Featuring:

• Jennifer Armstrong

  

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

• Rachel Aucoin

  

  After a frankly classical training including two Masters degrees (performance, UofM 2001 and piano pedagogy, UL, 2003), two first prizes at the prestigious Canadian Music Competition (1997 and 1998) and a solo performance of Beethoven’s second with the Orchestre Symphonique de la Montérégie (1997), Rachel Aucoin specialises today in folk music accompaniment, since her first appearance at the Carrefour Mondial de l’Accordéon in 1999.

  She never imagined this apparently innocent performance would change her musical destiny. (more…)

• 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…)

• Greg Boardman

  

  Greg is the founder of Maine Fiddle Camp and has been a major inspiration for many fiddlers over the last three and a half decades throughout all of Maine. He has steered a career in folk music by playing for concerts and dances, especially by learning the regional “DownEast” fiddling style from the likes of Otto Soper and Simon St. Pierre, and by teaching music and fiddling in the Auburn area.
  Contact Greg at bowandstring @ gmail.com. Also see gregboardman.bandcamp.com and soundcloud.com/bowandstring.

• Jessie Boardman

  

  Jessie fiddles for contra and family dances across New England, and she sometimes sneaks the cello into dance sets. Jessie teaches fiddle to all ages at Maine Fiddle Camp, Sandy Island Suzuki Camp, at workshops, and in her private studio. Dancing her first contra dance as a child to the band Swallowtail in New Hampshire, Jessie later moved to Maine, where she happily resides. Jessie can be reached at (207) 344-3106.

• 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).

• 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…)

• Corey DiMario

  

  Double-bassist Corey DiMario is one of the most sought after accompanists in the acoustic music scene. He has performed at major festivals and concert venues across North America, Europe and Australia.

  A diverse musician, Mr. DiMario adds rock solid, low-end accompaniment and driving rhythm to any musical situation. A founding member of the string band sensation Crooked Still, DiMario brings a diverse musical palette and energetic approach to an ensemble. (more…)

• 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…)

• Noah Fishman

  

  Noah Fishman is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, and educator. Based in the coastal town of Belfast Maine, Noah has performed on electric bass, double bass, mandolin, guitar, and drums in concert halls, clubs, and living rooms around the globe. His music and research springs from a deep connection to New England, Appalachian, Irish, and Swedish traditions. Noah received a degree in composition from Princeton University, where he also founded a funk/soul band and performed in dozens of other projects. (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.

• Pascal Gemme

  

  Pascal Gemme has a degree from St-Laurent College (Montreal) in arranging and classical/jazz guitar, he has since been searching for seldom-heard songs and melodies, interpreting them in his unique and unmistakable style. Originally inspired by his fiddling grandfather, he has played with (and learned from), most of today’s great Quebecois fiddlers and singers. Since 2003, he has taught intermediate and advanced fiddle classes at Montreal’s folk music school, École des Arts de la Veillée. (more…)

• Tamora Goltz

  

  Tamora has been playing the fiddle since the early 1980’s and teaching for more than two decades. She teaches a broad range of music and created the first strings program at Ashwood Waldorf school. She is currently part of the teaching staff at 317 Main Community Music Center. Tamora is primarily known for her music in the Irish/Celtic tradition and in the world of Contra Dance.   (more…)

• Nancy 3. Hoffman

  

  Nancy 3. Hoffman is a classically trained pianist and works nationally as a music theater director. Nancy 3. Is a founding member of The Casco Bay Tummlers Klezmer Band, (http://www.cascobaytummlers.com/) playing Eastern European Jewish folk music for over 30 years. She brings her love of this music to spice up the mix at Fiddle Camp.

  She leads The Maine Squeeze accordion ensemble, playing international folk music. Her solo work includes international cabaret and her one-woman rendition of Gilbert and Sullivan’s operetta The Mikado. She is also director and curator of the world’s only Umbrella Cover Museum. Nancy 3. lives on Peaks Island and migrates to Key West, Florida for the winter. Her middle name is really 3.

• 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…)

• Sabin Jacques

  

  Sabin Jacques began playing the accordion at age 14, deeply influenced by such musicians as Simard, Bruneau, Labbé Messervier and Montmarquette, he sought his originality in his unusual technique which gives him, as a left-handed player, a recognizable signature. Originally from the beautiful Gaspé peninsula, Sabin lived in Montreal between 1992-2009. This cosmopolite musical community allowed him to make significant acquaintances with musicians in the popular and commercial music domain. 

  Sabin remains profoundly attached to his traditional roots and regularly takes part in pedagogical projects, teaching at camps such as the Leahy – Natalie MacMaster camp (ONT) and Ashokan (NY), to name a few. Since distance is not an obstacle for learning, Sabin teaches accordion at home through internet or weekly at the Maréemusique School of Traditional Music. His teaching is said to be uplifting and always inspiring. (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…)

• Grey Larsen

  

  Grey Larsen has been playing anglo concertina since 1970, when he was 15 years old. He is a masterful player in the traditional Irish style, and also has a great deal to offer students who wish to use the anglo in other contexts, such as in Québecois dance music, Morris dance music, with song accompaniment, etc. In past anglo concertina workshops he has explored numerous topics with students including Irish traditional ornamentation techniques, basic fingering and alternate fingering strategies, bellows management, how to relax with the instrument, and approaches to song accompaniment. Check the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=956S53rZEz4

• 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.

• Nina Miller

  

  Nina began her love affair with the ukulele at the tender age of 8, after her parents went to Hawaii and brought back a sweet little soprano with painted Hula dancers. One night, after months of plucking and strumming, her brother stepped on that Hula gem, thus ending the happiest period of her life. Four decades later, on a whim (and to spite her brother), she picked it up again and started The FLUKES (Falmouth Library Ukulele Society) and has been blissfully plucking, strumming and singing once again, along with 30 of her new best friends. When not parading around with ukulele in hand, Nina can be found tooting her own French horn in the Portland Symphony Orchestra. You can reach Nina at: ukuleles4me@aol.com or 207-774-0717

• 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

• 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.

• 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…)

• 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 O4579 207-443-5411

• 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.

• Kenny Raskin

  

  Kenny first picked up a ukulele at age 8, when a family friend bought him one.  Now 50 plus years later, he’s not half bad! He’s got a menagerie of them, from soprano to baritone, and plays a variety of styles, swing music being his favorite.  He taught an afternoon workshop in 2016 and Doug spied on him.  He must have liked what he saw, because lo and behold, he put him on the staff! Kenny has been an actor and physical comedian for 35 years, and has performed internationally, as well as on Broadway.  He also starred as the lead clown in Cirque du Soleil’s Nouvelle Experience.  He, his wife Joanna and their son Evan are perennial campers at August week 1.

• Alden Robinson

  

  Alden Robinson learned to play the fiddle as a child growing up in coastal Maine. His earliest lessons came from Tamora Goltz, Katie Newell, and from the teachers at Maine Fiddle Camp. In college, he studied Irish fiddle in Ireland at University College Cork, and in several pubs.

  For the past five years or so he has toured and recorded with The Press Gang, an Irish trad band from Portland. (more…)

• 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.

• David Stimson

  

  David Stimson began backing up country dance music on the guitar in 1965 at the age of eleven. During several summers the 1960s he attended Pinewoods cape with his family while his stepfather, Bob Guillard, taught Morris Dancing and English Country Dance. David’s was first exposed to Contra Dance during the evening dances at Pinewoods; however, the disease remained latent until he learned English Concertina and joined the Woods Hole Folk Orchestra in1979. (more…)

• 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…)

• Pam Weeks

  

  Pam sings and plays several instruments in the folk trio, T-Acadie, is fiddler and singer for the Maine-based Cajun dance band, Jimmyjo & the Jumbol’Ayuhs, plays fiddle and mountain dulcimer in the contradance band, Scrod Pudding, and performs solo or with guitar player and caller Bill Olson. She is an accomplished tunesmith and has composed scores of tunes, from lively jigs and reels, to entrancing airs and beautiful waltzes.

  (more…)