*Partial list: Check back for updates as more faculty are added. Please know we're working on a juicy package from Louisiana, and we'll of course have the glorious music of Quebec represented at the workshop.
To view a listing of the 2012 Fiddle Tunes tutorial staff, click HERE.
Quebec
Genticorum -
Pascal Gemme, Yann Falquet, and Alexandre de Grosbois-Garand
Old Time
Lester McCumbers, with Kim Johnson, West Virgina
Elmer Rich, with Mark Crabtree, West Virginia
Dwight Lamb, Iowa, with Mette Katherine Jensen and Kristian Bugge, Denmark
Bruce Molsky, Virgina
Ramona Jones, Tennessee
Danish
Kristian Bugge and Mette Katherine Jensen
Bluegrass, Texas style
Byron Berline, Oklahoma
Irish
Kevin Burke with Paul Kotapish
Step Dance
Sandy Silva
Harmonica
Mark Graham
Cape Breton
Kimberly Fraser and David MacIsaac
Banjo
Jerron Paxton, New York
New England
George Wilson, with Bob McQuillen
Hispanic Music of Old New Mexico
Antonia Apodaca, with Jeanie McClerie and Ken Keppeler, New Mexico
Dance Calling
Larry Edelman, Colorado
2012 FACULTY
QUEBEC
Genticorum - This energetic traditional Quebecois musical trio based in Montreal, Quebec, are comprised of Alexandre de Grosbois-Garand (wooden flute, fiddle, vocals), Pascal Gemme (fiddle, feet, vocals) and Yann Falquet (guitar, feet, vocals). Genticorum offers a rich Québécois repertoire of captivatingly-crooked traditional tunes and tongue-in-cheek songs. In addition to scavaging for seldom-heard traditional fare, they integrate an inspired choice selection of original compositions that render hommage to their musical roots. They weave precise and intricate fiddle and flute work, gorgeous vocal harmonies, energetic foot percussion and guitar and bass accompaniment into a big and jubilant musical feast. Their distinctive sound, and especially their supreme sense of humor, make them and stage presence make them welcome everywhere they go. At the 2011 Canadian Folk Music Awards, Genticorum won the "Traditional Album Of The Year" and "Ensemble Of The Year.”
OLD-TIME
Lester McCumbers carries on a rich tradition of fiddling, singing and guitar playing that has thrived in his family for generations. He has performed widely for more than 60 years with old-time and bluegrass music groups, appearing at concerts, contests, festivals, square dances and on radio shows throughout West Virginia and elsewhere. He has maintained his music as an important part of his life, developing a personal style of playing and singing marked by sincerity, drive and emotion. Lester continues to pass on his musical heritage to others, including family members, apprentices and countless workshop participants. He and his wife and performing partner Linda have known each other since childhood. They were married in 1937 and raised nine children as they performed with a variety of bands. For four years in the mid-1960s, they hosted a weekly radio show on WSPZ in Spencer. The couple’s first album, Old Timey, was released in 2002 and features 26 of their old-time fiddle tunes and songs.
Kim Johnson is from Clendenin in Kanawha County, West Virginia. She was exposed to banjo music at 
the West Virginia Folk Festival held in Glenville, WV, where she also attended college. Kim bought her first banjo in the early 1970s and initially struggled until she met West Virginia fiddler Wilson Douglas, whose father and grandmother had both been fine banjoists. Kim’s determination and persistence eventually paid off and she learned to play in a sparse style suitable for string band accompaniment. Kim’s banjo playing compliments Wilson Douglas’s fiddling so well that the two made three recordings together: Boatin’ Up Sandy (1989), Common Ground (1993) and Back Porch Symphony (1995). Kim’s song list includes many old-time fiddle tunes common in Clay County, WV, such as “Liza Jane,” “Pretty Little Cat,” and “Elzic’s Farewell.” When she’s not performing, she can be found teaching at camps such as the Augusta Heritage Center, and performing at festivals all over West Virginia and beyond.
Elmer Rich was born in West Virginia in 1919. As a youngster, Elmer played mandolin in a band that included his father, fiddler Harry “Pap” Rich; and Elmer’s uncle, fiddler Sanford Rich. In 1936, the group recorded for the Library of Congress, and played for Eleanor Roosevelt at Arthurdale, where she pinned a blue ribbon on young Elmer’s chest. Dozens more ribbons followed over the next 70 plus years, and continue to accumulate at his home. Retired from the railroad since 1980, Elmer has continued to perform and record. His albums include, Augusta Heritage Recordings, a journey back to Elmer’s roots as he recalls and plays two dozen tunes from his childhood. Another album, Tunes from Sanford and Pap, is a field recording made in Elmer’s living room by Mark Crabtree over several visits during 2008 and 2009. The album concludes with four tracks from the famed 1936 Library of Congress session, including the popular “Colored Aristocracy” and an exciting “Lop-Eared Mule,” with live square dance calls. (Photo by Paula Hunt)
Dwight Lamb was born in Moorhead, Iowa in 1934 to Clarence and Mary Lamb. Descendants of Danish immigrants, the Lamb family cherished the traditions of self-made music and entertainment. Dwight's grandfather, Chris Jerup, played traditional Danish melodies on the single-row button accordion and the fiddle. His father played the fiddle and his mother chorded on the pump organ. His great-grandfather, Kraen Jerup, was a famous fiddler in Denmark and his tunes are still played in Denmark to this day. In 1946 Chris Jerup moved in with the Lambs and it was then that Dwight started to learn Danish tunes on his grandfather's accordion. He captured about 100 tunes from his grandfather and most of the tunes weren't named. Dwight has also mastered a style of fiddling often referred to as Missouri Valley Style. Dwight developed this style as a protégé of Bob Walters, and learned much of his vast repertoire of hornpipes, waltzes and other dance tunes. Dwight also became close friends and exchanged tunes with other great fiddlers in the region, most notably Cyril Stinnett. Dwight's Danish roots are important to him and he conveys his love of the music through the simple, yet lively and elegant tunes that his grandfather gave him. Today these tunes are being revived in Denmark through the teachings of Kristian Bugge and Mette Jensen, who will travel from Denmark to accompany Dwight at the festival.
Kristian Bugge was born in Næstved, Denmark, and studied at Raduga Art College in Moscow where he was taught by Mikhail Tsinman, the first violinist of the Bolshoi Theatre. In the spring of 2000, he went to study at the Malung Folk High School, Sweden. Here he received six month of lessons in traditional dance from Ami Petterson followed by fiddle classes with the distinguished Swedish fiddler Kalle Almlöf. Kristian is very active on the Danish and Scandinavian folk music scene, both as a musician and teacher. He has specialized in the strong Danish folk music traditions, playing with groups like Jensen & Bugge, Impuls Trio, Kings of Polka, Skaarup & Bugge. And recent years have also led to various crossover projects as the cooperation with classical percussionist Ronni Kot Wenzel in the very active duo Wenzell & Bugge and the exciting Danish folk big band Habadekuk. (Photo by Ronni Kot Wenzell)
Mette Kathrine Jensen has a deep love for the music and culture of her country, Denmark. Of her musical partnership with Kristian Bugge, she says "From the word go it's been traditional music that we cherish and we focus on. That's how we met, and we have played countless concerts and for dances in Denmark, Germany, USA and even in South Korea - all over the place." They consistently visit older musicians to learn their music, concentrating on the different playing styles that still exist in the various parts of the country. On a visit to Iowa, Mette and Kristian met the American accordionist and fiddler Dwight Lamb, whose grandfather was Danish. Subsequently they have learned old Danish tunes from him, and currently travel with him in Denmark and the US. Together, Mette Kathrine and Kristian are recognized as two of the finest traditional musicians in Denmark.
Bruce Molsky has brought his virtuoso fiddling in the Appalachian tradition to audiences around the world. Born in the Bronx in 1955, Bruce fell in love with old-time music as a teenager. He moved to Virginia in the '70s, learning directly from old masters like Tommy Jarrell, and seeing how the music fit into people's lives. Whether performing an ancient reel from Virginia, a Swedish waltz, or a loping cowboy ballad, Molsky presents himself as exactly who he is. In addition to a prolific solo career, Molsky frequently joins groups like the Grammy-nominated Fiddlers Four, and Mozaik, with Hungarian Nikola Parov, and Celtic giant Donal Lunny. He was on Nickel Creek's farewell tour, and performs in a trio with Scottish fiddler Aly Bain and Sweden's great Ale Moller.
Ramona Jones was born in 1924 in a remote area of Daviess County, Indiana. She picked up the fiddle from her father, and by the age of six was playing both fiddle and mandolin with her brothers and friends at neighborhood dances and social gatherings. Before she finished high school she was performing twice daily on radio WRVA in Richmond, VA, with “Sunshine Sue” Workman, and playing dances throughout Virginia. In the fall of 1942, Ramona was hired to join a tour featuring Merle Travis and the Drifting Pioneers, Bradley Kincaid, and others – including a well known songwriter and musician, Grandpa Jones, who eventually became her husband of more than 50 years. Ramona and Grandpa Jones performed on radio, at the Grand Ole Opry, and made several tours stateside and overseas for the USO. In 1969 they began their long association with the television variety program, “Hee-Haw,” performing alongside Buck Owens, Roy Acuff, Minnie Pearl, Charlie Pride, Loretta Lynn, and many others. The show brought country music in the homes of millions of Americans during its 25 year run. Ramona has toured the world, and performed on numerous recordings including albums featuring Chet Atkins, Roy Clark, Tommy Jackson, Jerry Byrd, Joe Maphis, and countless others.
BLUEGRASS/TEXAS STYLE
Oklahoma native Byron Berline is a three-time National Fiddle Champion who turned to a musical career after earning a degree in Physical Education at the University of Oklahoma. A highly sought after and hugely influential musician, he has led or been a member of Bill Monroe and the Bluegrass Boys, Dillard & Clark, Country Gazette, L. A. Fiddle Band, and the Byron Berline Band; and has performed alongside Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, Tammy Wynette, and many others. In addition, his original composition, “Gold Rush,” has become a staple of bluegrass fiddle repertoire. He has toured the United States extensively, Europe often, China, Japan, Australia, Northern Africa and the South Pacific. Byron was inducted into Oklahoma's Musicians Hall of Fame, named Oklahoma's Ambassador of Goodwill, and been a featured artist at the international convention of the Violin Society of America. (Photo courtesy of the estate of Don Shorock)
IRISH
London native Kevin Burke took up the fiddle at the age of eight, eventually acquiring a virtuosic technique in the Irish Sligo fiddling style, which features ornamentation with both the left and right hands. In 1974, he moved to Ireland, where he formed a duo with singer-songwriter Christy Moore, a former member of the Irish band Planxty. In 1976, he became a member of the influential Irish traditional music group The Bothy Band. In 1979, Burke moved to the United States and settled in Portland, Oregon, where he formed a duo with guitarist Mícheál Ó Domhnaill. Together, they toured throughout the United States and Europe, and recorded two acclaimed albums. In the early 1980s, Burke joined the Legends of Irish Music tour, where he played with influential Irish musicians Andy Irvine and Jackie Daly. Throughout the 1990s, Burke toured and recorded with Scottish fiddler Johnny Cunningham and Breton fiddler Christian Lemaitre as the Celtic Fiddle Festival. In 2002, Burke was recognized as a National Heritage Fellow by the National Endowment for the Arts.
Paul Kotapish got his start playing and calling regularly for traditional square and contra dances. In 1982, Paul moved to Oakland, California, where he began playing with Daniel Steinberg, Kevin Carr, and Ray Bierl as, "The Hillbillies from Mars,” a musical friendship that has endured to this day. Paul has performed throughout the United States and Canada, including touring as part of “Open House,” with Kevin Burke, Mark Graham, and Sandy Silva. Recent festival performances include Celtic Connections in Glasgow, Scotland; Folk Festival, Finland; Sweden; and the Vancouver Folk Festival. Paul is also a highly regarded teacher, and has served on the faculty of the Puget Sound Guitar Workshop, Pinewoods Music and Dance Camps, Augusta Heritage Festival, The Festival of American Fiddle Tunes, Lark in the Morning, and Mendocino Music and Dance Camps.
A veteran of dance for over 20 years, Sandy Silva currently performs with La Bottine Souriante and The Red Rabbit Project with Charmaine Leblanc. Through improvisation, body percussion and original choreography, Sandy draws from the drum and dance traditions of Celtic step dance, Spanish Flamenco, American tap, Hungarian legenyes, Appalachian buck dance and modern dance. The result is rich and riveting, full of rhythmic and visual inventiveness. She has performed internationally at festivals including the Montreal International Jazz Festival as a special guest with Bobby McFerrin; WOMAD Festival in Australia; Midsummer Night Swing, Lincoln Center, New York; Celtic Connections, Glasgow, Scotland; Galway Arts Festival, Ireland; WOMEX, Brussels; and NPR's A Prairie Home Companion. She has worked with the Human Rhythm Project, as well as with a variety of musicians such as Rick Haworth, jazz saxophonist Remi Bolduc and new music composer Guy Klucevsek. Sandy has also appeared with the Irish band, Altan, fiddlers Kevin Burke, Martin Hayes, Laura Risk and Bruce Molsky. Sandy Silva’s appearance is sponsored by Grandy Tile & Marble.
HARMONICA
Mark Graham grew up in Renton, Washington and has been playing blues and country music on the harmonica since 1970. With an encyclopedic knowledge of Southern country and blues styles, he has mastered the hallmark traditional harmonica solos: fox chases, train impressions and the call and response song accompaniment reminiscent of Sonny Terry and Peg Leg Sam. Mark has performed at such venues as The Newport Folk Festival, The Prairie Home Companion, and Festival Hall in London, England and has taught at The Augusta Heritage Festival, and The Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Finland.
CAPE BRETON
Kimberley Fraser was born on Cape Breton Island, and nurtured within its rich musical heritage. She first began to impress audiences at the age of three with her step-dancing talents. Soon after that she took up both the fiddle and the piano. Though still in her 20s, Kimberley has traveled the world, from Victoria to Afghanistan, performing at venues such as The Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. and bringing Cape Breton music with her wherever she goes. Kimberley has shared the stage with artists such as Alasdair Fraser, Martin Hayes and Lunasa. She holds a degree in Violin performance from Berklee College of Music, and in Celtic Studies from St Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia. She has conducted workshops at many camps and festivals, including Alasdair Fraser’s Valley of the Moon Fiddle Camp, the Swannanoa Gathering, to name a few. Kimberley also has experience giving workshops to string orchestras demonstrating how traditional music can be arranged for classical ensembles. In 2006, Kimberley released her second studio album, Falling on New Ground, a winner of the East Coast Music Award for best Roots/Traditional Album of the Year. (photo by Kathryn Gordon)
David MacIsaac is a Canadian musician from Nova Scotia who plays the fiddle and guitar, bass, banjo, mandolin and piano, and specializes in the Celtic music style. Dave learned the fiddle from his father, the late Alex Dan MacIsaac. A respected performer and recording artist, he was named Male Artist of the Year in 1996 by the East Coast Music Awards, and also was named Instrumental Artist of the Year. His albums include Nimble Fingers and Guitar Souls. David travels around the world performing the music of Cape Breton, and accompanies a host of musicians throughout Canada, The U.S. and Europe. (Photo by Steve Mullensky)
BANJO
Jerron Paxton was born into a Creole family in Los Angeles. While growing up in the South Central area, he learned banjo, guitar, harmonica, piano and several other instruments in their authentic pre-war American styles. He copped licks from Blind Blake, Papa Charley Jackson, Robert Johnson, Charley Patton, Earl Scruggs, Willie "The Lion" Smith and Lonnie Johnson, recreating the sounds of pre-war music in America. His maternal grandmother would sing him blues, ballads, Cajun lullabies and tell him folk stories, and the Creole French that she had not spoken since the early 1940s. When he was 12 years old his Aunt LaShunder bought him a fiddle, and helped him discover a love for bluegrass and early country music. Associations with Brad Kay and Frank Fairfield have reinforced his uncanny ability to channel the spirit of pre-war guitar and piano blues music. Jerron brings to his listeners a vivid recreation of music as it was, and a strong hint of where it is headed.
NEW ENGLAND
Multi-instrumentalist and singer George Wilson's repertoire samples a wide variety of traditional and folk styles. As a fiddler, he has over 500 tunes from New England, Quebec, Cape Breton, Scotland, Ireland and Shetland. His dynamic fiddling, strongly influenced by Cape Breton and French Canadian styles, has been popular with contra dancers and concert-goers since the late 1970s. George has performed and recorded with the popular Fennig's All-Star String Band, featuring Bill Spence on hammered dulcimer, since 1975. He has performed and recorded with the Whippersnappers since 1976. He plays at contradances, festivals and dance camps on both coasts and in between with Selma Kaplan, Groovemama, the Beaudoin Legacy, Bruce and Sue Rosen and more. Additionally he performs with the trio Peter, Paul & George (with Peter Davis and Paul Rosenberg), presenting hundreds of dance and music programs in elementary, middle school and high schools.
New England pianist and accordionist Bob McQuillen got his start with the legendary Ralph Page, and later joined the Canterbury Country Dance Orchestra with Dudley Laufman. He currently plays with Old New England, a group that includes Jane Orzechowski and Deanna Stiles. He is a prolific composer of tunes—over 1,000 of which appear in a series of self-published tune books called Bob's Notebooks. Many of Bob’s tunes are now part of a shared repertoire among contra musicians, both within New Hampshire and across the country. In 1997, McQuillen received the Governors Arts Award in Living Folk Heritage from the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts. McQuillen’s group Old New England was part of the delegation representing New Hampshire at the 1999 Smithsonian Folklife Festival and the Celebrate New Hampshire festival held in 2000 in Hopkinton. In 2003, he received a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, our nation's highest honor for a traditional artist.
HISPANIC MUSIC OF OLD NEW MEXICO
Antonia Apodaca was born in 1923 in Rociada, New Mexico, to a family of musicians. When she was thirteen she decided to learn the accordion, practicing on one she found in the trash near her home. Her parents were so impressed that they entered her in a local contest, which she won, beating out a room of shocked adults. When she was eighteen she met and married a fiddler from Mora, NM, named Maximilian Apodaca, and they lived and played in Wyoming for dances and local events for both Hispanic and cowboy communities, adapting the old polkas and waltzes into western rhythms for the anglos. Antonia also composes many songs about her life in New Mexico which she has added to her repertoire of older traditional songs. Antonia was awarded the Governor's award for Excellence in the Arts in 1992, and has continued to play at events such as the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, and many other festivals and venues in the Western states.
Jeanie McLerie has been a professional musician for more than four decades, playing fiddle and singing in English, French, Spanish, and Navajo. For more than two decades she has been researching and playing the music of the Southwest United States - from the Mississippi to the deserts of Arizona - as a member of Bayou Seco, touring throughout the US and Europe with her husband Ken Keppeler. In addition, Jeanie has performed extensively throughout the United States, Canada and Europe with the groups Sandy and Jeanie, The Harmony Sisters (with Alice Gerrard and Irene Hermann), and The Delta Sisters (with Frannie Leopold). In addition to recording and performing, Jeanie is the founder of a school of fiddle instruction called, "The Fiddling Friends,” which focuses on an international repertoire of fiddle styles and music, with an emphasis on the sources of the music, including personal contact with traditional musicians. (Photo by Simon Maddison)
DANCE CALLING
One of the nation’s most in-demand dance callers, Larry Edelman has been playing traditional music for more than 25 years. He has played guitar and mandolin in several bands, including Devilish Merry, and The Percolators - and currently plays driving fiddle in Poultry in Motion and The Soda Rock Ramblers. Larry is also The Percolators’ dance caller and teacher, performing a variety of traditional dances from different regions of the US, including square dances, contras, circles and some unusual formations. He is an avid dance researcher and traveled widely throughout the United States and in Europe, delighting both novice and veteran dancers with his humor, enthusiasm, skillful teaching, knowledge of dance history, and colorful calling. Larry will be leading a special dance callers track for those who wish to learn, or improve their dance calling.
