Featuring:

• Jennifer Armstrong

  

  Visit Jennifer’s website (http://www.jenniferarmstrong.com/).
  233 Poors Mill Road Belfast ME 04915 207-322-2265

• Mia Bertelli

  

  Mia Bertelli grew up in the mountains of New Mexico, singing at every chance she could get. Her love of song led her to Vermont at the age of fifteen, where she dove into the polyphonic singing camps of Village Harmony like a penguin into the sea. Since then she has been filling kitchens, streets, concert halls, vegetable gardens, and public restrooms with song, both in the northeast and overseas. Her irrepressible inclination to harmonize and great love of playful nuance have mostly gotten her into all the right sorts of trouble, so she counts them among her blessings.   (more…)

• Baron Collins-Hill

  

  Baron grew up playing the mandolin in Maine and recently graduated from Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts with a degree in music performance and ethnomusicology. Versed in traditional fiddle music, bluegrass, and jazz, he is known for his rhythmic experimentation and unique harmonic sense on both the mandolin and the tenor guitar. Baron plays with fiddler Julia Plumb in their duo Velocipede(www.velocipedemusic.com).

• Sandy Davis

  

  Sandy has been playing for contra dances for nearly 50 years.  In the 1970’s, he was a founding member of the Roaring Jelly dance band (which is still going strong) and the Common Ground quintet.  Back then, he also played occasionally with Dudley Laufman and the Canterbury Country Dance Orchestra.  He subsequently spent over 20 years as the founder and director of two long-standing community contra dance bands, both of which are also still playing for monthly dances:  the Berlin Country Dance Orchestra (Berlin, MA), and Oh, CONTRAire! (Westford, MA).  (more…)

• Jim DiCarlo

  

  A self-described “tune hound,” Jim DiCarlo has been playing Irish music on whistle and wooden flute for contra dances, at sessions, and in the hallways of music festivals for the past 25 years.  He loves learning new tunes and has even composed a few of passable quality.  A long-time member of the Maine-based, not-entirely-traditional group Wake the Neighbors, he played alongside Lissa Schneckenburger, John Cote, Jessie & Greg Boardman, Ed Howe, Anthony Shostak and Alfred Lund.  (more…)

• Louisa Engle

  

  Louisa started playing violin as and eight-year-old through her public school’s strings program. In high school, she taught private violin lessons to younger students. Her music became more fiddley by the day. As a sophomore at Marlboro College, she founded a contra dance band, named “Wendy and the Lost Boys” by their admirers. The band studied with musician Keith Murphy. Louisa then hosted a monthly contra dance series that ran for four years. (more…)

• Liz Faiella

  

  An Irish fiddler with New England contradance flair and classical sensitivities, Liz Faiella has captivated audiences at premier folk venues, contradances, and festivals around New England. (more…)

• Dan Faiella

  

  Dan Faiella specializes in fingerstyle arrangements of traditional Celtic tunes and songs. He is also in high demand as an accompanist for traditional Irish, Cape Breton, and New England contradance groups.  Dan has performed at the Capitol Center for the Arts, the Boston Celtic Music Festival, and the New Hampshire Statehouse. He has studied with folk musician David Surette and classical and jazz guitarist David Newsam. Dan has also had the opportunity to learn from top-notch Irish and New England folk musicians including flute player Shannon Heaton, guitarist Owen Marshall, and fiddler Lissa Schneckenburger.

  To hear music from his duo project with his sister Liz Faiella, visit www.lizanddanmusic.com.

• Éric Favreau

  

  Éric Favreau comes from a family of traditional musicians and has spent a great deal of time playing with other fiddlers, learning their repertoire and studying their varied styles. Éric has explored and exploited various sources including archives and personally made field recordings and has accumulated a rich and fascinating repertoire. Over the years, he has garnered a profound understanding and vast knowledge of Québécois traditional music. (more…)

• Mary Fraser

  

  Mary Fraser began her musical life by training in classical violin for thirteen years, concluding with a Suzuki method violin teacher certification.  She then left the classical music world and traveled extensively throughout the UK, immersing in the traditional music of her heritage.  Carrying right on into the southern US states to study the old time fiddle styles of eastern Kentucky, West Virginia and North Carolina.  (more…)

• Ellen Gawler

  

  Ellen Gawler is a celebrated fiddler, masterful in many styles, including Irish, French-Canadian, Maritime, Shetland and New England. Her fiddling possesses sparkling clarity, authentically rooted in tradition while at the same time inventive and playful. Her lively delivery of traditional fiddling has sent many a contra dance hall into whirling delight with soaring melodies and driving rhythms. (more…)

• Elsie Gawler

  

  Elsie Gawler attended Maine Fiddle Camp as a camper for over 15 years and has since then transferred to teaching the cello at MFC. She grew up playing and singing traditional music with her mom, dad and two sisters and continues to play with them professionally as “The Gawler Family” band. While the cello is her main instrument she also plays fiddle and banjo. She lives in Monroe Maine where she is the co-owner of North Branch Farm, a farm where they raise a variety of crops and livestock.

• Ed Howe

  

  Born into a musical family, Ed started playing fiddle at the age of 4, learning Suzuki method. His musical interests cover a wide spectrum from Bluegrass to Celtic and beyond and he has been a regular instructor for Maine Fiddle Camp since 2003. Howe has an extensive electronics background, and took an interest in the electric violin. He plays a 5-string NS Design electronic violin and is a featured artist on the NS design artist page. (more…)

• McKinley James

  

  McKinley James is a cellist studying at New England Conservatory. After years with the Vermont Youth Orchestra, she joined the Boston Youth Symphony, and then the premier youth orchestra led by Ben Zander, the Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra. With the BPYO, she toured Europe twice, playing in concert halls such as the Berlin Philharmonie and at the Alhambra in Spain. (more…)

• Stuart Kenney

  

  One of the most in demand upright bass, and five-string banjo players on the US contradance circuit, Stuart Kenney’s regional musical interests sweep from Southwest Louisiana to Acadia. He has a long career in many traditional music genres. His interest in Quebecois music formed through the fiddling of Lisa Ornstein, and performances by La Bottine Souriante. The inclusion of French Canadian music into the living tradition of New England contradance music caught his attention early on. (more…)

• Bennett Konesni

  

  Bennett Konesni grew up in Appleton, Maine, 10 miles downstream of Maine Fiddle Camp.  He was naturally drawn into the strong communities of old-time music, sailing, and farming in the area.  At thirteen he shipped as a deckhand aboard local schooners, sailing Penobscot Bay and learning the traditional work songs of the tall ships as he raised sails and hauled anchor.  Later, at Middlebury College, Bennett co-founded the student farm and spent six months studying Zulu farming songs in South Africa.  (more…)

• Jeff Lewis

  

  Jeff Lewis is a native to Waldo County and has spent the greater portion of his life immersed in music, specializing on mandolin in a diverse range of styles. He attended MFC as a student for the first time in 2005. After a stint studying mandolin at Berklee College of Music in fall 2010, Jeff relocated to Portland, Maine to pursue music professionally in performance and composing, in addition to continued intense focus on the mandolin. You can hear Jeff playing with Bennett Konesni and Mia Friedman as Fireside, and with Konesni and David Lewis as Free Seedlings. Jeff can be reached at 46 Turner St. Portland, Maine, 207-930-0009 or visit him on line at jeffersonlewis.bandcamp.com or myspace.com/dingomandolin.

• Carter Logan

  

  Carter plays banjo with his band “Jerks of Grass” and also plays for dances. He has a unique repertoire and we are pleased to have him on staff at camp
  www.jerksofgrass.com

• Glen Loper

  

  Glen gives private lessons for mandolin and tenor banjo from his home in Portland, ME, and plays for contradances throughout the Northeast, and at festivals across the country with bands such as Frigate, Riptide, The Steampacket, and The Sharktones. Visit Glen at www.glenloper.com.
  49 Brackett St, Portland ME, 04102
  Phone: 207-837-8249
  LINKS: “Frigate” , Riptide

• Elaine Malkin

  

  Elaine Malkin has played the violin since the age of 5. She was part of the resurgence of contra dances in Maine in the early 70’s, having learned from Otto Soper and Dudley Laufman. She played New England contra dances until 2009, when she began an intensive study of Québécois fiddle with mainly Éric Favreau, but also with Lisa Ornstein, André Brunet, Yvon Mimeault, and Liette Remon. This music has completely captured her heart and she uses a traditional Québécois repertoire for contra dances, concerts, and other venues. Learning, teaching, and sharing this special music is her greatest joy.

• Owen Marshall

  

  Vogue magazine calls musician Owen Marshall “A guitar/mandolin/banjo player rivaled in character only by the occasional three-pronged carrot” (Vogue 2009). Owen has accompanied and collaborated with many of traditional music’s top performers including Aoife Clancy, Liz Carroll, Darol Anger, John Doyle, Andrea Beaton, Jerry Holland, Ari & Mia Friedman and his own traditional Irish trio “The Press Gang”. (more…)

• Eric McDonald

  

  Eric McDonald has been instructing and performing on the mandolin for a number of years. In addition to his experience in the world of traditional music, Eric spent two and a half years studying at Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he learned from some of the best including mandolinist John McGann and cellist Eugiene Friesen. Exposure to jazz and other styles come through in his playing. Eric has spent the last three years touring with bands such as The Dave Rowe Trio, Matching Orange, Jaded Mandolin and others. You can hear him on many independent recordings by Boston based artists, and you can catch him teaching at the Passim School of Music in Cambridge.

• Jeremiah McLane

  

  The music of composer, accordionist, and pianist Jeremiah McLane is a unique blend of Franco-American, Celtic, jazz, and roots influenced music. In 1980 Jeremiah started studying Celtic music and began playing the accordion, influenced largely by the Bothy Band and Dedanann. He studied with Chicago accordionist Jimmy Keane and Cape Breton pianist Doug McPhee. In the early 1990s he helped start two bands with strong traditional New England roots: The Clayfoot Strutters and Nightingale, both of which are active today. In 2003 he formed Le Bon Vent, a sextet specializing in Breton and French music. He has recorded nine CDs with these and other musicians.
  www.jeremiahmclane.com

• Helen Newell

  

  Helen Newell started playing violin at the age of three, and has spent every year of her life at Maine Fiddle Camp, including in utero! Helen grew up playing both folk and classical fiddle, performing in notable orchestras and chamber groups, as well as playing gigs and contra dances with the Newell Family Band and her contra dance band, Volution. Helen is currently attending Berklee College of Music, studying jazz, folk, and classical violin. Helen also has a private violin studio and is also a personal trainer and nutrition coach.

• Kaity Newell

  

  Kaity teaches fiddle in Damariscotta and has played for dances for many years with The Maine Country Dance Orchestra, and with the band The Lady Bugs. A native of Great Britain, Kaity has brought many a fine tune from the British Isles to our local dances. Kaity also plays viola in the local community orchestra and has four children, all of whom play music and come to camp every year.
  7 Creek Lane Damariscotta ME 044543 207-563-8440

• Mali Obomsawin

  

  Mali Obomsawin is originally from Farmington, Maine, and grew up attending Maine Fiddle Camp for bass and mandolin. A Franklin County Fiddlers alumna, she went on to study jazz performance at Berklee College of Music for four semesters before transferring to Dartmouth College where she will graduate in 2018. Mali sings and plays bass in her nationally touring band Lula Wiles (who met at MFC!), and has performed at premier festivals and venues along the east coast. She has shared the stage with Laura Cortese & the Dance Cards, Matt Glaser, Greg Liszt, Caitlin Canty, Stash Wyslouch, and Jason Annick, among others. (more…)

• Bill Olson

  

  Bill Olson teaches both guitar and upright bass at Maine Fiddle Camp. He is probably best known at home and abroad as a contradance caller and choreographer. Bill has played and called for dances in 25 states and his dance compositions, known for their high potential energy and excellent flow, and are called by contradance callers all over the world. Bill started playing guitar in 1958, dancing in 1976, calling in 1985, and playing bass in 1993. He has been singing all his life.

• Hannah Otten

  

  Hannah Otten grew up in upstate New York, living both near the banks of the Hudson River and within the Catskill Mountains. She began playing classical viola at the age of 9, picked up a violin at age 15, arrived at Maine Fiddle Camp, and kept on playing traditional fiddle styles from there. Hannah has a clear and playful teaching style that serves camp well as a member of the beginner team. (more…)

• Ed Pearlman

  

  Ed Pearlman enjoys many styles of fiddle music but is best known for Scottish and Cape Breton fiddling, often working with his wife, dancer Laura Scott, and their family band, Highland Soles (www.highlandsoles.com). Since the mid 1990s, he has taught fiddle in Portland, and written the music column for Scottish Life magazine. Ed has worked closely with top artists such as Alasdair Fraser, Natalie MacMaster, Tony Cuffe, Aly Bain, Jerry Holland and many others, especially when he directed the Boston Scottish Fiddle Club, 1981-99. His latest CD is On the Edge with son Neil on piano. Ed has played various Celtic and American styles, Eastern European and classical. For more info & some fiddling resources, see http://www.edpearlman.net – 207-650-2030

• Gordon Peery

  

  Gordon Peery started playing contra dance piano in the late 1970’s  He was fortunate to be in the neighborhood of Bob McQuillen, who was an inspiration and mentor. Though Gordon quickly evolved his own style of playing, he was permanently influenced by Bob’s commitment to providing a solid bass line for dances. Gordon was the piano player for the band Fresh Fish, (with fiddler Kerry Elkin), which became a nationally prominent contra dance band. They toured the country extensively between 1985 and 1995, and produced a recording, “Turning of the Tide”. (more…)

• Julia Plumb

  

  Julia lives and teaches fiddle and clawhammer banjo in Belfast, Maine. Equally at home on the stage and on the dance floor, Julia loves the percussive interplay between traditional music and dance forms and has enjoyed soaking up bits and pieces from players and dancers throughout New England and in Québec, Ireland, Brittany, and the southern Appalachians. Julia plays with Baron Collins-Hill in their duo Velocipede (www.velocipedemusic.com) and loves connecting people with music and dance. (more…)

• John Pranio

  

  John started his early musical life as a drummer (yes, he admits it) but by some miracle got hooked on traditional music in his teens.

  Upon moving to Maine in1989, he helped establish the North Whitefield Contra Dance with famed caller Ted Sannella and the bands Calliope and The Usual Suspects, and continues playing for dances today with Henry Road and Sassafras Stomp. Since moving to Belfast in 2017, he has joined the Leaky Boot Jug Band on fiddle and harmonica. (more…)

• Doug Protsik

  

  Doug likes to play the “old-time piano” for dances, melodramas, honky tonk saloons, and silent movies. He learned his style from Otto Soper, Geneva Walton, and Danny Patt among many others. He plays with Old Grey Goose and produced all three of their recordings, including the group’s first recording in 1978 for Folkways, “Old Time Country Dance Tunes and Songs from Maine”, now available again on CD. Doug also plays piano, accordion, and fiddle. He is the Camp Director again this year. 
  116 Pleasant Cove Dr. Woolwich ME 04579 207-522-3800

• Sharon Pyne

  

  Sharon has been a student of tin whistle and wooden flute since 1977 when she attended the Willy Clancy Summer School while working in Ireland for the year. On her return to Boston to care for her grandmother, she studied with master flute players in the Hanafin /Cooley Comhalthus branch. She move to Maine to raise her children and became a member of the Portland Ceili Band and Ladies of the Lake. She runs a music studio in Bath, Maine where she teaches flute and whistle and Music Together. For a few months every year since 2000, she happily lives and breathes Maine Fiddle alongside director Doug Protsik.  Sharon can be contacted at sharonpynemusic@gmail.com or 207-522-3900.

• Maggie Robinson

  

  Maggie Robinson has been teaching fiddle since 2003.  She began taking fiddle lessons the age of 10 and became concert mistress of her school orchestra during her senior year.   Many years later she discovered Contradancing and fell in love with the music  She took the violin out of the closet and began learning fiddle tunes. She completed a course in 2003 at the Hartt College of Music, Theater, & Dance on “Teaching Fiddling”.

  Currently she is teaching at several locations in greater Portland, and also regularly calls for contra dances around the state.

• Julie Vallimont

  

  Julie Vallimont performs nationwide on piano and accordion with the bands Buddy System and Nor’easter and other collaborations.  She plays for contra, English, and French dancing.   A former classical pianist and organist, she fell in love with traditional music and dance, and since then has gone on to perform at numerous festivals and music camps.  Drawing on teaching skills developed over fifteen years as a natural science educator, Julie enjoys teaching and leading workshops. 

• Bethany Waickman

  

  Bethany Waickman is a guitarist based out of Portland, Maine. She grew up in a musical family in the Adirondack Mountains of northern New York state. After college she spent some time traveling, hiking, and playing music in Ireland. Upon returning, she moved to Boston to focus on music. She co-founded the contra dance trio, Anadama, and is the guitarist for VT-based fiddler/singer Lissa Schneckenburger. (more…)

• Steven Weiss

  

  Steven Weiss began blowing harmonica when he was four years old. His father and grandfather both played the mouth organ as well. Growing up in the more popular cross-harp rock/blues/boogies styles, he began playing straight harp (melodies rather than chords or blues)- traditional, mostly old-timey, tunes on the harmonica in 1970, hanging out with southern tow boat pilots on the Ohio River near where he went to college. This was followed by many years living in Maine playing for contradances, folk clubs, concerts, festivals and playing back-up for other performers. (more…)