Sun June 12 -- Sat June 18, 2005
Staff Biographies

Alan Jabbour (Appalachian fiddle) Alan Jabbour is a Floridian by birth and a violinist by early training. The folk revival drew him into studying folklore and folk music as a graduate student at Duke University in the 1960s, when he documented and apprenticed with oldtime fiddlers in the Upper South. His albums fiddling with the Hollow Rock String Band became benchmarks of the oldtime music revival from the 1960s on, and the documentary albums and Library of Congress websites he has edited have likewise become benchmarks. Recently, he retired from the Federal government and is devoting more time to oldtime music again. He will soon release a CD of fiddle and banjo duets entitled Southern Summits with Northeast Heritage co-director Ken Perlman.

David Kaynor (caller and New England style fiddle) David Kaynor began playing fiddle in 1974, and started calling local contra dances in Western Massacussetts around 1980. Over the last two decades, he has become increasingly involved as both fiddler and caller in the New England and national contra dance scenes. He has been on staff at Northern Week at Ashokan 22 times, and at Contra Dance Musicians' Week at the John C. Campbell Folk School 8 times. He has also played for and taught dancing at Pinewoods, Buffalo Gap, Mendocino, the Lady of the Lake, Ogontz, Summer Acoustic Music Week, Suttle Lake, Wannadance Uptown and a myriad of other camps, workshops and music events around the country. He is also involved in playing and teaching Sweedish fiddle-music and folk-dancing.

Peter Langston (standard-tuned guitar) Peter seems to play anything with strings on it, and is equally adept at backup and hot improvisation. He has played in bands on both the East Coast (Metropolitan Opry, Wretched Refuse String Band) and the West Coast (Puddle City, Entropy Service, Portland Zoo), and has performed with such notables as Doc Watson, Reverend Gary Davis, Tony Trischka, Peter Rowan, Alison Brown, and Mike Seeger. Peter has led a double life as a musician and a computer whiz and has taught both audio recording and computer science at the college level. He has been a frequent member of the staff of various music and dance camps, including the California Coast Music Camp, Sierra Swing, the Festival of American Fiddle Tunes, Alta Sierra, Sierra Swing, the American Banjo Camp, and the Puget Sound Guitar Workshop (he helps run the latter two camps).

Grey Larsen (whistle, flute and piano accompaniment) Multi-instrumentalist Grey Larsen has been playing and studying traditional Irish and old-time music for over 30 years. The author of the definitive Essential Guide to Irish Flute and Tin Whistle, he is acclaimed worldwide as one of the foremost players and teachers of Irish flute and tin whistle. Also since the 1970s, he has steeped himself in the fiddle music of Appalachia and his native Midwest, especially the southern Indiana repertoire of Joe Dawson and Lotus Dickey. Grey is a gifted and compassionate teacher. In addition to Irish flute, tin whistle, and old-time fiddle, he teaches piano accompaniment in the contra-dance tradition. Grey has made a dozen highly acclaimed recordings with Andre Marchand, Paddy League, Malcolm Dalglish, Metamora and others. He is also a record producer, mastering engineer, and since 1989 has been the music editor of Sing Out! magazine.

Paddy League (DADGAD guitar; bodhran) is highly regarded for his powerful rhythmic and harmonically inventive accompaniment style. As a guitarist, he has been featured on over 40 recordings alongside such artists as Susan McKeown, John Whelan and Grey Larsen. On bodhran, Paddy is one of the very few players who has mastered the art of intricately controlling pitch, and when he accompanies he often matches melody instruments virtually note for note in terms of both rhythm and pitch. He has taught at Rocky Mountain Fiddle Camp, the Swannanoa Gathering, Valley of the Moon Scottish Fiddle Camp, and at the Catskills Irish Arts Week. He currently performs regularly with fiddler Laura Risk.

Daniel Lemieux (Quebecois fiddle) was born in Mont-Louis in the Gaspe region of Quebec, the eldest of five musical children. He vividly remembers evenings at home when his grandfather and uncles played the fiddle. His first musical interests were playing guitar and singing in the village church choir; he took up the fiddle at 16. When Daniel was about 17, he and his brother began playing professionally -- at first in the Gaspe region, and later in and around Quebec City when his family moved there at the beginning of the 1980s. Around that time he began concentrating on fiddling, studying with such masters as Andre Alain from St-Basile de Portneuf, and Lisa Ornstein from the United States, and helped along by the Laporte brothers from Joliette. He has toured throughout Canada and the United States, and he has also toured in Europe with groups such Manigance and Le Reve du Diable (Devil's Dream). He has been on staff at Ashokan Music Camp and the Gaelic Roots Festival in Boston.

Mary MacIntyre (Cape Breton piano accompaniment) - of Inverness, Cape Breton has played piano since she was big enough to reach the keys. While still a teenager, Mary moved to Ontario and continued to be involved in her first love ... music. She has sung and performed in bands on tv, radio, studios and concert halls all across Canada. Her exceptional ability and versatility leaves her much in demand as an accompanist in many styles of music - she also plays in her own group, "The Cape Bretoners". Mary will accompany her brother Sandy on keyboards and as a vocalist.

Sandy MacIntyre (Cape Breton fiddle) is one of today's most prominent players and teachers of Cape Breton fiddling; he has also composed well over a hundred tunes, many of which have become classics of the style. He grew up in Inverness, Cape Breton; his mother Cassie was a well-known fiddler in her own right, while his father Ronald was a well-known singer of Gaelic songs. Nowadays, Sandy performs and conducts workshops throughout the US, Canada, and abroad. He is a frequent staff member at the American Festival of Fiddle Tunes (Port Townsend, Washington), and at the Rocky Mountain Fiddle Camp (Estes Park, Colorado). For the past fifteen years he has been director of the fiddle program at the Gaelic College in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, and he has performed for the last several years at Cape Breton's famed Celtic Colours Festival. His most recent CD is "Steeped in Tradition."

Normand Miron (Quebecois accordion) was born into a family where music was a part of all gatherings, and became interested in traditional Quebecois vocal and instrumental music at an early age. For the last 25 years, he has toured with numerous bands across the United States, Europe, Scandinavia and Canada. He was a former member of Guignolée, Marchand-Ornstein-Miron and Les Frères Labri. He currently plays with the well-known band, Les Charbonniers de l'Enfer (Firemen of Hell). Normand appears as backup musician on the CDs of several noted Canadian artists and groups, including Gilles Vigneault, Loco Locass, Angèle Arsenault, Le Rêve du Diable, Gwazigan, not to mention Alain Chatry (France) and Linda Breitag (USA).

Ken Perlman (clawhammer style banjo) Perhaps the best-known exponent of the "melodic" clawhammer style, Ken is known where-ever banjos are played as a master of clawhammer technique and an expert teacher of clawhammer mechanics. He has been a Banjo Newsletter columnist for 20 years; he has written several books on clawhammer instruction including the well known works Melodic Clawhammer Banjo and Clawhammer Style Banjo, he has recorded several series of audio and video banjo instruction. He spent over a decade collecting tunes and oral histories from traditional fiddle players on Prince Edward Island in eastern Canada, and his book, The Fiddle Music of Prince Edward Island is considered a classic in its field. His most recent recordings are Northern Banjo, Island Boy, and Devil in the Kitchen.

Pete Sutherland (New England Style Fiddle) Vermont's own Pete Sutherland is a master of fiddling styles from both the Southern and Northern US. A touring musician and composer since the mid-70s, Pete has played at concerts, dances, and major festivals across North America and Europe, both as a soloist and as a member of such well-known ensembles as Metamora, the Woodshed All-stars, the Clayfoot Strutters, and the Arm and Hammer String Band. He has composed dozens of vocal and instrumental pieces, and over one hundred different artists have performed or recorded his works. A noted record producer in the folk field, he has overseen the development of over seventy CDs and other recording projects. Pete has been on staff at numerous music teaching festivals, notably the Augusta Heritage Workshops, Ashokan Fiddle and Dance Camps and Pinewoods Folk Music Camps. There are two CDs of his own playing in print at the moment - "A Clayfoot's Tale" and "Streak o' Lean" - both available on his own Epact label.