Sun June 15 -- Sat June 21, 2008
Staff Biographies

Alice Bérubé (Step dance) has always had a keen interest in dance. The energy and joie-de-vivre of step-dancing, a particularly engaging aspect of the French-canadian culture, has always appealed to her. In 1973, Alice joined Winnipeg dance group L'ensemble folklorique de la Rivière-Rouge (EFRR). This group's repertoire contains various styles representing the dances of French Canada, including Qu&eactue;bec, the Maritimes and Manitoba M&eactue;tis. As a member of EFRR, she has travelled to the USA, Taiwan, France, Spain, and Magagascar, and has been a frequent performer in Winnipeg's Festival du Voyageur and Folklorama Festival. She has danced in a number of performances for members of the Royal Family as well as at the opening ceremonies of the Commonwealth Games of `82, the XV Calgary Olympic Winter Games in '88 and the Winnipeg Pan Am Games in `99. Also an accomplished fiddler, Alice continues to perform with the EFRR, fiddles with Bandaline and other groups, and plays festivals, concerts, conventions, and other musical venues.

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.

Dwayne Cote (Cape Breton fiddle) was described by noted performing artist John Allan Cameron as "the best-kept secret in Celtic Music." Dwayne began playing Cape Breton fiddle music at the tender age of four. His early training was at the knee of both his mother and father, who are renowned entertainers in their own right. Later, he would pursue and enhance his music skills through study at The Royal Conservatories in Halifax and Toronto and by associating with many of the finest Cape Breton Fiddlers of his time. Now Dwayne plays everything from traditional Irish jigs to classical music.

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. Web site: www.cindykallet.com/

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) 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, Johnny Gimble, 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.
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.

Jeremiah McLane (Accordion & Piano) performs a unique blend of Franco-America, Celtic and Jazz influenced music featuring his own compositions as well as arrangements of traditional pieces. His music is at once exuberant and introspective, tender and passionate. He places familiar sounds in unusual settings, and combines his unique gift of improvisation with a keen appreciation for the power of a simple melody.
From his home in Sharon, Vermont, Jeremiah has traveled throughout the US and Europe, performing, teaching, recording, and learning from musicians of different genres of music. He has brought this knowledge back to the community where he lives and offers courses in traditional music through the Floating Bridge Music School, which he founded in 2005. He also teaches jazz piano, improvisation and World Music at the State University of New York, in Plattsburgh, NY.
In the early 1990s he started two bands, The Clayfoot Strutters and Nightingale, both of which had pivotal roles in shaping the way New England music is played today. In 2003 he formed a group to perform music he had composed based on his experiences in France, and this group, Le Bon Vent, has continued to specialize in French music from different parts of the world.
He has composed music for theatre and film, including Sam Shepard's "A Lie of the Mind", and received numerous grants and awards from the Anne Slade Frey Charitable Trust, the Gadd Merril Fund, the Ontario Center for the Performing Arts, and the Vermont Council on the Arts. National Public Radio selected his second solo recording, Smile When You're Ready, in their "favorite picks" of 1996. His fifth release, Hummingbird, received the French music magazine "Trad Mag" BRAVO award for 2003. Jeremiah teaches world music, accordion and piano at the State University of New York in Plattsburgh.

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/

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.