Cello

Endlessly inspired by bonds of kinship forged through music, Cellist, composer, and teacher
Sammy Wetstein found his love for music traveling between multigenerational folk music camps
and festivals in search of a musical community to call home. His journey led him to pursue a
degree in folk and jazz string performance at Berklee College of Music and become versed in a
variety of styles, performing, recording, and teaching throughout the worlds of classical, jazz,
and traditional Celtic, New England, Bluegrass and Old time fiddle music.
As a multi instrumentalist fluent in playing accordion, guitar, mandolin, bass, violin, and viola, he
has appeared at venues such as the Newport Folk Festival, Grey Fox Bluegrass festival, the
Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Berklee College Of Music Convocation, The Library of
Congress, and the annual International Bluegrass Music Association festival. He has served as
faculty at Maine Fiddle Camp, The Swannanoa Gathering, The Ashokan Center, Fiddle Hell,
Pinewoods dance Camps, and the IBMA Kids on Bluegrass Program.
Sammy has appeared alongside artists such as the Grammy winning 8 Bit Big Band, jazz icons
Joe Levano and Kenny Barron, renown string players including Eugene Friesen, Darol Anger,
Mike Marshall and Jason Anick, and toured with trailblazing folk artists Jake Blount and Nic
Gareiss. Advocating for furthering the role of the cello in traditional music, he has been featured
on Bluegrass Today and Sirius XM Bluegrass Junction. In 2024 his new acoustic quartet Catfish
in the Sky was a winner of the Freshgrass band competition, and his Celtic trio was voted one of
the top 5 Celtic bands of 2022 by Irish and Celtic music podcast.
Sammy’s love of music stems from his dream to find belonging and bring others together, and in
his teaching he hopes to encourage string players of all ages and backgrounds to find freedom
in their music, explore global music styles, and play music as a means to exist in community
while better understanding oneself.

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 a masters degree in 2011. A winner of ASTA’s 2009 Alternative Styles Award, her heart currently lies in exploring the American roots tradition, 1920’s and 30’s jazz, and in composing songs and tunes influenced by her diverse musical tastes. As part of an accompanied duo with her sister, Ari & Mia are opening hearts and dance floors throughout the States with music that explores the realm where their own compositions cross paths with older traditions. Ariel also performs, tours, and records with Scottish National Fiddle champion Hanneke Cassel, is a member of the Boston-based trad band, Long Time Courting, and plays with New England’s highly acclaimed fiddle band Childsplay. She teaches at various fiddle camps during the summer and has her own private studio.

www.ariandmiafriedman.com for more info.

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 solo album, Sweet As Honey. The album is a collection of 9 original songs inspired by sacred connection to earth and community. While continuing to play regularly with The Gawler Family Band, her other projects include duo Elsie & Ethan, trio Springtide, and trio The Gawler Sisters. She has also been a long-time member of the group Childsplay. Elsie grew up at Maine Fiddle Camp and transitioned to a teaching role in 2010.
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Dani Hawkins

Dani is a Philadelphia-based cellist, teacher, and scholar who’s played with the Richardson Chamber Players, Delaware Symphony Orchestra, Boston Philharmonic, and various other ensembles and contradance bands. In 2012, they released “Ride EP,” a DVD of original multimedia art based on footage and field recordings taken while living out of a van. The debut album for their current project Midnight on the Water (midnightonthewater.com) is forthcoming in Spring 2026.

In addition to teaching at Maine Fiddle Camp since 2011, Dani has taught cello at Cornell University, the Ashokan Center, Open Access to Music Education, Folk College, Pennsylvania Folk Gathering, and Fiddle Hell. They endeavor to make their cello teaching as accessible as possible and to emphasize the participatory nature of roots traditions.

Dani received their PhD in Musicology with concentrations in Ethnomusicology and American Studies from Cornell University in 2023. Research at New England fiddle camps contributed substantially to both their dissertation, Listening Beyond Modernity: Race, Radicalism, and Folklife, which won the 2024 Donald J. Grout Memorial Prize, and also to a paper titled “Writing Music / Writing Movements,” which was awarded the 2023 Pantaleoni Prize by the Mid-Atlantic Chapter of the Society for Ethnomusicology. They’ve conducted other fieldwork in Ghana, China’s Hunan province, Brooklyn, Wet’suwet’en territory, Philadelphia, and presented the resulting scholarship at the Society for Ethnomusicology, the American Studies Association, the Royal Society of Canada, the International Council for Traditions of Music and Dance, and the International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation. They’ve taught both conventional undergraduate music classes as well as original interdisciplinary seminars like “The Politics of Listening: Sound and Civic Life” and “Music in the Making and Unmaking of Race” at Memorial of University of Newfoundland, Cornell University, and Swarthmore College.

They enjoy bodysurfing, being a part of Philadelphia’s blooming mutual aid networks, and eating hot wings.

You can visit him on the web here.

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 NEC, were named the Conservatory’s WildCard Honors Ensemble for 2016-2017. Awards for this title included a sponsorship from NEC, a headlining performance at the historic Jordan Hall, and a year of working with Winifred Horan, fiddler and co-founder of Irish super-band, SOLAS. As acoustic sextet Night Tree, Brian O’Donovan, Senior DJ at Boston’s own radio station, WGBH, calls them “One of the most exciting roots-based music groups to emerge from the New England Conservatory in many years. Their individual chops and adventurous approach make Night Tree a band to watch for.” Together they have toured throughout the US, opened for Solas in Portsmouth Music Hall, and played in Jordan Hall, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Public Library, and Rockwood Music Hall. They released their debut album in 2017 and toured in Europe in 2018. She has also toured in China with her piano trio. She studied with Yeesun Kim at the New England Conservatory for her Bachelor’s Degree

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 folk recordings including 17 CDs with Scottish singer, Jean Redpath. Abby’s solo CDs “Crossing to Scotland” and “Castles, Kirks, and Caves” have earned her critical acclaim both in the US and abroad. She has been the director and cellist of the Shokan Chamber Artists, Trillium Piano Trio, and currently performs in the Celtic Trio “Ferintosh”, “Celtic Crossing”, the “Mother-Daughter String Band” and “Esopus Chamber Orchestra”.

Classically trained cellist Beth Robinson has been teaching cello to students ages 4-adult for nearly 30 years. Based in Potsdam, NY, she began playing for dances in the late 1980’s at a time when there were few cellists to guide her and so she looked to other instrumentalists for inspiration. Her mentors and teachers include fiddlers David Kaynor, George Wilson, Claude Methe, pianist Jacqueline Schwab, and guitarists Dana Whittle and Paul Marchand. (more…)