Teachers old and new

Kathleen lives in an old farmhouse in Canby, Oregon. She spends her time working in her pottery studio, traveling, and studying Spanish.

Roger is a national award winning guitarist, and has been teaching music since 1978. He teaches guitar, mandolin and fiddle from many styles. Roger cut his teeth on old Bill Monroe records, and cites Bob Wills, Don Reno, Doc Watson & Django as major influences.
He grew up in the Pacific Northwest with music in his blood. Both grandfathers were fiddlers, and his Midwestern parents were musicians. Music was just part of living - in fact, late-night jam sessions were so common at the Ferguson home, Roger was shocked to realize this way of life was not the norm. At age twelve, he started learning guitar, mandolin, and fiddle from his father, and was soon performing with professional acts in the area. He later performed around the Northwest with, fellow .old-time fiddler. at the time, Mark O.Connor.
In 1979 Roger established himself as a world class player, by winning first place in the Winfield National Flatpick Guitar Championship, and placing in the semi-finals on mandolin. He toured nationally for two years with The Shoppe, playing electric and acoustic guitar, mandolin, and fiddle, and regularly opening for Country/Western heavyweights like Merle Haggard, Doug Kershaw, and Emmylou Harris.
Many of Roger.s instructional columns have been published in Guitar Player Magazine. One lesson appears in the book, Licks and Lessons from the World.s Greatest Guitar Players and Teachers where, along with Bob Brozman, Ray Flack, Duke Robillard and others, Roger is acclaimed among the "finest pickers and teachers on the planet".
Roger teaches at music camps as his schedule allows. Previous workshops include: Puget Sound Guitar Workshop, the Northwest Regional Folk Life Festival, and Sorrento Bluegrass Workshops. Currently, he shares his "tricks of the trade" on guitar and bass at Olympic College Poulsbo campus, and maintains a limited number of private students at his home studio on Bainbridge Island, WA.

Hilary Field, classical guitarist, is a 1992 winner of the Northwest Young Artist Series Competition and, in addition to being the head of the Guitar department at Pacific Lutheran University, has recently joined the music faculty of Seattle Pacific University.
She has appeared on television and radio throughout the United States and, in June of 1993, Hilary Field was the first and only guitarist to ever win the prestigious Ladies Musical Club Soloist Competition.
Hilary's performance repertoire covers everything from Renaissance to 20th century compositions and her newest release, Ballad Stories, features works by Morel, Tesar, Yocoh, Piazzolla, and Ruiz-Pipo, and includes the World Premiere of Jorge Morel's Berceuse (lullaby) for Guitar and String Quartet.

Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer met in 1980 at the Toronto Folk Festival. After a few years of supporting each other's solo recording and performing careers, they officially became a duo in 1984. They have played over 2000 shows in concert halls, schools, festivals, and clubs throughout the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and Israel.

Cathy's professional career began in Montreal where, influenced by an active folk music community, she learned folk and old-time music on guitar and five string banjo. The banjo has become one of her trademarks, along with her yodeling (and her ability to get an entire audience yodeling with her). She plays a Santa Cruz OM acoustic guitar and a tubaphone five-string banjo with a custom "first lady of the banjo" neck.

Cathy & Marcy have won tremendous praise for their songwriting, tight harmony singing, and exquisite interpretations of traditional music. Cathy's song, "Names", an anthem for the AIDs Memorial Quilt, has been recorded by over 25 artists internationally. Their original songs contributed to their 4 GRAMMY nominations for family albums that both kids and adults adore.

Mary's career as an internationally-known and respected musician and teacher has spanned more than three decades. A prize-winning fingerstyle guitarist (and lap slide player), singer and songwriter with a focus on blues and ragtime, Mary is on staff at many prestigious "guitar camps" around the country. She twice placed third in the National Fingerpicking Championship ('01 and '03) and has toured extensively in the US and abroad. Mary has just recorded her 6th solo CD and has produced 3 instructional dvds. She has performed on Prairie Home Companion, at Merlefest, and the King Biscuit Festival, to name a few. Mary's CD Bywater Dance, recorded pre-Katrina in New Orleans for Yellow Dog Records, has garnered widespread acclaim and Mary has been nominated for a 2008 Handy award, in the "Best Acoustic Artist" category! Find out more at www.maryflower.com.

Bob Franke is brimming with songs -- some wise, others convincingly topical and several sugared with the hilarious. His songs are the kind that really do have the power to change the world when they are taken to heart. As Tom Paxton says of Bob, "It's his integrity. I always think of Bob as if Emerson and Thoreau had picked up acoustic guitars and gotten into songwriting. There's touches of Mark Twain and Buddy Holly in there, too."

Bob has appeared in concert throughout the US, Canada and England for more than 35 years. He is also known for his transcendent songwriting workshops and his critically-acclaimed album releases.