramblers.
Chris was born in England into a musical family and was taught to play the harmonica by his father and brother who are both folk musicians. Since then he has taught himself to play many instruments, including flute, cornetto, bombard, bagpipes, tin whistle, concentrating on the traditional songs and dance tunes of the British Isles and the United States. He has been playing professionally since 1967 and has toured and recorded all over Europe and the United States playing for people of all ages in a variety of situations. In 1975 he was the European Harmonica Champion for the Folk Section. He's played in the Nee Ningy Band and the Whompers.
Chris has worked extensively as a composer, music director, and arranger for various theatrical organizations including Rhode Island's prestigious Trinity Repertory Company, as well as for films, animations, radio and TV. A unique and very talented stylist on all kinds of harmonicas, He is equally at home playing blues, various folk styles, as well as modern classical music. He has premiered and recorded orchestral pieces composed for the harmonica, and has composed and transcribed others himself. Besides a variety of harmonicas, He has appeared as concerto soloist with the Rhode Island Philharmonic and the Ocean State Chamber Orchestra. Chris's enthusiasm and boundless energy are galvanizing to audiences and fellow musicians. The Reiner Family Band first met Chris at the Meadowlark Music Camp in Maine, and love his playing and singing!
Cynthia Eid is a founding member of the Reiner Family Band, married to Dave Reiner. In addition to her musical talents as a singer and instrumentalist, she's a well-known metalsmith who teaches workshops and lectures throughout the world. Look for her book "Creative Metal Forming" in the FH store.
Cindy Roy is an accomplished piano accompanist and stepdancer and has collaborated with her husband, Don Roy, on numerous recordings and performances. Hailing from roots deep in the Maritimes and Quebec, the Roy's musical passion lies with the French Canadian tradition followed closely by Celtic music. During their many years playing with the The Maine Friend Fiddlers, they played such venues as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, The Barns at Wolf Trap, and Prairie Home Companion.
BREAKING NEWS: Don and Cindy were named 2018 National Heritage Fellows by the National Endowment for the Arts earlier this year!
Clayton March leads a dual musical life as a clarinetist and an Irish fiddler. After graduating from New England Conservatory Clayton began to explore beyond classical music and realized his love of the clarinet music from Eastern Europe and the Fiddle tunes of Ireland. On clarinet he performs with the highly energetic and sometimes zany Polka Dan's Beet Box Band. He has recorded with Polka Dan as well as with The Bart Weisman Klezmer Swing Group. In 2012 Clayton recorded In Klezmer with Pianist Jacqueline Schwab.
As a fiddler Clayton leads Irish sessions across the region and is a sought after teacher. His students much appreciate his knowledge of Irish tunes, ornaments, and styles. He is a founder of West Bend Music in Dennis Port where he maintains a large teaching studio. Clayton has attended and taught at many Fiddle Hells, starting in the first location of Groton, and has offered excellent suggestions throughout for improving the event.
Dave Neiman, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has been performing and teaching both privately and at festivals since the early 1980's. His passion for the dulcimer has taken him to music festivals, concert stages, and street performing venues in many parts of the U.S. as well as Canada, Europe, and Japan, where he had the honor of a royal audience.
A former national champion on hammered dulcimer at Winfield, Dave started out playing traditional New England dance tunes on dulcimer but, influenced by his classical and jazz guitar studies, established a reputation for his arrangements of classical and popular pieces. After a bit of a hiatus from life on the road, he is restarting his participation at a variety of festivals. He has four recordings out.Dave will be teaching two workshops at Fiddle Hell: Hammered Dulcimer 101, and Hammered Dulcimer, Next Steps. Fortunately, he'll have a couple of extra instruments along.
Dave Reiner plays and teaches multiple fiddle styles. Twice Wisconsin State Fiddle Champion, he's also won many Northeastern contests and has written three fiddle instruction books for Mel Bay Publications, including Oldtime Fiddling across America (with Peter Anick), Anthology of Fiddle Styles, and the recently re-released Deluxe Anthology of Jazz Violin Styles (with Glenn Asch) He played with Peter Anick in several bands in Wisconsin, including Bluegrass Caravan, and continued the run with Hot Off The Frets when they both had moved to Massachusetts. Dave also played with Fire on the Mountain and Southern Rail. Now, Dave's family and friends join him in the broadly-ranging Reiner Family Band, which recently recorded 52 Traditional Fiddle Tunes from Fiddle Hell, Volume 2: Played Fast and Slow. He also plays with Granite Grass, a bluegrass and Western Swing band, and sits in on fiddle with Boston Road, a band that plays bluegrass and beyond.
Dave turned the original concept of Fiddle Hell as an informal gathering of fiddlers, into a weekend fiddle camp, into a 4-day festival with 13 concerts and 500 workshops and jams for fiddle and other instruments. FH is now in its 15th year. While Dave can often be found teaching tunes, he is also very focused on giving players the hands-on knowledge and techniques to play traditional fiddle styles, from bowing patterns and chords to learning by ear and backing up a singer.
David Kaynor is a great fiddler, contradance caller, and dance composer, who has been an central and cheery force at Fiddle Hell for many years. He's the organizer of a well-known Greenfield contra dance series in western Massachusetts, a training ground for many of today's most talented dance musicians. He is also the music director of the Vermont Fiddle Orchestra.
He has made influential recordings with The Fourgone Conclusions, Three Good Reasons, the Greenfield Dance Band, and fiddler/teacher Betsy Branch of Portland, Oregon. David has served on the staffs of Ashokan, Fiddle Tunes, Northeast Heritage Music Camp, the Lady of the Lake, and many other dance camps and weekends. David's fine workshops and jams are useful, informative, and entertaining.
David Moultrup has been an avid musician for his entire life. He played guitar and sang with the Reiner Family Band many years ago. He's a fine jazz guitar player who knows those cool demolished and demented chords, and picks both lead and rhythm for bluegrass tunes. Plus, he sings "The Auctioneer."
David has worked with the International Bluegrass Music Association Wellness Committee for many years, looking to improve the health and well-being of musicians.
One of New England's finest guitarists and mandolin players, David Surette has been quietly generating a growing following for his work as a soloist. His solo albums "Back Roads" and "Trip to Kemper" have helped to establish him as a top player and arranger of Celtic fingerstyle guitar, yet his diverse repertoire also includes original compositions, blues and ragtime, traditional American roots music, and folk music from a variety of traditions, all played with finesse, taste, and virtuosity. He is equally at home on the mandolin and bouzouki, is well-known as a top-notch accompanist in New England's contra dance and Celtic music circles, and is also in demand as a studio musician and sideman. He has performed throughout the country at festivals, concerts, coffeehouses and contra dances, and in 1999 toured in Brittany, France. Since 1988 Surette has enjoyed an inspired musical partnership with singer Susie Burke, with whom he has released a duo recording, "Sometimes in the Evening". He also plays regularly with fiddler Rodney Miller.
In addition to performing and recording, David maintains an active teaching schedule, and is head of the folk department at the Concord (NH) Community Music School. He has also taught at numerous summer music camps, was awarded an NEA travel grant in 1994 to study the traditional music of Brittany, and has written a book of Celtic guitar arrangements for Mel Bay Publications.
Don Roy picked up a guitar when he was 6 years old, and his Uncle Lou placed a fiddle into his hands when he was 15. Winning fiddling contests and absorbing new tunes from mentors consumed Don's early years. He and his wife, Cindy, met on a blind date to play music together. Don has been a part of many influential bands over the years, including the Maine French Fiddlers and his own Don Roy Trio. In 1994, 2001, and 2008 Don received Individual Artist Fellowship Awards from the Maine Arts Commission. These fellowships are awarded for excellence in traditional arts and are highly sought. Don also received the Harold Carter Memorial award for country fiddling. BREAKING NEWS: Don and Cindy were named National Heritage Fellows by the National Endowment for the Arts in 2018!
In 2000, Don began offering a free monthly session in Portland, ME. By 2003 this group had grown, and Maine's largest fiddle orchestra, Fiddle-icious, was created. Today it has over 140 members and a large staff of instructors and administrators all donating their time to help Don continue to bring his musical heritage to audiences and musicians alike.
Don is a regular instructor at Maine Fiddle Camp, teaches privately, and in 2013 taught at The Festival of American Fiddle Tunes in Port Townsend WA. When not recording, playing, teaching, or composing, Don can be found in his workshop, making the instruments that he loves to play with time-honored tradition and attention to detail reminiscent of the old Italian masters.
Doug Protsik likes to play the "old-time piano" for dances, melodramas, honky tonk saloons, and silent movies. He plays withOld Grey Gooseand produced all three of their recordings, including the group's first recording in 1978 for Folkways, "Old Time Country Dance Tunes and Songs from Maine", now available again on CD. Doug also plays accordion and fiddle.
Teaching at a variety of academic levels and providing educational programs to schools and summer camps is another aspect of Doug's musical work. He has been designated Master Old-Time Fiddler by the Maine Arts Commission and mentors aspiring fiddlers. As Director of Maine Fiddle Camp (which shares some instructors and many attendees with Fiddle Hell), Doug has produced 12 annual fiddle tune collections.
With degrees from Northwestern and Yale, concert artist and educator Duane Padilla began his career as an orchestral musician, performing with the National Repertoire Orchestra, the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, the New Haven Symphony, and the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra. His chamber music ensemble The Gemini Duo was a semi-finalist in the prestigious International Concert Artists Guild Competition in NYC. Duane's more recent artistic endeavors have turned towards jazz. As a founding member of The Hot Club of Hulaville, he won the Hawaii Academy of Recording Arts's award for jazz album of the year for the gypsy jazz release "Django Would Go!" His solo jazz violin album "Sentimental Swing" was named one of the top 40 jazz releases of 2011 by the South African Jazz Educators Association. Recent concert collaborations include duo performances with Pianist Tommy James (Music Director of the Duke Ellington Orchestra NYC), fingerstyle guitar legend Jeff Linsky, Guitarist Paul Mehling (Hot Club of San Francisco), Grammy winning Hawaiian Slack Key Guitarist Jeff Peterson, and Jazz Ukulele Grand Master Ben Chong. He has opened concerts for jazz giants Martin Taylor, John Jorgensen, and John Pizzarelli. Duane studied jazz violin with Tim Kliphuis, Ben Powell, Aaron Weinstein, Jason Anick and Christian Howes. Having studied Suzuki violin pedagogy and conducting, Duane began his teaching career in Connecticut where he was head of two Suzuki Programs. He designed and implemented a unique Connecticut public school string program for grades 1-3 based on the Suzuki method. Duane has served as President of the Hawaii Chapter of the American String Teachers Association (ASTA) and has served on the Board of Directors of the Suzuki Association of Hawaii and the Suzuki Talent Education of Hawaii. He currently is on faculty at the Punahou Music School and Chaminade University and serves as Chairman of the ASTA Eclectic Styles Committee.
Eamon Sefton is a multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter based out of Boston, MA. He is rooted in a wide variety of different musical styles ranging from rock to pop to traditional Celtic. Specializing in Irish and Scottish style guitar, he has established himself as one of the most highly sought after accompanists in the Boston area. His percussive rhythm and innovative use of harmony, as well as deep understanding of traditional tunes distinguish him as a truly unique and stand-out musician. Eamon has performed and taught all over the US with an array of different musicians. He has shared the stage with many prominent Celtic musicians including Hanneke Cassel, Alistair McCulloch, Kevin Henderson, John Doyle, Galen Fraser, and many others. Finally, Eamon is the regular guitar teacher at the Boston Harbor Scottish Fiddle School.
Elaine Malkin has played the violin since the age of 5. She was part of the resurgence of contra dances in the early 70's, having learned from Otto Soper and Dudley Laufman. She played New England contra dances until 2006, when she began an intensive study of Québécois fiddle with mainly Éric Favreau, but also with Lisa Ornstein, André Brunet, Yvon Mimeault, and Liette Remon.
This music has completely captured Elaine's heart and she uses a traditional Québécois repertoire for contra dances, concerts, and other venues. Learning, teaching, and sharing this special music is her greatest joy. Maine Fiddle Campers will know Elaine well!
Elizabeth and Ben Anderson, a Boston-based Scottish fiddle and cello duo, has an enthusiastic following in the U.S. and internationally. Blending Scottish tunes with lively rhythms and innovative harmonies, the pair create a sound rooted in tradition, inspired by the contemporary, and completely original. On stage, they captivate audiences with their ability to effortlessly communicate musical nuances as only siblings can.Elizabeth is the 2016 Perth All-Scotland Fiddle Champion and 2018 and 2019 New England Scottish Fiddle Champion. A graduate of Berklee College of Music, she teaches string instruments as a middle school and private instructor. Ben studies computer science and music at WPI. After years of learning Scottish fiddle at camps in the US, they both spent the fall of 2016 in Glasgow, immersing themselves in traditional music and refining their style under renowned Scottish fiddler Douglas Lawrence.
The duo has played at the New Hampshire Highland Games, the Boston Celtic Music Festival, Old Sturbridge Village, and for Scottish country dancing. They have played to full houses at iconic Boston venues The Burren and Club Passim, and have given popular performances and workshops as far away as France and Scotland. They released their CD Over the Isles in 2018.
With a Masters in Education and 15 years of teaching math, Ellen Carlson knows what it means to be accountable for people learning what is taught. Over 40 years of playing fiddle combined with this teaching experience make her a sought-after teacher for workshops. She has taught at Grey Fox, Joe Val, Pemi Valley, and along with Pete & Joan Wernick at the Wernick Jam Camps.
She grew up in a musical family so her musical roots go deep back to her great grandfather, a Swedish fiddle player who played in the contests of Henry Ford, as well as fighting with her brothers about what songs to play in their family band. She has co-run her own camp for over 20 years, Fiddleheads Jam Camp and leads the NH Fiddle Ensemble, an "orchestra" with over 100 members and in their 10th year.
Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine called Ellen "an exceptionally talented musician" for her work with the acoustic roots group High Range and gave her a coveted highlight review for her solo album "People I Play With". Her song "Waiting for You" was a winner in the Fiddler Magazine contest. She would like to inspire people of all ages to play and to learn to enjoy the many facets of fiddling as well as making music together.Get up early to join Ellen, who leads the 8:30AM Warmup sessions Friday, Saturday, and Sunday at FH.
Ellery Klein is a fiddle and violin teacher in the Boston area. After decades of performing, Ellery began to concentrate on teaching full-time in 2013. She now works with about 25 youth and adults at her home studio in Medford, and at Powers Music School in Belmont. She founded and directs Powers' summer strings program, "Fiddling on the Hill." For four years, she also taught Irish fiddle at the Boston branch of the Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann's Saturday school.
Ellery currently performs with Portland-based flute player Nicole Rabata and guitarist Bethany Waickman in the Irish trio Fódhla. From 2003-2007, she fiddled around the USA over 235 days a year with the acclaimed Irish band Gaelic Storm. She has also performed with Long Time Courting, Vermont bagpipe rock band Whisky Before Breakfast, jighead, singer Cathie Ryan, Scottish pianist James Ross and banjo player Olive Brennan. With fellow Gaelic Storm drummer Ryan Lacey, she has produced three recordings for competitive Irish dancers.
In 2001, Ellery received her M.A. in Traditional Irish Music at University of Limerick's Irish World Music Centre, and is a proud alumna of Cincinnati, Ohio's magnet high school School for Creative and Performing Arts. When not performing or teaching, she can be found shuttling her two budding clarinet, fiddle, piano-and-basketball-playing children around Medford and beyond.
Dancers and listeners have long enjoyed Eric Eid-Reiner's innovative piano accompaniment, melody playing, and compositions. Eric has been a part of the Boston area music scene most of his life, and has performed throughout the Northeast at contra dances, concerts, weddings, festivals, and more.
Eric has played with the Reiner Family Band since he was six. He is the rhythmic foundation now of The Moving Violations contra dance band, which features driving double fiddle harmonies, strong rhythm, affectionate abandon, original compositions, and occasional silliness. Eric also plays with fiddlers Julie Metcalf, Alden Robinson, David Kaynor, and Andy Reiner. Previously, he co-founded Matching Orange and played in the Rachel Cole Band (a Jewish folk/pop/rock group).
Eric has performed with Cape Breton fiddler Ashley MacIsaac and Irish fiddler Tony DeMarco, and has appeared on Brian O'Donovan's "A Celtic Sojourn." Eric's fine book of original tunes, Fiddle Bottle Waltz, is in the FH store, along with his CDs Grand Tour and On a Meadowlark Night: Dance Music from New England, Ireland, Scotland, Québec, and Cape Breton. The latter received great reviews from Folk Roots and Celtic Beat Magazine. Of course, Eric plays the piano backup on the Original 52 and New 52 FH CDs.
Eric's played at the Boston Celtic Music Festival, Brown University Contra Dance, Champlain Valley Folk Festival, Club Passim, Concord Scout House, Festival Mémoire et Racines, Me and Thee Coffeehouse, NEFFA, Rehoboth Contra Dance, and the Wheaton College Contra Dance, His piano mentors and teachers have included Jacqueline Schwab, Keith Murphy, Jeremiah McLane, Kate Barnes, Rachel Aucoin, Stephanie Wills and Howie MacDonald.
Éric Favreau comes from a family of traditional musicians and has spent much time playing with other fiddlers, learning their repertoire and studying their varied styles. He has explored many sources, including archives and field recordings he has personally made, and has accumulated a rich and fascinating repertoire. Both individually and as a member of various groups, Éric has vast experience in the Canadian, United States, and European music scenes.
He has recorded two solo albums. One of them, made with fiddler and friend Mario Landry (Reel à Deux), has become a reference for traditional fiddle music in Quebec. He has recorded three albums (La st-Berdondaine, Les choux pis des melons, Épilogue) with Entourloupe, and has appeared on at least twenty others. He is currently performing and touring with Tidal Wave, or Raz de Marée -- a cross-border group from Québec and New England. Éric is a consummate entertainer/educator in traditional music workshops presented in the public school system under the auspices of the Minister of Education. He also teaches traditional fiddle and the history of traditional music at the Cégep de Joliette (Junior College) in Joliette, Québec. Éric's playing is marked by delicacy, nuance and liveliness that will leave no foot untapped, and his workshops are always fun!
Eric Kilburn has been at the helm of Wellspring Sound in Acton, MA, since 1980 as owner, producer and sound engineer. He has produced over 700 albums including the Grammy winning album of Esperanza Spalding. He is an accomplished mandolin, guitar and weissenborn player. He plays regularly around New England with his own band The Swing Café.
And finally, Eric provides the stage lighting for the all the Fiddle Hell concerts.
Acoustic guitar and mandolin player Flynn Cohen has performed all over the world with many notable acts in traditional and contemporary acoustic music. He can be seen in concert with the American folk band Low Lily, legendary Irish Accordion player John Whelan, demon fiddler Duncan Wickel, and solo and duo shows playing music from his four solo albums.
Flynn has also performed with Ruth Moody, Halali, The Sevens, Aoife Clancy, Cathie Ryan, Lawrence Nugent, Skip Healy, Joe Derrane and Frank Ferrel, John McGann, Matt Glaser, Brian Wicklund, Tony Watt and Southeast Expressway, Adrienne Young, Jake & Taylor Armerding, Gail Davies, Jilly Martin, Malibu Storm, Bruce MacGregor, Lissa Schneckenburger, Laura Cortese, Mark Simos, Women of Ireland, The Vancouver Symphony, the Orchestra of Indian Hill, Revels, and Footworks Percussive Dance Ensemble.
He studied Music at Dartington College of Arts in Devon, England and at Mills College in Oakland, California and now teaches in the Music Dept at Keene State College in New Hampshire, as well as The Music Emporium in Lexington, Massachusetts. Flynn's handouts for Fiddle Hell are here.
Frank Ferrel is widely regarded as a leading authority on North American traditional fiddle music. Along with his collecting, publishing, and music research, he is considered to be one of the leading American fiddlers performing today. He is a member of the North American Old Time Fiddler's Hall of Fame. Frank begin his fiddling career at age 8, being first influenced by his grandfather, a traditional musician and native of Ohio and West Virginia. In the early 1970's, while teaching in New England, He rekindled his interest in traditional fiddling under the influence of local Irish, French-Acadian, and Canadian Maritimes fiddlers.
Mr. Ferrel has kept active musically over the years playing for major festivals as well as local music sessions and dances. Frank has made numerous appearances on the nationally broadcast American radio series, A Prairie Home Companion, and is included on their anthology recording, "PHC Tourists." He has performed with the legendary Celtic group, The Boys of the Lough, both as guest artist on their Scottish Highlands and Islands tours, as well as being a featured performer in numerous festival and concert performances throughout North America. His major label CD release, Yankee Dreams, was chosen by the Library of Congress for inclusion in their Select List of 25 Recordings of American Folk Music.
George Fowler trained classically as a youngster and started fiddling in the late 1970's, learning tunes from lobsterman and folk fiddler Albert Collins of South Blue Hill, Maine. He was a founding member of Oakum Bay String Band (1981-2011), the long-time host band for the monthly Blue Hill contradance, which had a remarkable 34 year run (1976-2010).
In addition to playing and teaching the fiddle tunes of Maine, Appalachia and the Canadian Maritimes, George has a strong interest in Irish traditional music. In 1988 he started "New Potatoes", a weekly Celtic music show on WERU-FM, which he hosted until his relocation to Hanover, NH in 2017. He's a member of The Montville Project , a repertory dance band (that also includes Art Bryan), which has recorded two albums of New England dance music and he has also recorded a personal album, Never Better. All are available through CD Baby, iTunes and Amazon.
George is on staff at Maine Fiddle Camp, has taught for many years at Fiddle Hell in Massachusetts, and has taught Acadia School of Traditional Music & Art. Now, he's available for individual fiddle instruction in the Hanover, NH, area.
Janine Randall is a fine piano comper in the syncopated Cape Breton style, who has backed up Troy MacGillivray, Frank Ferrel, Jerry Holland, Ken Perlman, Arthur Muise, Ian MacDougall, J. P. Cormier, George Keith, and many, many more fine players. She was the Director of the Céilidh Trail School of Celtic Music in Inverness, Cape Breton, and also is known for her Scottish, Irish, and PEI backup playing. Janine has performed and taught all over, from Scotland, Ireland, and the US, to Ontario, Newfoundland, PEI, and Cape Breton.
Eldest daughter of Mary Edmonds and Johnny Muise, Janine grew up in a musical household near Boston, and absorbed the sound of traditional Cape Breton music from the age of 3. In 2015, she donated many of her family's tape and cassette recordings (and helped identify the performers and tunes on them) to form the Muise Family Collection of Cape Breton and Irish Music, which has been processed as part of the Burns Library's Irish Music Archives at Boston College.
Janine can often be found at the Gaelic Club meetings in the Canadian-American Club in Watertown MA, teaching and accompanying Cape Breton tunes and more. At Fiddle Hell, Janine will be providing backup for several sessions, and likely teaching a workshop or two on accompaniment.
One of the youngest instructors at Boston's Berklee College of Music, Jason Anick is considered "a rising star in the world of jazz violin and mandolin" (Downbeat Magazine). In addition to leading his own contemporary jazz ensemble and performing with the Rhythm Future Quartet (RFQ), Jason has been touring and recording with Grammy award-winning Nashville guitar virtuoso John Jorgenson since 2008 when he was recruited while still a senior at the Hartt Conservatory. Recently, Jason has been focusing on arranging and composing for RFQ, which he started with Finnish guitarist Olli Soikkeli, and which is rapidly becoming one of the preeminent Gypsy jazz groups in the country.
With performances all over the world from China, Europe, and Japan and renowned venues like the Montreal Jazz Festival, Blue Note, Scullers Jazz Club, Yoshi's Jazz Club, Iridium, TD Garden, Regattabar, NPR, and The Late Night Show, Jason has proven himself to be a leader in the ever-growing contemporary string world. He is also a sought-after educator who has taught jazz violin and mandolin at string camps, workshops, and clinics around the world. Last but not least, Jason grew up playing twin fiddle and jamming with Andy Reiner.
Jay Ungar's fiddling is brimming with playfulness, drama, soulfulness and technical verve, as he explores the many musical styles and idioms that he has internalized and made his own. His compositions include tunes such as Ashokan Farewell, Lover's Waltz, Wizard's Walk, and Popcorn Behavior.
Starting with a chance meeting in the '70's, Jay Ungar and Molly Mason have become one of the most celebrated duos on the American acoustic music scene. They played fiddle and bass, respectively, in the band Fiddle Fever (with fellow fiddlers Evan Stover and Matt Glaser and guitarist Russ Barenberg), which recorded two classic albums. The early '80s also saw the beginning of Jay's Ashokan Fiddle & Dance Camps, a world-renowned destination for enthusiasts of American music and dance traditions. Several years later, Molly became a full partner in designing and running these programs, which are still going strong.
When filmmaker Ken Burns heard their playing, he was so taken with Jay's evocative and haunting melody Ashokan Farewell that he used the tune in several films. Burnswound up inviting Jay and Molly to provide music for many of his projects, including his landmark PBS documentary The Civil War. The result: an Emmy nomination for Jay and a Grammy for the soundtrack album.
Jay and Molly have recorded American Dreamer, a collection of the songs of Stephen Foster, and Waltzing with You, an elaboration on their score for the film Brother's Keeper, a Sundance Film Festival prizewinner. Perhaps the duo's best-known composition is the title track of The Lovers' Waltz, an album of romantic fiddle music from Appalachian, Scandinavian, Celtic, Klezmer and Swing traditions. Jay and Molly's 1999 release on Angel Records, culminates in their 20-minute orchestral work, The Harvest Home Suite. In 2002, Jay and Molly produced, arranged and performed on A Song of Home, a collaborative recording for RCA, with flutist Sir James Galway, mandolinist Peter Ostroushko and bassist Steve Rust. Now, with Relax Your Mind (Angel Records), Jay and Molly, with their band Swingology, take a slightly different direction: American dance music with a focus on country blues and swing. Included are more of the beautiful waltzes that have become their signature pieces. On radio and television, Jay and Molly have appeared on CBS Good Morning, The Rosie O'Donnel Show, All Things Considered, A Prairie Home Companion, and the BBC's Transatlantic Sessions. And they have no shortage of future musical projects.
Welcome back to Fiddle Hell! Scottish fiddler and experimentalist Jenna Moynihan is from Lakewood, New York and is a recent graduate of Berklee College of Music. While studying, she was selected to receive the Fletcher Bright Award and The American Roots Music Award. She performs in a duo with Scottish harpist, Mairi Chaimbeul, and with Laura Cortese & The Dance Cards, and has performed and collaborated with Darol Anger & The Furies, Hamish Napier, Bruce Molsky, Matt Glaser, Kimberly Fraser, Phil Cunningham, and as a soloist at Symphony Hall with the Boston Pops. And she teaches at multiple fiddle camps.On Jenna's new album, Woven, she darts back and forth like the shuttle in a loom, pulling the many strands of the Scottish fiddle tradition into a colorful tapestry that showcases her virtuosic control of her instrument as much as her deep sense of playfulness. The album was produced by Maeve Gilchrist, and the lineup includes cutting-edge Scottish harpist Mairi Chaimbeul, renowned bluegrass guitarist Courtney Hartman (Della Mae), New England Celtic guitarist Owen Marshall, plus all-star guest fiddlers: Duncan Wickel, Darol Anger, and Alex Hargreaves. As the harp rolls in counterpoint behind the racing fiddle lines, or as the guitar matches her beat for beat, this is music whose virtuosity lies in Jenna's construction of the atmosphere around each tune, and her delivery of each beautiful melody.
She's remarkably subtle at drawing out the melody of a tune, and at recognizing how each tune fits best into the acoustic grooves of her fiddle. "She is the best of the best in the new generation of freestyle fiddlers, with deep roots in the Celtic style. She's got it - the magic touch." - Darol Anger.
Jerry Bryant is a finder, teacher, and singer of good songs ancient and new. A nationally-known scholar of maritime music, Jerry's repertoire of chanteys, drinking songs, and bawdy verse is deep. He has also explored the depths of American, English and Irish balladry, and brought back gems that are still hair-raisingly alive hundreds of years after they were created.
At the legendary Meadowlark Music Camp in Maine Jerry taught singing, guitar, and sundry other instruments for 14 years, and for the past 8 years he has been on the staff of the wonderful Rustic Roots Music & Food Retreat. He has released two albums of his own, and collaborated on several others, including the infamous Salty Dick's Uncensored Sailor Songs. After listening to Jerry's first release, The Ballad of Harbo and Samuelsen, Gordon Bok wrote, "That's really delightful. You have a 'straight-up & steady-on' way of singing that minds me of some singers long East o' here." Not surprising, considering Jerry was born and bred in the State of Maine.
Jerry has been featured in the San Francisco National Maritime Historic Park's sea music concert series, Mystic Seaport Museum's annual Sea Music Festival, South Street Seaport in New York, and many others. He also makes songs, using the tradition as inspiration. A surprising variety of instruments have made their way into the orbit of the songs he sings. For Fiddle Hell 2019 he will bring his guitar, his tenor and baritone ukuleles, and some bones.
Jerry Wile is a bluegrass musician. He has played for over 35 years in the New England area, performing at festivals and popular bluegrass venues. He has played with many bluegrass bands and can presently be heard with the bands Granite Grass (which includes Dave Reiner on mandolin and fiddle) and Hurricane Hill, where he showcases the three finger banjo, flat picking guitar, lead and harmony vocals. Jerry has been teaching banjo and guitar to eager students at several locations for many years.
Jerry has recently released a CD of his original tunes with Andy Reiner on fiddle.
Joe is the lead singer and violinist for the progressive rock band, Stratospheerius, which has released five acclaimed CD's. He can be heard on over a hundred CD's and jingles as a violinist and string arranger. A BMI Jazz Composer's grant recipient and winner of the John Lennon Songwriting Contest, Joe premiered his "Concerto for Seven String Electric Violin and Orchestra" with the Muncie Symphony Orchestra in 2015. His original music has been featured on CMT, MTV, VH1, Comedy Central, National Geographic, the Travel Channel, the History Channel, and the Will Ferrell/ Adam McKay- produced film "Virginity Hit."
Joe is also a member of the Sweet Plantain String Quartet, which combines Latin Jazz with hip-hop and Classical music, and has toured throughout Europe and the U.S. Joe has also released a CD with his Acoustic Jazz Trio, titled "Exuberance." As an educator, Joe has taught rock violin at Mark O'Connor's String Camp and Mark Wood's Rock Orchestra Camp, and made repeated appearances performing at the Grand Canyon Music Festival, where he co-founded the Grand Canyon School of Rock in 2006, an annual program for local high school students. He regularly travels as a clinician and has contributed articles to Strings, Downbeat, and Making Music Magazine. In 2012, Joe wrote a book on electric violin techniques for Mel Bay Publications, entitled Plugging In. Joe recently made the Downbeat Critic's pole for jazz/rock violin, and Chris Haigh's recent book, Discovering Rock Violin lists one of Joe's recorded solos among the "Top 20 greatest rock violin solos of all time."
Joe holds Bachelor's degrees in Violin Performance and Jazz Violin from Indiana University and a Master's in Jazz/Commercial violin from Manhattan School of Music.
John Chambers is a multi-instrumentalist often seen on accordion, fiddle and whistle. He plays an amazing array of styles and knows a lot of fine tunes. John is responsible for the ABC Tune Finder (try it!) to locate tune transcriptions in ABC across the known universe. He plays with many groups now, and in the past played with Dave Reiner in the Arkansas Travelers and the Irish Brigade in Madison, WI.
John Robinson grew up outside of Boston playing and singing many varieties of music. He wound up on a path to fiddle-driven music through a trip to Ralph Stanley's farm for a bluegrass festival, years of playing on friends' porches and in living rooms, and crossing paths with the inimitable Dave Reiner. He joined Dave on guitar and vocals in the bluegrass band Stringtown, and in the Reiner Family Band. John, who also answers to the name "JR," has been to a dozen Fiddle Hells.
Raised on a small farm in Spokane, Washington, Joy Adams began playing the cello at age 15 and is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music. Despite a string of classical adventures that included winning Musicfest Northwest, attending the Aspen Music Festival, soloing with the Spokane Symphony, and touring with the Selden String Quartet, Joy ultimately returned to her roots, joining an old-time band, the Windsor Folk Family, during her last year at Eastman. Recipient of a Mancini Fellowship at the Frost School of Music (where she also taught bluegrass songwriting, contemporary improvisation, and led the Frost Fiddle Band),
Joy completed her Doctorate in 2016. She teaches for the American Music System and Denver School of the Arts, and has been on the faculty of fiddle camps in Boston, Charleston, Maine, Connecticut, New York City, and Sandpoint, Idaho. She has made over a dozen concerto appearances and has shared the stage with major artists such as Bruce Hornsby, Ben Folds, Bobby McFerrin, and Chick Corea. Recent highlights include releasing Trifecta, a CD of Indian fusion music, publishing Fiddle Club Favorites for the Cello, touring the Northwest with fiddle-cello duo Half Pelican, and performing at the 2017 Big Sky Big Grass festival with Darol Anger and the Furies. Joy played the cello tracks on the "New 52" 2-CD set by the Reiner Family Band.
With roots in classical training, traditional fiddle music, and modern rock, Judy Hyman is a founding member of the alt-folk rock band, The Horse Flies. With them she has toured extensively in the U.S., Canada, and Europe and recorded 8 albums, including releases on MCA and Rounder Records. Judy also composes music for film, television, and multi-media. She received an Emmy for "Musical Composition/Arrangement: Special Achievement" for her score for the documentary, The Cultivated Life: Thomas Jefferson and Wine.
Judy has toured and recorded with pop singer Natalie Merchant several times and appears on her albums, The House Carpenter's Daughter and Leave Your Sleep. In 2012 she released an album of her original waltzes, Late Last Summer, with her father, pianist Dick Hyman. Judy has been featured twice in Fiddler Magazine (for her fiddle playing), and once in Electronic Musician (for her film composing), and she was selected by Fiddler Magazine as one of their top 20 fiddlers in 2013, in celebration of their 20th anniversary. Critics have described Judy's work as haunting, gorgeous, sepia-tone, stirring, powerful, impressive, beautiful, rousing, and playful.
Judy's husband Jeff Claus, also a founding member of The Horse Flies, will be joining her at Fiddle Hell for several workshops.
Julie Lyonn Lieberman is a multi-style improvising violinist, fiddler, vocalist, clinician, author and composer. She has performed throughout the US as well as in Canada and Europe, and has played on and off-Broadway, on radio and TV. Julie is the author of nine music books and six educational DVDs, and over two dozen string orchestra scores in American and world styles (Carl Fischer, Kendor and Alfred Music). She has also written and produced two National Public Radio Series: The Talking Violin, hosted by Dr. Billy Taylor, and Jazz Profiles: Jazz Violin hosted by Nancy Wilson.
Julie was the recipient of the 2014 American String Teachers Association (ASTA) Kudos Award, over two dozen ASCAP Plus Awards, eight Meet the Composer awards and three American String Teachers Association's National Citation for Leadership & Merit awards. Her original music is licensed through Cinephonix.
She is the Artistic Director for the summer program, Strings Without Boundaries and has helped develop the eclectic styles string field over the last thirty-five years as a performer, clinician, author, composer, radio and concert producer, and recording artist. Julie is also an NS Design Performance Artist and a D'Addario Premiere Clinician.
Irish fiddler Laurel Martin is known for her lyrical, gracefully nuanced musical style. A highly regarded performer and teacher in the Boston area, she is often heard playing at sessions, festivals and concerts throughout New England. Laurel has been playing Irish fiddle music since 1981, and her style has been shaped over the years by listening to old recordings of Irish traditional musicians, by the guidance of Seamus Connolly, with whom she studied in the early 1990s, and by the influence of the many wonderful musicians she has met along the way.
Laurel is enchanted by the lonesome, enigmatic quality of the old music and is especially drawn to the musical styles of County Clare, East Galway and Sligo. She loves teaching and considers it to be one of the most rewarding aspects of her musical life. She has been teaching workshops, classes and private lessons since 1994, has taught at Boston College and Wellesley College and currently at the Indian Hill Music School in Littleton, MA.
In 2002 and 2010 she was awarded Traditional Arts Master-Apprentice grants from the Massachusetts Cultural Council to provide instruction and mentorship to her young fiddle students. Laurel has co-authored a book/CD of traditional Irish tunes, Forget Me Not, with her mentor Seamus Connolly, has toured and recorded several albums with the fiddle ensemble "Childsplay", and released her first solo CD "The Groves" in 2006. Her newest solo CD, Larks & Thrushes, was released in December of 2018.
Lissa Schneckenburger is a winsome, sweet-voiced singer who brings new life to old ballads, and a skillful, dynamic fiddler who captures the driving rhythm and joy of dance tunes old and new. She specializes in the sprightly New England dance tunes that combine influences from the British Isles and Québec with homegrown twists that have been evolving since Colonial days. Lissa was deeply influenced by the diverse musical community that she found at fiddle camps, where she played with and learned from Scottish fiddler Alasdair Fraser among many others; these experiences have made her a fine and supportive teacher as well. In 2001, she graduated from the New England Conservatory of Music with a degree in Contemporary Improvisation. She has been performing around the US, Canada, and Europe ever since, and has recorded nine CDs - six solo and three with various groups.
When Schneckenburger sings—an enchanting mix of smoke, gravel & honey—you stop what you're doing. The down beat slams your body as the lyrics ignite— diamonds in the snow, bright voices of love and loss—and then she brings each song to a boil, careening around each unexpected detail. The song ends before you're ready, leaving you breathless with your heart pounding in your ears. You reach forward and hit repeat.
Some albums, it seems, we've been waiting our whole lives to hear. "Thunder in my Arms," Schneckenburger's first release of all original music, is a song cycle about attachment, parenting and trauma. After a decades-long career performing as a traditional fiddler and ballad singer, Schneckenburger's personal experience as a foster parent sparked her drive to write stories of family attachment and loss. She found herself diving into writing this new material with a fever that matched her subject matter. Sung from a myriad of viewpoints, 'Thunder in my Arms' can be at times brazen and innocent, resilient and triumphant, softly confessional and sweetly comforting. Lissa says, "Music has this magical way of communicating emotion almost instantly, and allows human beings to synchronize with each other on so many levels. I set out to write songs that would resonate with other parents like myself. Songs about loneliness, exhaustion, beauty, abandonment, love, loss, and above all, hope."
Lorraine Hammond is well known as a traditional folk singer, songwriter, and an accomplished player and teacher of the Celtic harp, five-string banjo, Appalachian dulcimer, and mandolin. A Shanachie and Snowy Egret recording artist, she tours extensively performing both as a soloist and with her husband, guitarist Bennett Hammond. She has authored a Homespun Appalachian dulcimer instruction series and two elegant dulcimer books with Yellow Moon Press. Lorraine teaches at the John C. Campbell Folk School, WUMB-fm Acoustic music camps, Music Camps North and the Mountain Collegium of Early Music. She is a lecturer in American folk and also World music at Lasell University in Newton, MA, and is Music Director of WUMB-fm's Summer Acoustic Music Weeks program.
At FH, Lorraine focuses on singing with strength for singers, and will lead several other supportive singing workshops (some with her husband Bennett) as well as teach basic mandolin and Appalachian dulcimer.
"The Hammonds are folk missionaries of the first order, devoted cultural activists, teachers, event organizers, and performers who love to introduce people to the joys of traditional music." - Scott Alarik, Boston Globe
Based in Montague, MA, lydia ievins plays nyckelharpa and five-string fiddle for Scandinavian and English Country dancing. Her absolute favorite thing about playing in either genre is the boundless opportunity to create rich harmonic lines. As an avid dancer herself, she infuses her playing with rhythmic clarity and sensitive phrasing to produce irresistible dance music. Many of her recent projects -- performing, teaching, recording -- are collaborations with fiddle partner Andrea Larson, with whom she shared an intensive year abroad (2012–13) studying Swedish folk music at the Eric Sahlström Institute. Together they have developed Träd Weekend, a popular intensive workshop for Scandi-interested dance musicians.
lydia's recordings include Koivu (2018) with Helsinki-based pianist and composer Juha Kujanpää, Fika (2013) and Trip to Tobo (2012 EP) with Andrea Larson, and Northlands (2010) with Bruce Sagan. lydia has earned a bronze Zorn medal in Sweden for her fiddling in the Uppland tradition; in 2017 the lydia&Andrea duo was awarded a bronze medal for ensemble playing at Samspelshelgen in Sundsvall. She has taught and/or played on staff at a variety of camps including Nordic Fiddles and Feet, Scandia Camp Mendocino, Northern Week at Ashokan, CDSS English Week at Pinewoods, CDSS Family Weeks at Pinewoods and Ogontz, Folklore Village, the John C. Campbell Folk School, and Berea Christmas Country Dance School.
Lynz Morahn has been studying yoga since 2007. Her most influential teachers have been Jennifer Nucci, a multi-modality teacher with an emphasis on breath, philosophy, and mindfulness, and Bucky Sparkle, a Svaroopa teacher and embodyment therapist with an emphasis on alignment and inward self-awareness. She is excited to teach a gentle, musician-centered class for all levels with these influences in mind. Namaste.
Mariel Vandersteel is a musician, educator, and graphic designer currently living in Boston. Since graduating from Berklee College of Music, Mariel has established herself as a folk musician of multiple styles; recorded her first solo album, Hickory; lived in Norway while studying the hardingfele; and toured Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, India, Bangladesh, Ukraine, Montenegro, Greece and Estonia, the UK and North America with Laura Cortese & the Dance Cards.
Mariel has performed and taught nationally and internationally with Laura Cortese & the Dance Cards, Blue Moose and the Unbuttoned Zippers, The Three Irish Tenors, Emma Beaton, Annalivia, Putnam Smith and has been a guest lecturer and performer on the hardingfele at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts Musical Instrument Collection. In 2014, she participated in the Savannah Music Festival's first Acoustic Music Seminar working with artists Zakir Hussein, Edgar Meyer, Mike Marshall, Tony Trischka, and Chris Thile. Mariel is currently pursuing a masters degree in Arts Administration at Boston University and continues to teach privately and at the Club Passim School of Music.
Mark Simos, Associate Professor in Songwriting at Berklee College of Music, Boston, is a renowned songwriter, composer and tunesmith, teacher and writer. Over four-plus decades, Mark's songs and "tunes from imaginary countries" have stretched musical boundaries with innovative melodies and harmonies and intricately crafted lyrics, bringing a contemporary sensibility to "neo-traditionalist" forms.
Over one hundred and fifty of Mark's compositions have been recorded by artists, including Americana supergroup Alison Krauss and Union Station, Ricky Skaggs, Del McCoury, and Laurie Lewis. He's co-written with artist/writers such as Lisa Aschmann, Australian rock icon Jimmy Barnes, Catie Curtis, and the Infamous Stringdusters' Andy Hall. He's featured on many recordings as a fiddler and guitar accompanist, and has recorded an acclaimed song-cycle album, Crazy Faith, and four albums of original and traditional fiddle music.
At Berklee, Mark creates innovative curriculum in 360° songwriting, collaboration and co-writing, guitar techniques for songwriters, and tunewriting, and leads Berklee's American Old-Time Ensemble. He also continues to perform and teach at workshops, camps, festivals, and retreats worldwide. Look for Mark's excellent books: Songwriting Strategies: a 360-Degree Approach and the new Songwriting in Practice: Notebooks * Journals * Logs * Lists.
Growing up in the Southwest, Marshall Racowsky was exposed to country music at an early age. He started playing the guitar while in high school and focused primarily on country and western styles as well as fiddle accompaniment. He became a member of the Arizona Fiddler's Association and started competing in the accompaniment division at fiddle contests throughout the state. In the early '80's, Marshall backed up Junior Daugherty on foreign tours sponsored by the US State Dept.
By the time Marshall moved to New England in 1997 he had won the Arizona Accompanist Championship 8 times. He also became very interested in Mexican mariachi and frequently sat in with several groups at performances. He taught classes in Texas style accompaniment in Arizona and after he moved to New England. Marshall met Dave Reiner at NEFFA, and backed Dave up for quite a few fiddle contests locally.
Locally, Marshall plays with the Beantown Buckaroos, which also includes Art Schatz on fiddle.
Mary Schallert has lived in Anchorage, Alaska, since 1977. She has been referred to as the "Pied Piper of Anchorage," and has taught and played in Alaska's villages. As director and designer of the Alaska City Folk Arts camp in Anchorage each summer (since 1993), she makes sure that students learn that music is a fun, creative and a social activity -- for many of them it is life changing. Mary also teaches music year round to both children and adults, privately and in groups and orchestras. In 2013, Mary was named Alaska's BP teacher of Excellence. She has been active in the Anchorage folk festival as workshop coordinator and performer, and is currently co-directing an orchestra called Society Of Strings (SOS), an adult group of recreational classical musicians.
Mary teaches multiple styles of fiddle, sings, and also plays piano, bass and guitar. She has been playing music, and arranging and writing songs her whole life. Over the years, she's played with a variety of bands, including The Moms, The Just Met Band, The Bowheads, Contra Cohos and The North Star Band. Her style is eclectic; she's played with bluegrass bands, square and contra dance bands, for cloggers and Irish dancers, old time bands and an Irish band. In addition to playing solo, she can sometimes be heard with her own band, Mary Schallert and the New York City Boys.
Jazz and bluegrass violinist Matt Glaser served as chair of the Berklee String Department for 28 years, and is now Artistic Director of the American Roots Program at Berklee. Known as much for his versatility as his virtuosity, Glaser's vast knowledge and experience in music has fueled collaborations with a wide range of artists, from cellist Yo-Yo Ma to filmmaker Ken Burns. He has released two albums as leader of Wayfaring Strangers and has appeared on scores of other recordings. His long list of other musical collaborators includes David Grisman, Bob Dylan, and Vassar Clements.
Matt performed at Carnegie Hall with Stephane Grappelli and Yo-Yo Ma, and at the Boston Globe Jazz Festival with Gunther Schuller. He was featured on Grammy Award–winning soundtrack for The Civil War and the soundtrack for King of the Gypsies. He's performed with the New York All-Stars, Bob Dylan, Lee Konitz, David Grisman, and the International String Quartet Congress. Author of Jazz Violin and Jazz Chord Studies for Violin, he served on the board of advisors for Ken Burns's Jazz documentary and appears as a narrator on the film. Matt has taught at the Mark O'Connor Fiddle Camp, the University of Miami, ASTA conferences, and Int'l Association of Jazz Educators conferences. Matt specializes in helping string players develop improvisational skills in jazz and folk idioms.
Last but not least, the American String Teachers Association (ASTA) awarded Matt the prestigious Artist Teacher Award. He is the first and only non-classical string teacher to ever win the award, considered ASTA's highest honor. Past recipients include Joseph Szigeti, Pablo Casals, Isaac Stern, Yehudi Menuhin, Dorothy DeLay, and Ivan Galamian.
McKinley James fell in love with the cello at age 3, and is now studying at New England Conservatory. After years with the Vermont Youth Orchestra, she joined the Boston Youth Symphony, and then the premier youth orchestra led by Ben Zander, the Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra. With the BPYO, she toured Europe twice, playing in concert halls such as the Berlin Philharmonie and the Alhambra in Spain. She has also played with the Portsmouth Symphony Orchestra, Middlebury College Orchestra, and the New England Conservatory Symphony, and soloed with the Champlain Philharmonic Orchestra. She was principal of the Vermont All State Orchestra sophomore year and won the All States Scholarship that year. She now studies with Yeesun Kim at the New England Conservatory, and is a cellist, teacher, and composer.
McKinley has performed with traditional bands Fiddleheads and The Irregulars. She is a founding member of the band Night Tree, which won the New England Conservatory's Honors Ensemble. Night Tree toured throughout the US, opened for Solas in Portsmouth Music Hall, and played in Jordan Hall and Rockwood Music Hall. They released their debut album produced by Seamus Egan, in 2017 and toured Europe in 2018.
Michelle Kaminsky fell in love with fiddle and contra dancing in high school. Since her teens, she has been fascinated by a variety of American folk music and dance traditions including Cajun, Creole/Zydeco, French Canadian, New England and Appalachian. Playing fiddle with Magnolia, The Cajun Hobos, The Saints, Dennis Stroughmatt in 'Creole Stomp', and the contra dance band French Roast has brought her much joy over the last thirty years.
Known for being a spirited performer and patient teacher, Michelle is passionate about teaching, including being fiddler-in-residence at the Rhode Island Fiddle Project and teaching private students in other communities. She is an active member of the RISCA teaching artist roster, and a Master Artist, and has been a Master/Apprenticeship teacher many times, as well as doing artist-in residences, and teacher training workshops. Michelle teaches Cajun Fiddle from Scratch at the Augusta Heritage Center in West Virginia and has directed and taught at the Cajun Music Camp/Acedemy at the Rhythm and Roots Festival for the last twelve years. When not teaching or playing, Michelle can be found whooping it up on the dance floor!
Grammy Award winning multi-instrumentalist, traditional music instructor and storyteller Mitch Reed was born in Bayou Vista, Louisiana and raised in Lafayette by musicians and storytellers from Mamou. When he was 12 he started playing the cello and at 15 began playing the fiddle. By 17, Mitch was touring and performing with Dewey Balfa, Marc Savoy and DL Menard. Over the years he has built an extensive repertoire and learned an old style of playing which is evident in his sound today.
During his career Mitch has played alongside Louisiana greats such as Canray Fontenot, Wade Frugé, Michael Doucet, Steve Riley, Charles Neville, Zachary Richard and George Porter. In addition he has worked with Richard Thompson, Natalie Merchant, Mary Chapin-Carpenter, Natalie McMaster and Kenny Baker, to name a few. Mitch recently retired from over 20 years working on the road as a touring musician to focus on his music students. In August of 2018 he expanded his music school and moved from Louisiana to Maine with his wife and family. These changes have afforded him the opportunity to pass on the unwritten traditions of Cajun fiddling and storytelling.
Mitch currently offers private lessons, group classes, and online fiddle breakdowns both nationally and worldwide here, and explores the connections between the musical traditions of Acadia and Acadiana through workshops and his video blog. Mitch is also a fine Irish player and teacher.
Molly Mason's total mastery and inventiveness on piano and guitar is always spot-on, as she supports the tunes and follows the flow of the melody. Her rich and expressive vocals along with the resonant strains of Jay's violin, reveal the deep emotions that flow in the duo's veins.
Starting with a chance meeting in the '70's, Molly Mason and Jay Ungar have become one of the most celebrated duos on the American acoustic music scene. They played bass and fiddle, respectively, in the band Fiddle Fever (with fellow fiddlers Evan Stover and Matt Glaser and guitarist Russ Barenberg), which recorded two classic albums. The early '80s also saw the beginning of Jay's Ashokan Fiddle & Dance Camps, a world-renowned destination for enthusiasts of American music and dance traditions. Several years later, Molly became a full partner in designing and running these programs, which are still going strong.
When filmmaker Ken Burns heard their playing, he was so taken with Jay's evocative and haunting melody Ashokan Farewell that he used the tune in several films. Burnswound up inviting Jay and Molly to provide music for many of his projects, including his landmark PBS documentary The Civil War. The result: an Emmy nomination for Jay and a Grammy for the soundtrack album.
Jay and Molly have recorded American Dreamer, a collection of the songs of Stephen Foster, and Waltzing with You, an elaboration on their score for the film Brother's Keeper, a Sundance Film Festival prizewinner. Perhaps the duo's best-known composition is the title track of The Lovers' Waltz, an album of romantic fiddle music from Appalachian, Scandinavian, Celtic, Klezmer and Swing traditions. Jay and Molly's 1999 release on Angel Records, culminates in their 20-minute orchestral work, The Harvest Home Suite. In 2002, Jay and Molly produced, arranged and performed on A Song of Home, a collaborative recording for RCA, with flutist Sir James Galway, mandolinist Peter Ostroushko and bassist Steve Rust. Now, with Relax Your Mind (Angel Records), Jay and Molly, with their band Swingology, take a slightly different direction: American dance music with a focus on country blues and swing. Included are more of the beautiful waltzes that have become their signature pieces. They have also performed with the Jay Ungar & Molly Mason Family Band. On radio and television, Jay and Molly have appeared on CBS Good Morning, The Rosie O'Donnel Show, All Things Considered, A Prairie Home Companion, and the BBC's Transatlantic Sessions. And they have no shortage of future musical projects.
A soulful fiddler, mandolinist and spellbinding tunesmith, Oliver Scanlon began his journey of musical discovery with a stint in the Vermont Youth Orchestra, picking up the viola when he was nine. Shortly after he was introduced to his mentor Pete Sutherland and the immense parallel universe of fiddle music! His keen interest in fiddling led him to seek out further learning and performing opportunities through Mark Sustic's "Fiddleheads" program, and soon he began attending music camps where he studied various styles with Alan Jabbour, Kimberley Fraser, Andrea Beaton, Eric Favreau and other master fiddlers. In 2008, Oliver and few talented middle school friends formed a group, The Irregulars, a six piece outfit that has played scores of local dances and festivals, and took first prize in the 2011 Young Tradition Vermont talent contest!
Then in 2013 he both co-founded the Posse and became the youngest member of Pete's long running dance band The Clayfoot Strutters. He released his solo album "The Pond Jam" in 2014, which was both his senior project before graduating high school and a testament to his passion and artistry. Recognized not only for his classy and mesmerizing playing, but also for being a meticulous sound tech, Oliver is an integral part of the FH sound crew.
A family emergency will prevent Pam from joining us in 2019. Her workshops will still happen, but taught by several other instructors.
Pam Wiley played with the Harrisburg Symphony for 28 years (1978-2006), taught the Suzuki method in Central PA for over 40 years, and has been an avid back-porch fiddler since the early 70s. In 2005, Pam relocated to South Carolina with her husband John where they currently maintain a private studio at Hungry Monk Music. From 2009 to 2014, Pam worked closely with Mark O'Connor to develop and promote the O'Connor Method Books, including training over 800 teachers across North America in the New American School of Violin Playing. In 2011, Pam founded and directed the first American Music Camp (under the name of "O'Connor Method Camp") in Charleston, South Carolina. Now in its 6th year, this camp has set the standard for summer music camps for young students wishing to experience a diversity of musical styles, improvising, jamming and holistic music-making with peers. In 2012 Pam founded LASO (Lowcountry American String Orchestra), a multi-generational community orchestra that specializes in studying and performing American string music. Also in 2012, Pam started The Jacksonboro Fiddle Club, a free after school program for under-served children in rural South Carolina. She is currently the President of American Music System Charleston, Inc. and editor of The American Music System Newsletter. Pam wrote "Teacher Training in the American Music System," a teacher's manual for the O'Connor Method books. Pam is a frequent clinician at music educators' professional development workshops and conventions and currently teaches a graduate level course entitled "Teaching Strings in the American Music System" accredited by the College of Charleston. Look for the keyword "TEACHERS" for many of Pam's workshops at FH.
Patrick M'Gonigle is the fiddler and tenor singer for Rounder Records artist, The Lonely Heartstring Band. Patrick holds a BA from the Berklee College of music and a Masters degree in contemporary improvisation from the New England Conservatory and specializes in Bluegrass and Country fiddle. He also loves to practice. Patrick has a great fiddle and several fine bows for sale - check with him at Fiddle Hell.
Paul Harty is a seasoned performer in many music areas - singalongs, folk, Irish, country, swing and bluegrass. He sings and plays guitar, harmonica, fiddle, mandolin and banjo. According to Paul "I was bitten by the Folk Bug as a teenager in the 1960s and have never recovered." With a fine lead and harmony voice, as well as a sense of humor, his attitude is best summed up as, "music should be fun and expressive, otherwise why do it?"
Paul records and performs with many groups. While traditional music is the basis of his efforts, Paul enjoys contemporary music and occasionally writes songs, too. He performs regularly at pubs, elder residences, coffeehouses, private functions, parties, and corporate events all around New England. Often, he can be found playing in a trio version of the Reiner Family Band with Dave Reiner and Eric Eid-Reiner, who appreciate his versatility, expertise, and incredibly broad repertoire. Paul has also performed internationally in England, Germany and China.
A warm voiced singer, songsmith and accomplished multi-instrumentalist, known equally for his potent originals and his intense recreations of age old ballads and fiery fiddle tunes, Pete Sutherland "covers the map" and shines with a "…pure spirit which infuses every bit of his music, and cannot fail to move all who hear him." -American Festival of Fiddle Tunes. He has been on staff at dance and music camps coast to coast and is a widely known year-round teacher and performer at home. Sutherland is a veteran of many touring and recording groups including Metamora, Rhythm In Shoes, The Woodshed Allstars, Woods Tea Company, Ira Bernstein's Ten Toe Percussion and is a founding member of the long running 'contradance jamband' The Clayfoot Strutters. He is also a producer with over 80 projects under his belt, and a prolific songwriter covered by the likes of Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer, Jay Ungar and Molly Mason, Nightingale and Altan.
At FH is 2/3 of Vermont's own trad roots power trio, Pete's Posse, composed of Pete Sutherland (fiddle, piano, banjo, melodica and vocals), his talented protégé Oliver Scanlon (fiddle, viola, mandolin, foot percussion and vocals) and the uber-dynamic Tristan Henderson (guitars, mandolin, jaw harp, foot percussion and vocals).
Peter Anick is a fiddler, mandolinist and guitar player/teacher from MetroWest, Massachusetts. Known for his song and tune writing contributions to New England bluegrass bands Hot Off the Frets (with Dave Reiner), WayStation, Acoustic Planet and his current project Wide Open Spaces, Peter enjoys bringing elements of Celtic, Swing, Gypsy jazz, and Caribbean music into the bluegrass format.
Co-author with Dave Reiner of Mel Bay's Old Time Fiddling Across America (in the FH Store), Peter has been a regular contributor to Fiddler Magazine since its inception over twenty years ago. In addition to teaching bluegrass and Celtic fiddle sessions, he will be bringing his guitar along to accompany his son Jason Anick at his swing violin and mandolin workshops. Finally, Peter played on guitar on 6 tracks of the New 52 CDs, and contributed the tune "Magic Fiddle," which he'll be teaching Saturday at 12:30PM.
Rachel was born in Norton, Virginia. Her love of the fiddle was nurtured at an early age by the many festivals in the mountains of Virginia, West Virginia and North Carolina. Her father was a coal miner in a small town in the heart of the Appalachians where these states border one another. Rachel's greatest inspiration has been the powerful musical tradition in that pocket of the Appalachians where she grew up. Her travels to Europe broadened her love of folk music. There she discovered the roots of her own heritage. Rachel plays the fiddle, washboard, melodian, jawharp, bones, viola, psaltry, mandolin and cornet. Rachel is a captivating performer and has a repertoire of great and hypnotic tunes. The Reiner Family Band first met Rachel at the Meadowlark Music Camp in Maine, and love her tunes and playing!
In 1987, Rachel was offered a position as performer, composer and actor at Trinity Repertory Company in Providence, Rhode Island. During that time, she continued to do a few major tours a year, usually to Europe and Canada, after shorter tours to North Carolina and Virginia and New England. Her musical interests have further developed to include electronic and multi-media collaborations, new music compositions and some film and TV scores. She has done teaching and lecture performances for more than 25 years for The Music School of the Rhode Island Philharmonic. Currently she teaches both at music camps and privately. She tours with a variety of artists up and down the east coast and in Europe, including Intergalactic Swamp Rangers,The Whompers, Nee Ningy, The Dismal Swamp Moaners, The Providence Wholebellies, The Huffers Harmonica Trio, 100th Monkey, Big Boy Henry Blues Band, Drink Small /Jazz Heritage Festival, Repeatos, Spontaneous Music Ensemble, Cambridge Harmonica Orchestra, Portsmouth Sinfonia.
As a young musician, Rachel enjoyed playing with and learning from the previous generation. As a mature musician she enjoys collaborating with and learning from the next generation. Every generation has something truly unique to bring to the table and can inspire all.
Richard (Richie) Brown has been playing bluegrass music in the Boston area since the mid 1960's. Richard has played with several prominent New England bands and occasionally filled in with nationally known bluegrass artists, as well. He has done mandolin workshops with Ron Thomason, Dave McLaughlin and Lou Martin at the Joe Val Memorial Bluegrass Festival and at other events for the Boston Bluegrass Union and with Mike Holmes at the New England Folk Festival.
Richard's playing is heavily influenced by Bill Monroe's style and other old-style mandolin players. He currently plays mandolin and sings lead and baritone in the Boston-based Reunion Band.Accomplished Monroe-style mandolin-player Richie Brown currently serves on the board of directors of the International Bluegrass Music Museum in Owensboro, Kentucky. Richie is associate director of the Museum's Monroe-style mandolin camp and a regular faculty member of Mandolin Camp North. He has several original instrumental compositions to his credit.
Rob Flax is an award-winning multi-instrumentalist, composer, and educator from Evanston, IL with a playful heart and an open mind. He has performed nationally and internationally with groups of many different styles, including opening for B.B. King and Tower of Power, playing viola and violin with the Trans Siberian Orchestra and YouTube star Jacob Collier, upright bass in an Argentine tango ensemble, mandolin and fiddle in various bluegrass bands, electric violin in several rock bands, collaborations with modern dancers, and more.
As a composer Rob has written music for choreographers, film (including work on the soundtrack of James Franco's film As I Lay Dying), and several original projects. Rob is a recent graduate of the New England Conservatory (M.M. 2012 – Contemporary Improvisation, Music In Education), and lives in Boston.
"Rob's unique blend of ancient and modern brings the violin into the 21st century with a dazzling array of digital technology seamlessly mated to the traditional world of wood, gut, and bone." - Stuart Rosenberg, WFMT
"He's a master of bringing people together and making art out of nothing in a short amount of time." - Katy Boc, South Shore Living
Rose Clancy grew up surrounded by music and learned to play at 8. Her father and two uncles came to the United States from their native County Armagh in Northern Ireland to tour as the Irish Ramblers in the early 1960s. These Clancy brothers are unrelated to the Clancy Brothers band. Now, Rose is a much respected, high energy musician playing fiddle, mandolin and banjo at concerts and festivals throughout the Northeast while sharing the stage with some of the greatest traditional performers. Rose's unique fiddle style embraces Northern Irish, Scottish, and some French Canadian influences.
A graduate of the violin making program at North Bennet Street School in Boston, Clancy founded and runs The Chatham Fiddle Company, in Chatham, MA, which offers intimate in-house Concerts, instrument repair, rentals, sales and private music lessons.
Rose performs throughout the Northeast recently including Shalin Liu Performance Center, Payment Performing Arts Center, Gaelic Roots, Boston College, South Shore Conservatory Roots and Branches with Robbie O'Connell and at The Burren Backroom with Jacqueline Schwab and Robbie O'Connell. She has released several CD's with The Clancy Tradition and released her first solo CD with pianist Brendan Dolan featuring the music of Ireland, Cape Breton and Scotland.
"lovely, energetic music played without pretension" - Daniel Neely, The Irish Echo"Powerful fiddling from an Irish American who also know the Scottish and Cape Breton traditions" - Alex Monaghan"Rose's playing is elegant. There's a purity and sophistication in her playing that really sets her apart" - Stephen Russell
Multi-genre violinist/fiddler Seán Heely is rapidly emerging as one of the most creatively versatile and captivating young artists of his generation. Fiddle legend Liz Carroll calls Seán "One powerhouse of a fiddler." He is a U.S National Scottish Fiddle Champion as well as an award-winning Irish fiddler and singer in the folk traditions of Scotland and Ireland.
Seán holds a degree from the University of South Carolina in Classical Violin Performance and was a 2019 Artist in Residence at Strathmore Music Center in Maryland. An educator in demand, Seán is an Adjunct Instructor at American University, and has been on the faculty at camps such as Acadia Traditional School of Music and Arts, Upper Potomac Fiddle Retreat, and Fiddle Hell Massachusetts Festival ("an excellent and insightful teacher"). He has performed in Scotland, Ireland, and at venues in the U.S such as the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.
Seán has performed with traditional music icons such as Liz Carroll, Bonnie Rideout, Natalie Haas, Cathy Jordan, Eamon O'Leary, Zan McLeod, and Paddy Keenan. Currently based in Washington DC, Seán performs locally and abroad with the Seán Heely Celtic Trio, Glencoe Lads and Skylark. He is a musical ambassador for the British Embassy Scottish Affairs Office and the St. Andrew's Society of Washington. A composer and arranger, Seán has won national awards including the 2016 Scottish Fiddling Revival's Tune writing competition. He frequently travels abroad as a solo artist, has been a speaker at events such as the Scottish North American Leadership Conference, and maintains a private teaching studio in Falls Church, VA.
On any given day you can hear Shana Aisenberg playing in various musical contexts from Appalachian Old-time fiddle to Eastern-European Klezmer mandolin to finger-picking blues guitar. Shana first achieved national recognition in the 1980s for her intricate and sensitive fingerstyle guitar playing, and recorded several solo guitar albums (as Seth Austen) for Kicking Mule, Shanachie, and other independent labels. She regularly performs with Beverly Woods in String Equinox, playing concerts, and calling and fiddling for contra dances. Shana is Music Director, pianist and directs the choir at Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of the Eastern Slopes (UUFES) in Tamworth NH.
Shana has written and contributed arrangements to guitar and mandolin books for Mel Bay Publications and has cowritten a ukulele instruction series with Greg Horne for Alfred Publications. She has composed music for documentaries and has produced, engineered, and played on numerous recordings by other artists. Shana is a gifted music teacher with over 35 years of experience and has taught at various workshops and festivals nationwide, including many years at Fiddle Hell Massachusetts. She has taught hundreds of students, either individually or in groups, and is always happy to teach players of any level.
Boston-based Stash Wyslouch (Pronounced Stash Why-Slouch) is one of bluegrass' great young genre-bending pioneers. He got his start as a guitarist in metal bands before immersing himself in the structures of roots music as a member of progressive bluegrass act, The Deadly Gentlemen. Stash is currently a member of Old Time music trio Molsky's Mountain Drifters (alongside Bruce Molsky and Allison de Groot) and leads his own group of original music, The Stash! Band, which features Sean Trischka on Drums, and Duncan Wickel on Fiddle.
In the past, Stash has toured Southeast Asia with Andy Reiner in the Earth String Band. He also played with Andy in the young metal band Devil in the Kitchen (when they were in high school together) and in the oldtime-Scandinavian fusion band Blue Moose and the Unbuttoned Zippers (BMUZ). BMUZ will play a reunion concert at Fiddle Hell in 2018.
"A brilliant and free-thinking mind…you'll be glad to know him" – Chris Eldridge (Punch Brothers)
Steve Arkin grew up in New York's legendary music scene, playing both old-time and bluegrass in bands with Jody Stecher, David Grisman, Maria Muldaur, and others. In 1964 Steve played banjo with Bill Monroe (who in James Rooney's book, Bossmen, called him "the best backup banjo player I ever heard)." An early exponent of melodic bluegrass banjo, Steve introduced his mentor Bill Keith to Bobby Thompson and his account of that meeting has been widely published and quoted.
Steve has won dozens of banjo contests (including the legendary one at the Philly Folk Festival) and played in many bands (including 4-years with Boston-based Northern Lights). Steve has taught both bluegrass and old-time banjo for five decades--his students have included Marty Cutler, Bob Dylan, Roger McGuinn and Tommy Makem. He has taught at such music venues as Blue Ridge Music Week at Mars Hill College, NC, Banjo Camp North, Midwest Banjo Camp, The Metropolitan Music School, Park Slope Jamboree, and many others. He was featured in a Feb. 2006 Banjo Newsletter cover story where he was interviewed by Jody Stecher. Steve remains one of the few banjo players who are highly proficient in both bluegrass and old-time banjo styles.
In addition to her work for adult audiences, Susie Burke is an exceptional children's performer, as her many fans both young and older will testify. Drawing on her unique background as both a professional musician and an early childhood teacher, she presents a program that is entertaining, educational, involving, inspiring, and of high musical caliber. Susie's strong, beautiful voice and her warm, heartfelt stage manner help to create a memorable and valuable musical experience for children.
Susie has released six acclaimed recordings to date, including her most recent release, Waiting For The Sun, a duo recording with David Surette, as well as her popular childrens recording, Sweet Potatoes. She is a member of the NH State Council on the Arts Touring roster, which offers assistance to presenters throughout New England.
For almost four years, Susie has led a singing group/class for adults, called, "Singing For The joy Of It". The title truly sums up the spirit of the class. Susie leads people through many songs, ranging from rounds both simple and sublime, to songs as diverse as "What a Wonderful World" and "My Sweet Forget Me Not" and Bruno Mars "Count On Me".
Terri Lukačko learned to play the fiddle later in life, and since has picked up some mando, banjo, uke, and stand up bass. Jamming is great fun for her. She loves to share tunes and techniques.
Terri plays informally and sometimes even makes a little change with friends and strangers at festivals, farmers markets, open mics, and parties. She's given some lessons, and lots of workshops from here to Tasmania, where there's a strong oldtime scene.
Tim Rowell has been playing banjo for more than 30 years. Having been heavily influenced as a young lad by Pete Seeger and a whole bunch of wonderful musicians from the Hudson River Valley, Tim eventually discovered a deep affection for southern Appalachian string band music.
During college Tim was taken under the wing of a fine banjo player from the Ozarks by the name of Steve Mote. In addition to playing, Tim developed a love of teaching. Winner of several awards from the Lowell Banjo and Fiddle Contest, Tim also has a bachelor's degree in music composition, and has studied music theory at the Dick Grove School of Music in Los Angeles.
Tim is the director of the Traditional Music Project at The Real School of Music. You can catch Tim playing around town with his old-time string band, Jubilee Mule. In addition to banjo, Tim teaches beginning music lessons for mandolin, ukulele, dulcimer, and piano.
Tom Collins grew up in the Vermont woods hearing the raw, powerful fiddling of John Specker, who lived just down the road. As a former professional set drummer and instructor, Tom brings his keen rhythmic sense to the 5 string banjo. He currently resides in Salem, MA where he runs an acoustic music teaching studio, "Misery Island Sound," which produces online content for students of traditional American music.
Tom is the creator of the ground-breaking banjo instructional series "Banjo Blitz," a 52 week exploration of the building blocks of clawhammer banjo. His online instruction has recently achieved over 1 million watched minutes on YouTube. He is currently producing the instructional series "Banjo Quest" for YouTube and Patreon, where students learn how to apply the lessons learned in "Banjo Blitz" to traditional tunes. In particular, Tom has been fascinated by what makes the players from the historical Round Peak area of North Carolina so unique, and this will be reflected in his workshops at Fiddle Hell. Says Tom: "I approach old-time tunes with arrangement in mind. I want to tell a story with each tune. Even if it's a simple dance tune, I want to use it to create a physical place or mood."
In 2016, Tom produced, and recorded: "Sinful to Flirt", a banjo/fiddle duet album of traditional old time tunes with fiddler, Jon Anderson, to glowing reviews in the Banjo Newsletter and the Old Time Herald. "These are real old-time tunes played in a style that reminds me of the playing of those old folks—Tommy, Fred, Kyle, and so many more. Clean simple melody played by fiddle and banjo duet with singing that is in tune and nicely real without being rough or slick." - Dan Levenson in Banjo Newsletter.
Our long-time Fiddle Hell instructor Tom Morley missed a step in late October and fell off a dock, breaking his ankle 😟. Poor guy! He's being well cared for, but won't be able to travel to Westford to teach Irish fiddle at Fiddle Hell this year. Several of our other Irish fiddle instructors at FH (Laurel Martin, Ellery Klein, Clayton March, Mitch Reed) will be filling most of Tom's teaching and jam slots. Levels won't change, although there will be a few tune changes. I know we all wish Tom a fast recovery!
D'Addario Artist Tom Morley's career spans thirty years and a host of genres. He's played Celtic, bluegrass, classical, swing, Americana, and country honky tonk, earning a gold album for his work with "new traditionalist" country artist John Anderson. Classically trained with a degree in music education, Tom's followed his passion for Irish Traditional Music for the past two decades, as a soloist and with various groups, including the Celtic/World band, Mithril, and (along with his wife Fran) the Irish folk trio Stringer's Ridge, his newest project since moving to Chattanooga, TN. He has made multiple trips to Ireland and played with top players, including Manus McGuire, Liz Carroll, Frankie Gavin, Maurice Lennon, Charlie Piggott and Thomas Walsh (composer of Inisheer). He's also opened for We Banjo 3, Solas, and the Brock McGuire Band and performed with Cherish the Ladies.
Tom teaches privately and at fiddle workshops and string camps around the US, including the original O'Connor Method Camps, American Music Camp Maine, Julie Lyonn Lieberman's Strings Without Boundaries, SCOR Adult String Camp, and John C. Campbell Folk School. His work and publications brought him to the attention of the Leinster School of Music and Dance at Griffin College Dublin, which selected him as the first US "International Outreach Program" affiliate for their new Online Irish Trad Fiddle Certification Program. Five of Tom's students were the first in the world to earn the school's top-level certification. Tom contributes regularly to iFiddle digital magazine, and has written several well-received fiddle instructional books, including Learn to Play Irish Trad Fiddle and the Fiddle Club Favorites for Strings series, a collection of folk and fiddle tunes for beginning players, available for violin, viola, cello, and mandolin.
Award-winning flatpicking guitarist and mandolinist Tony Watt has performed throughout the United States and Europe, on the Grand Ole Opry, and beyond. He has been featured in Bluegrass Unlimited, Bluegrass Now and Flatpicking Guitar Magazine multiple times, including the recent Waltz Issue. Tony toured and recorded with Nashville-based Cages Bend, east Tennessee-based Meridian, with Rounder Recording artist Alecia Nugent, and most recently with Leigh Gibson, guitarist for The Gibson Brothers. Tony currently performs with his band, Southeast Expressway, and with Laura Orshaw & The New Velvet Band. Congratulations to Tony and Laura on their recent marriage!
Tony is a graduate of Leadership Bluegrass 2012 and currently serves on the International Bluegrass Music Association(IBMA) Education Committee, the IBMA Board Selection Committee, and is a Board Member of the Boston Bluegrass Union (BBU). Tony has taught privately for over 15 years, and now teaches courses in bluegrass guitar, mandolin, harmony singing and more for the BBU's Bluegrass Academy, as well as jamming classes as a certified Wernick Method jam class instructor. Tony is the director of The Bluegrass University, which offers classes for adult beginners at several Northeastern festivals, and has taught workshops and Kids' Academies at many bluegrass festivals. Tony currently teaches lessons, classes, workshops and jam sessions in Albany, NY, Hartford, CT, Cambridge, MA, points in-between, and anywhere in the world via on-line Skype videoconferencing.
Redefining the role of the violin in contemporary music, Tracy Silverman has contributed significantly to the repertoire and development of the 6-string electric violin and what he calls "post-classical violin playing." Lauded by BBC Radio as "the greatest living exponent of the electric violin," Silverman's groundbreaking work defies musical boundaries. Formerly first violinist with the innovative Turtle Island String Quartet, he was named one of 100 distinguished alumni by The Juilliard School. He has had several electric violin concertos composed specifically for him and is the composer of 3 electric violin concertos of his own.A long-standing advocate for music education, Tracy recently wrote The Strum Bowing Method (highly recommended by Andy and Dave Reiner!), and will focus on groove and bowing techniques at Fiddle Hell. He is an in-demand clinician and on the string faculty at Belmont University in Nashville, TN. His compositions and performances have been recorded by multiple labels; he's recorded with three symphonies, with composer/pianist Terry Riley, the rock band Guster, contemporary music's Paul Dresher Ensemble, jazz legend Billy Taylor, 5-time Grammy winning percussionist Roy "Futureman" Wooten, and the Calder String Quartet, among many others.
Silverman has appeared as a soloist at Carnegie Hall, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Royal Albert Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, Adelaide's Festival Theatre, and more, and made his debut with The Chicago Symphony at age 13. His original works have been performed by orchestras and chamber music groups internationally and his scoring work has appeared in episodes of PBS's NOVA among others. TV/internet and radio includes a solo performance on NPR's Tiny Desk Concerts, NPR's Performance Today, and several appearances on Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion. Mark Swed of the LA Times enthused, "Inspiring. Silverman is in a class of his own." The Chicago Tribune's John von Rhein raved, "Blazing virtuosity. You will be astonished that anybody can play a fiddle like that" and Anthony Tommasini, New York Times, wrote, "Fleet agility and tangy expressivity with wailing hints of Jimi Hendrix." All that and he's a nice guy!