Sun June 17 -- Sat June 23, 2007
Staff Biographies

Séamus Connolly (Irish fiddle) is one of the world's most respected master Irish musicians. A native of Killaloe, County Clare, Ireland, he now resides in Groton, Massachusetts. Séamus won the Irish National Fiddle Championship 10 times, a feat unequalled by any other musician. He was also the winner of the internationally acclaimed "Fiddler of Dooney" Competition. Séamus has performed at most major festivals in the United States and has appeared frequently on radio and television. Séamus has numerous recordings to his credit; His two solo CDs, Notes from my Mind and Here and There were released on Green Linnet Records, as were Banks of the Shannon and Warming Up. Séamus is Director of The Boston College Irish Studies Music, Song and Dance Program. He is an Adjunct Professor in the Music Department and is Director of the Gaelic Roots Summer School and Festival.

Sarah Hotchkiss (Novice Fiddle Program) A native Vermonter, Sarah is a licensed music teacher and splits her time teaching strings of all ages at the Northfield Public Schools and at her private studio, Woodbury Strings, in Montpelier, Vermont. She is the conductor of The Vermont Fiddle Orchestra and also plays fiddle and banjo with the Damn Yankee String Band. She has also taught at numerous fiddle camps, workshops, and weekly fiddle groups in Northern Vermont and New Hampshire. Because of her varied musical and teaching background, along with exposure to a wide range of fiddle styles, she has developed a special expertise in teaching fiddle technique to beginning and intermediate level fiddlers of all ages and backgrounds.
Web site: woodburystrings.home.att.net

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. Alan and NHMC co-Director Ken Perlman have recently released a joint CD of fiddle and banjo duets entitled Southern Summits.

Cindy Kallet (New England Folksongs) A superb fingerstyle guitarist, Cindy Kallet> is also a renowned singer and songwriter with a long list of performance credits including an appearance on A Prairie Home Companion. Her engaging, playful, supportive, teaching style draws the best out of her students. She has taught and performed extensively throughout North America, both as a soloist and as a member of various duos and trios (including a new duo with NHMC flute and piano instructor, Grey Larsen). Cindy's Folk Legacy recordings, Working On Wings To Fly and Cindy Kallet 2, are considered folk classics. Her most recent project is The Cindy Kallet Songbook. Cindy has lived in New England for many years, and is looking forward to sharing some of her favorite songs from some of her favorite Northeast states.

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).
Web site: www.langston.com

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.

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.

Ward MacDonald (Cape Breton fiddle) At 28 years of age, Ward is one of the most accomplished and well-rounded young fiddlers on Prince Edward Island (PEI). His musical roots run back at least three generations, including his father Allan, his grandfathers Hector MacDonald and Robert Crane, and his great-grandfather and namesake, Ward Crane. Ward has played at concerts, festivals, and square dances throughout PEI, across the Maritimes, and in other parts of Canada including Ontario, Quebec, and the Yukon. He has also played and taught in Maine. An emerging composer, he has had some of his tunes published or recorded by such noted musicians from the Maritimes as Jerry Holland, Andrea Beaton, Sheila MacKenzie, and the Acadian band Vishten. Ward has been instrumental in promoting and developing the traditional fiddle music scene on PEI for over a decade. He served two terms as president of the PEI Fiddlers' Society, and for the last ten years has been musical director of the Queens County Fiddlers branch of that society. In 2006, He produced the QCF's debut recording, entitled Forty Fiddles Flat Out!. He expects to release a recording of his own playing in the near future.

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 a collaboration with fiddlear Alan Jabbour entitled Southern Summits.
Web site: www.kenperlman.com/

James Stephens (Fiddle as a Band Instrument, Mandolin) is known for his work both as a performer and producer / recording engineer. In performance, he plays a multitude of stringed instruments with an emphasis on fiddling. He has an abiding interest in traditional forms and styles of various ethnic origins, but also works extensively with singer-songwriters and was himself the principal songwriter in critically acclaimed pop/roots band "Fat Man Waving." James can presently be found performing with traditionally influenced groups such as The Brian Pickell Band, Finest Kind, Ecosse (Bobby Watt, Duncan Gillis, and Rob Graves), renowned clawhammer banjo player Ken Perlman , whistle player/composer Frank Cassidy , and JIIG (James, Ian Robb, Ian Clark, Greg Brown whose self-titled CD won Ian Robb best traditional singer of 2005 at the Canadian Folk Music Awards.. James also performs regularly with singer/songwriter Jennifer Noxon.

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.