Staff

  • Alex Cumming

    Alex Cumming is a traditional Singer, Accordionist, Pianist and dance caller hailing from Somerset, England, now living in Brattleboro VT, USA. He performs songs and tunes from around the United Kingdom and America with a great depth of knowledge of the tradition. Alex has made his mark on the folk scene with his rhythmic dance-able […]

  • Samuel Foucher

    I grew up in the Monadnock region of southern New Hampshire. My love for the accordion began at a new years’ eve concert at a young, impressionable age.  Bob McQuillen, Jimmy Keane and Jeremiah McLane were some of my mentors and sources of inspiration on this versatile instrument. Contra dancing was a frequent and beloved part […]

  • Sammy Wetstein

    Sammy Wetstein is a musician, composer, and teacher intent on fuzing styles of folk and jazz music with improvisational creativity. While initially classically trained on cello and piano, he has gone on to perform and record in a variety of folk styles including Celtic, New England, bluegrass, and old time fiddle music. Sammy’s love of […]

  • Clara Stickney

    Clara grew up playing music in the woods of southern Maine in a family of classical musicians. She fell in love with fiddle music when she came to Maine Fiddle Camp for the first time in 2013. Clara minored in music and started playing the lever harp while earning her master’s degree in occupational therapy […]

  • Mitch Reed

    Words from Mitch Reed: “I am a multi-instrumentalist, traditional music instructor, and storyteller. I was born in Bayou Vista, Louisiana, raised in Lafayette by musicians and storytellers from Mamou. At 15 I began playing the fiddle and studying traditional Cajun and Creole music. By 17 I toured as a cultural ambassador in Smithsonian Institution Office […]

  • Kimberley Holmes

    Kimberley Holmes, a native of Carrolls Corner, Nova Scotia is an East Coast Music Award nominee and one of Canada‘s premier piano accompanists in the traditional style of fiddling. She has won many awards for fiddling, both in solo and group classes. She is the host accompanist and past Artistic Director of the Maritime Fiddle […]

  • Ethan Tischler

    Ethan Tischler is a vocalist and multi-instrumentalist from just outside of Burlington, Vermont. High school friends brought him along to MFC in 2016, and he’s been hooked ever since! Though his principal focus in music has been singing and songwriting, Ethan loves playing for concerts and dances on guitar (standard / DADGAD), fiddle, mandolin, and banjo. His […]

  • Ando Anderson

    My mother brought a ukulele on a family trip to Atlanta. The 7 hour drive was pretty stressful as three unruly bored brothers turned the backseat into a war zone. In addition to our battles this trip we each learned to play 5’2″ on the uke. My first experience with a stringed instrument. Of course […]

  • Elizabeth Anderson

    Elizabeth Anderson is the 2020 US National Scottish Fiddle Champion and the 2016 Perth All-Scotland Fiddle Champion.  Her stylish and vibrant fiddle playing has delighted audiences and dancers across the East Coast. As a duo with her brother Ben on cello, Elizabeth has played to full houses at iconic Boston venues The Burren and Club […]

  • Jennifer Armstrong

    I am delighted to be back at MFC this summer teaching banjo, fiddle, sharing stories, getting up to high jinks. I have over 60 years of performing and teaching music behind me but I think my daughter’s bio for me at 33 still holds. (Except for the brown hair with a little auburn. It’s now grey with […]

  • 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 […]

  • 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, […]

  • Aidan Boardman

    Aidan Boardman is a vocalist/multi-instrumentalist and teacher, teaching primarily at Greene Hill School in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. He is also pursuing songwriting and recording under the pseudonyms, anguid and Dreamt. Aidan’s teaching focuses on developing guitar technique, posture, creative harmonies, and ear-training. anguid.bandcamp.com dreamt.bandcamp.com  

  • Greg Boardman

    I traded my electric guitar for a fiddle upon hearing Dave Swarbrick play with Fairport Convention at the King’s Rook, in Ipswich, Massachusetts, back in 1970.  Roving out later from my home in central Maine, I soon discovered a cadre of  peer fiddling expeditionaries (including many MFC staffers)  and a couple of older generations boasting of […]

  • 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, […]

  • Chris Brinn

    Chris Brinn came to the U. S. from the small fishing port of Padstow on the North Cornish coast in the UK. He now lives in Searsmont with his wife Carol and their son Declan. Chris has been playing piano accordion for over thirty five years, specializing in Irish music and songs, as well as […]

  • Sunniva Brynnel

    Sunniva Brynnel is a Swedish piano accordionist, singer and composer. In 2017, she was awarded Albin Hagström Minnesfonds scholarship for accordionists through the Royal Academy in Stockholm. Sunniva comes from a lineage of seven generations of female musicians, and her mother – Swedish folk singer and vocal coach Rosa Brynnel – is one of her major influences. […]

  • Eleanor Buckland

    Eleanor Buckland is a songwriter, singer, and fiddler, but not always in that order. As a 4th generation performing musician, Eleanor has been singing melodies since before she could talk. So it seems only natural that she would eventually fall in love with writing songs. Growing up in Maine in a musical family, her passion […]

  • Mike Burd

    Mike Burd is a professional musician who tours nationally playing bass with Maine’s own Dave Mallett. His (not so) secret passion, however, is playing ukulele and he is indeed the facilitator for the uke group The Merry Plinksters in Farmington. Joel Eckhaus says, “Mike Burd, … is one of those bass player/uke genius types..and is […]

  • Susie Burke

    Susie Burke has been singing and performing since the early 80s, as a soloist, and a member of several bands and duos, the longest running being with David Surette. Her musical tastes and influences are varied, encompassing contemporary and traditional folk, swing, country, topical songs, and acapella singing, with detours along the way for Broadway […]

  • Isa Burke

    Isa Burke grew up in South Berwick, Maine, and now lives in Brooklyn, New York. On vocals, fiddle, electric and acoustic guitars, and clawhammer banjo, Isa makes music that balances a respect for tradition with a healthy disdain for the limitations of genre. Raised in a musical family (her parents are Susie Burke and David […]

  • Jim Burke

  • Baron Collins-Hill

    Baron grew up playing the mandolin in Maine and graduated from Hampshire College with a degree in music performance and ethnomusicology. Versed in traditional 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 […]

  • Andrea Cooper

    A trained teacher, Andrea Cooper has taught everything from computers to clawhammer banjo. Andrea caught the Irish music bug while she was living in Toronto. Since then, her tin whistle teaching and playing has taken her to places as far as Eek, Alaska and Weiser, Idaho. Andrea was the resident tin whistle teacher at Randal […]

  • John Coté

    Guitarist John Coté has been performing for contra dances since he first fell in love with this pastime back in 1995. John did his music studies at the Berklee College of Music in Boston as well as the University of Maine at Augusta and incorporates a variety of influences in addition to what he has […]

  • Sandy Davis

    Sandy has been playing for contra dances for over 50 years. In the 70’s, he was a founding member of the Roaring Jelly dance band and the Common Ground quintet. Back then, he played occasionally with Dudley Laufman and the Canterbury Country Dance Orchestra. He spent over 20 years as the hired music director of […]

  • 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 […]

  • 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 […]

  • Joel Eckhaus

    Maine’s “Ukulele Eck” has been “out there” for four decades or so…singing and playing the ukulele, mandolin, tenor guitar, banjo, and musical saw in string bands, swing bands, vaudeville shows, and weird gigs of all sorts. A founding member of the Arm & Hammer String Band, the Neverly Brothers, the Blue Sky Serenaders, the Pinetones, […]

  • 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 […]

  • 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. Along with her brother, guitarist Dan Faiella, Liz has performed at Club Passim, the Boston Celtic Music Festival, the New England Folk Festival, the Acadia Trad Festival, and New […]

  • Dan Faiella

    Dan Faiella is a guitarist specializing in traditional Celtic music.  Trained as an accompanist through years of playing for New England contra dances and for Irish fiddlers, he has performed at venues and festivals around the country with numerous traditional music groups, as well as in a duo with his sister and longtime musical collaborator, […]

  • 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 […]

  • Frank Ferrel

    Maine coast musician, Frank Ferrel is considered one of the seminal traditional New England and Maritime fiddlers. In fact, Boston Globe music critic, Scott Alarik called him, “One of the finest living masters of the genre.” his CD recording, Yankee Dreams, was selected by the Library of Congress to be included in their, “Select list […]

  • Noah Fishman

    Noah Fishman is a multidimensional performer, composer, and educator who bends the lines between folk, chamber, and jazz. Raised in coastal Maine, Noah studied music at Princeton and the University of Michigan, and in 2019 was selected for the Betty Carter Jazz Ahead residency at The Kennedy Center. Noah attended and volunteered at Maine Fiddle […]

  • Alex Fortier

    Alex has been playing piano since the age of six, even receiving instruction from our esteemed MFC staff at a young age. He now adds his experience with various styles of music to MFC as staff. Having graduated from University of Rochester’s Music program in 2019, Alex is now working both solo and with various […]

  • Benjamin Foss

    Benjamin Foss is a musician and luthier based in Brooks, Maine. Benjamin grew up in southern New England attending and playing for contra dances and building fiddles and banjos out of everything he could find. He first came to Maine Fiddle Camp in 2012 and hasn’t missed a session since! Benjamin plays in several contra dance combinations […]

  • George Fowler

    George trained classically as a youngster and started fiddling in the late 1970’s, learning tunes from lobsterman and folk fiddler Albert Collins of South Blue Hill, Maine. He was a founding member of Oakum Bay String Band (1981-2011), the long-time host band for the monthly Blue Hill contradance, which had a remarkable 34 year run (1976-2010). […]

  • 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 […]

  • Ariel Friedman

    Ariel, a classically trained cellist from the Boston area, is one of few musicians to be challenging the boundaries of cello-playing. She graduated from Northwestern University in 2008 where she studied cello performance with Hans Jorgen Jensen, and is currently studying with renowned jazz musician Hankus Netsky at New England Conservatory where she will receive […]

  • Mia Friedman

    Mia Friedman is a virtuosic fiddler and singer. She is largely influenced by American roots music and old-time Appalachian traditions, and blends this with contemporary experimental music in her compositions. She graduated from New England Conservatory in 2012 where she studied with Anthony Coleman, Carla Kihlstedt, and Hankus Netsky, and is an active composer, performer, […]

  • 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 […]

  • Elsie Gawler

    Elsie Gawler

    Elsie Gawler is a multi-instrumentalist and songster rooted in Maine’s traditional folk music and culture. With her family, the Gawler Family Band, she has played throughout the state and beyond, sharing traditional fiddle tunes, songs, and original works since she was 6 years old. From this foundation she has branched out and launched her debut […]

  • John Gawler

    John plays 5-string banjo, guitar, and piano and is the best bottom feeder in the business! When he isn’t smiling and putting on a roof, he is smiling and singing a Woody Guthrie song, accompanied by his wife, Ellen Gawler, or one of his daughters in the Gawler Family Band. Besides doing workshops, John helps […]

  • Molly Gawler

    Molly Gawler grew up on Buttermilk Hill on a small farm in Maine. She plays fiddle, banjo and sings in the “Gawler Family Band” as well as her trio of sisters, “The Gawler Sisters.” She grew up playing music with the traditional roots passed on to her from her Mom and Dad – Ellen and […]

  • 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. On top […]

  • Jan Gill

    Jan Gill has been playing keyboard and singing professionally since 1970. She holds a bachelors degree in piano performance from the University of Maine Augusta jazz music program. She has enjoyed teaching piano, organ, guitar, and voice professionally since 1984. She plays a wide variety of genres including folk, rock, funk, jazz, blues, traditional fiddle […]

  • 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 […]

  • Sara Grey

    Sara Grey has been playing banjo for over 58 years. Her dad, from northern NH, played fiddle and he took Sara down south when she was young back in the early 50’s to watch some of the “old boys” play and sing. She took that knowledge back up to NH where she grew up,and played […]

  • Frets Halligan

    Frets has been playing and teaching ukulele and guitar privately and in groups for many years. He was surprised that while he was rediscovering the ukulele, so was the rest of the world! Over the past few years the ukulele has been seen and played at Maine Fiddle Camp. Inspired from seeing the uke at […]

  • Daniel Hawkins

    Daniel is a Philadelphia-based cellist, student, and teacher. He’s played with the Richardson Chamber Players, the Delaware Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Philharmonic, and various other ensembles and contradance bands. He released “Ride EP,” a DVD of original multimedia art, in 2012. He co-founded and served as artistic director of the Ottsville Traditional Arts Center in […]

  • 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. […]

  • 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. […]

  • Brad Hurley

    Brad Hurley has been playing traditional Irish music on whistle and wooden flute since the late 1970s, and has performed in dozens of concerts, weddings, dances, theater productions, and festivals in New England and eastern Canada. Brad has taught flute and whistle for many years, and his online guide to the Irish flute is a popular resource […]

  • Sabin Jacques

    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 […]

  • McKinley James

    McKinley James is a cellist studying at McGill University’s Schulich School of Music. She has also played with the Portsmouth Symphony Orchestra, Middlebury College Orchestra, McGill Symphony Orchestra, and the New England Conservatory Symphony, and soloed with the Champlain Philharmonic Orchestra. She is a founding member of the band Night Tree. The group, all students at […]

  • Jim Joseph

    Jim Joseph

    Jim Joseph, from Phippsburg,ME, was actually on staff a couple years ago for the inaugural June week. That was before we had an actual accordion track, and now he is back as an accordion teacher. Jim plays button accordion in the Quebecois, New England, and Cajun styles and also plays 5 string banjo, mandolin, fiddle, […]

  • 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 […]

  • 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 […]

  • Margery Landis

    Margery Landis has been teaching instrumental music in MSAD #75 since 1986. First she taught at the elementary level, and has been at Mt. Ararat Middle School since 1995. Margie’s bands have performed in the Hall of Flags in Augusta, the Augusta Civic Center, in Providence, RI for the New England League of Middle Schools […]

  • 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, […]

  • Dudley Laufman

    Dance Caller, Musician, Poet, Storyteller Recipient of 2009 National Heritage Fellowship Award (from the National Endowment for the Arts) Dudley has spent a lifetime calling dances & playing music throughout New England. He learned to call his first dance while in high school at the Norfolk County Agricultural High School in Walpole, MA from a […]

  • 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 […]

  • 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, Steampacket, Riptide, and Stomp Rocket.   Visit Glen at www.glenloper.com. 49 Brackett St, Portland ME, 04102 Phone: 207-837-8249

  • 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, […]

  • 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). With the music traditions of Quebec and Nova Scotia just over the border from his home in Vermont and the strong Irish musical scene of Boston to the south, Owen was immersed in the various […]

  • 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 […]

  • Jeff McKeen

    Jeff plays button accordion, guitar, banjo, and the hammiest of bones. Jeff has played with The Old Grey Goose for over twenty years, doing innumerable workshops in schools all over the state, and keeping the old-time music in Maine alive. A resident of Montville, he gets the fire permit every year and helps host the […]

  • Jeremiah McLane

    Jeremiah McLane is a composer, accordionist, pianist, singer and educator with a diverse musical background including blues, jazz, Celtic, Québécois, French and other roots influenced music. He is the founder and director of the Floating Bridge Music School, and has served on the faculties of the Sate University of New York in Plattsburgh, NY, the Summit […]

  • Claude Méthé

    Claude Méthé, is a self-taught fiddler, his style reflects most particularly the eighteen years he lived in the region of Lotbinière, Québec, on the south side of the St-Lawrence river not far from Québec City. Today, he resides in Ste-Béatrix, Québec, in the Lanaudière region, known worldwide as the epicenter of Québec trad music.

  • 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.  Four decades later, she picked it up again and started the FLUKES (Fun-Loving Ukulele Society), a 30-member ukulele ensemble based in Portland, Maine, and […]

  • Rodney Miller

    Rodney Miller is known throughout New Hampshire and beyond for his mastery of New England fiddling, a uniquely American blend of French Canadian and Celtic influences. Over the past thirty years Miller has toured the United States, Canada, the British Isles, Australia and Denmark performing in concert settings as well as playing for social dances. […]

  • Sylvia Miskoe

    A new Hampshire native, Sylvia has been playing her accordion since college where she began playing for square and contra dancing. Today she plays for contra dancing but also Scottish and English Country Dance. Sylvia was one of the founders of the Strathspey & Reel Society of New Hampshire, a group devoted to learning about […]

  • Élisabeth Moquin

    Élisabeth Moquin will teach beginner and intermediate Québécois step dancing. She is a young fiddler and dancer who has been dancing for many years and has studied with the best dancers in Quebec.  There will be traditional music to help with the rhythm.

  • Steve Muise

    Steve Muise has been fiddling his family’s Downeast Style for many years. (His parents are 1st and 2nd generation Nova Scotians) He founded the Franklin County Fiddlers, a group of high school musicians that tours around Maine and way beyond displaying, promoting and learning about fiddle styles. Steve is a graduate of Berklee College of […]

  • Carter Newell

    Carter Newell usually teaches the first weekend at Maine Fiddle camp which was the original weekend when the camp started. He played conta dances for 4 decades and is a big fan of Down East fiddling as well as French Canadian, Irish and Scottish styles. He currently farms oysters and mussels and plays in a […]

  • Helen Newell

    Helen Newell grew up in Maine surrounded by the New England Folk scene. Her parents, Kaity and Carter Newell are founding members of Maine Fiddle Camp, and Helen has spent every year of her life at MFC, first as a camper and now as a staff member since 2018. Helen graduated from Berklee College of […]

  • 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 […]

  • Maisie Newell

  • Meghan Newell

    Megan is on the beginner fiddle team.

  • Abby Newton

    Abby Newton is well known for her groundbreaking work in the revival of the cello in American and Scottish traditional music. She began her career touring with Jay Ungar and John Cohen in the Putnam String County Band, the first modern string band with a cello. She has produced and performed on over a hundred […]

  • 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 […]

  • 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 […]

  • 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 […]

  • Ed Pearlman

    Ed Pearlman is based in South Portland, enjoys many styles of fiddle music, and is best known for Scottish and Cape Breton fiddling, often working with his son Neil, daughter Lillie, and his wife, dancer Laura Scott. He has taught in-person workshops and private lessons since the 1980s, and since 2014, has run www.fiddle-online.com, an […]

  • Lilly Pearlman

    Lilly Pearlman has grown up in Maine immersed in the musical traditions of Scotland and Cape Breton, performing with family band Highland Soles since the age of nine. Through her experiences living and studying in New York City and Salvador da Bahia, Brazil, she has continued to explore and incorporate influences from various other musical genres–from […]

  • Neil Pearlman

    Neil Pearlman is emerging as one of the traditional music scene’s most innovative young artists. Legendary Cape Breton fiddler Jerry Holland said that “watching Neil’s hands on the piano is like watching two spiders on crack!” His piano style is rooted in Cape Breton traditions while drawing on latin, jazz and funk influences. The result […]

  • 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 […]

  • Darryn Petersen

    Darryn Petersen began playing the whistle and uilleann pipes twenty four years ago, after being inspired by a Seamus Ennis album he bought on a whim. His first lessons were with Jim Daily and the St James The Great chapter of Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann in Glasgow, Scotland, and then with All-Ireland piper Patrick Hutchinson in […]

  • Julia MacDonald-Plumb

    Julia lives in Belfast, Maine where she plays music, grows a yard full of spring bulbs and miniature fruit trees, and teaches fifth grade at Captain Albert Stevens School. Julia has always loved the percussive interplay between traditional music and dance forms and has enjoyed soaking up bits and pieces from players and dancers throughout New […]

  • John Pranio

    John started his early musical life as a drummer, but by some miracle got hooked on traditional music in his teens. John’s been teaching fiddle and harmonica at MF Camp since its start in the mid 90’s.  He’s been known to get a few silly skits going for the evening variety show. He teaches fiddle, […]

  • Chris Prickett

    Chris has been playing the banjo since 5th grade. He both picks and frails (clawhammer). He lists as his influences these banjoists: Jens Kruger, Don Stover, Bill Smith, Earl Scruggs, and yes, Dave Guard of the Kingston Trio. Chris currently plays with one of Maine’s top eclectic acoustic bands, Evergreen (20 years, four recordings). He’s […]

  • Doug Protsik

    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 […]

  • 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 […]

  • Nicole Rabata

    Irish flutist Nicole Rabata is highly regarded both in and out of traditional music fields. She has toured America and Europe including appearances at International Flute Festivals in Stockholm and Lund (Sweden), Temple Bar Trad Fest in Dublin, the Hebridean Celtic Festival in Scotland, Interharmony International Music Festival in Bavaria, the National Flute Conventions in […]

  • 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.  Kenny has been an actor and physical comedian for […]

  • Mark Roberts

    Mark Roberts has been part of a number of groundbreaking bands in traditional music including; The Red Clay Ramblers, Touchstone, The Sevens, The Clayfoot Strutters and Childsplay. His flute and whistle playing also features prominently in the soundtrack to John Sayles’s film The Secret of Roan Inish.  Mark can be heard on numerous recordings including […]

  • 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 […]