2015 FACULTY

Joel Mabus

Joel Mabus may be called a singer-songwriter, but he doesn't sound like one.  He's the son of a 1930's old time fiddle champ and a banjo-pickin' farm girl.  His performing career began in college during the Vietnam era, where he studied anthropology and literature by day and played coffeehouses by night. One critic writes, "Joel Mabus knows his way around the English language and American culture just as well as he knows his way around a fretboard.”  Born in 1953 in the southern Illinois town of Belleville, Joel has recorded 20 solo albums of original and traditional music since his recording career started in 1978. For three years running, Mabus has been in the top 10 most played artists in the Folk Radio Charts for North America (folkradio.org) (The only other top 10 artists who share that 3-year distinction are Pete Seeger and Bob Dylan.) Joel's latest CD is 2011's American Anonymous, an album of traditional American folk songs, which has been garnering high praise from the critics.  A one-off in the folk world, Mabus defies any easy pigeon-hole.  His palette ranges from mountain banjo to jazz guitar -- from sensitive introspection to wicked satire.  He's both picker & poet, and from coast to coast over the past 40 years this Midwesterner has brought audiences to their feet, wanting more.

 

Natalie Haas

Natalie Haas is one of the most sought after cellists playing traditional music today. She and Scottish fiddler Alasdair Fraser have toured as a duo for over 15 years, wowing audiences at festivals and concerts worldwide with their unique sound. Their first album together, Fire & Grace, was awarded Best Album of the Year in the Scots Trad Music Awards 2004. Natalie has also toured with Mark O'Connor as a member of his Appalachia Waltz Trio. She and O'Connor premiered his double concerto for violin and cello, ¨For The Heroes,¨ with the Grand Rapids, East Texas, and San Diego Symphonies. As a studio musician, Natalie has been a guest artist on over 50 albums, including those of Cape Breton fiddler Natalie MacMaster, Irish greats Solas and Liz Carroll, and Americana icon Dirk Powell.

 

A graduate of the Juilliard School, where she studied with cellist Fred Sherry, Natalie discovered the cello at age nine. In addition to having extensive classical music training, she is accomplished in a broad array of fiddle genres. Her music journey found purpose when she fell in love with Celtic music at the Valley of the Moon Scottish Fiddling School at age 11. Inspired and encouraged by director Fraser, she began to investigate the cello's potential for rhythmic accompaniment to fiddle tunes, and to this day, the two continue to resurrect and reinvent the cello's historic role in Scottish music.

 

Natalie's skills as an educator make her one of the most in demand teachers at fiddle camps across the globe. She also teaches privately and in a workshop setting, and has held an associate professorship at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. Natalie now makes her home in Montreal, where she is an active member of the traditional music scene.

 

The Barefoot Movement

Heartfelt, energetic, and down home. Heralded by CMT Edge as "one of the most promising bands on the bluegrass scene," the music of the Nashville based group The Barefoot Movement is as down to earth as their intention for members of their audience: sit back, relax, take your shoes off, and stay a while. All the worries and frustrations of the world melt away as the charming four-piece acoustic band takes listeners back to a simpler place and time. Whether you're seeking emotional ballads or rip-roaring barn-burners, you can expect a collection of music that offers something for everyone. With two full length albums, several cross-country tours, and appearances at some of the top bluegrass festivals in the United States already under their belt, the possibilities are endless. The group has enjoyed almost non-stop touring including a trip to Burkina Faso, Africa where they were guests of the American Embassy. Debuting in September, 2014, their third release, "The High Road EP" showcases traditional material that has consistently been among the crowd favorites at their live performances.

 

Crowding around a single microphone, their show is as fun to watch as it is to hear, and often begs the question, how has no one lost an eye from a collision with the fiddle bow? The smiles on the faces of the band are obvious displays of the joy and excitement they feel when performing and the audience shares in the fun. With effortlessly executed transitions, the pacing between the softer and more vigorous numbers constantly has fans on the edge of their seats.

 

It has now been five years since The Barefoot Movement took off their shoes and took to the stage. Hard work and talent have taken them from east coast to west, from north to south, and even across the Atlantic Ocean. They have appeared in Country Weekly Magazine, on CMT Edge, Music City Roots, and Woodsongs Old-Time Radio Hour. Their original music was featured on the Outdoor Channel's program "Huntin' the World: Southern Style" and their music video for their popular song "Second Time Around" has been seen nationally on the Zuus Country Network. They have been selected as showcase artists at both the International Bluegrass Music Association and the Americana Festival conferences and were first runners up at the 2013 Telluride Bluegrass Festival's New Band Competition.

 

The band consists of Tommy Norris, Noah Wall, Hasee Ciaccio, and Alex Conerly.

 

Eleanor Ellis

Eleanor Ellis has developed a distinctive and personal approach to the music, and has played at festivals and clubs throughout the United States, in Canada and in Europe. According to one reviewer, “More than copying one artist or another, Ellis distills the elements of the originals and transmits them, intact, in her own expressive way.” She credits her musical reach to such greats as Memphis Minnie, Skip James and other early recording artists, as well as to the influence of the blues players she has personally known.

 

 

Red Tail Ring

Red Tail Ring is the musical brainchild of two old-time-minded Michiganders – Michael Beauchamp and Laurel Premo. The collaboration blends the loving attention of revivalist fervor with the playful creativity of starting from scratch. Whether rendering a traditional tune or one of their many original compositions, the duo infuses each song with musical imagination, haunting harmonies and instrumental artistry on fiddle, banjo, mandolin, jawharp, and plain-old foot stomping. "We love pushing the boundaries of what a traditional song can be," says Beauchamp. "It informs how we write our original songs. There's a real energy exchange between the old and the new."

 

Red Tail Ring’s recent project, a 7" vinyl release with fellow Michiganders Lindsay Lou & the Flatbellys entitled The New Roots Exchange Vol. I (Earthwork Music, 2014), honors this two-way connection from its recording process to the song selection. Recorded in one take around two microphones – a recording and performance style harkening back to the early 20th century – the collection features traded solos and rich harmonies on traditional songs “Sugar Hill” and “The Wind and Rain” played as a large group on side A, while side B spotlights the individual groups covering each others’ songs in a playful artistic exchange. “We discovered so many of our favorite albums by listening to vinyl,” explains Premo, “so we were excited to add TNE to that history.”

 

Red Tail Ring's third full-length album, The Heart's Swift Foot (Earthwork Music, 2013), was met with glowing reviews from Americana and roots music authorities. No Depression writes, "new music from Red Tail Ring is gorgeous," and The UTNE Reader describes the album as containing "fierce, masterful fingerpicking and poignant lyrical narratives." In addition to being featured on American Songwriter Magazine.com, The Heart's Swift Foot reached #6 on the FOLKDJ chart for June 2013. The new album presents 10 original songs with two acoustic standards that aim to stretch the confines of what two people can create sonically.

 

Yann Falquet

Yann Falquet is a very active and creative acoustic guitar player on the Québécois music scene. He has explored many styles of music and completed a Bachelors degree in Jazz. Since then, he has developed a personal guitar style for Québec folk music, inspired by the playing of the accompanists of different cultures (Brittany, Scandinavia, Ireland, North America).

 

His involvement in the province's traditional music scene has brought Yann to perform on numerous recordings, and to tour regularly throughout Canada, the U.S., Europe and Australia with his main project, Genticorum. He also toured for three years with the award winning Celtic and world group, The McDades.

 

AppalAsia

AppalAsia combines the influences of Appalachian and Asian music traditions with original composition and inspired improvisation to create their unique musical voice. Using erhu, dulcimer, banjo, and vocals they have created a cross-cultural musical experience that draws on their collaboration of traditions with an ear toward the future.

 

Drawing on the inspiration of their collective music traditions, they are dedicated to extending the language and context for using the erhu, dulcimer, and banjo as both solo and ensemble instruments. The members design new compositions and soundscapes for improvisation, featuring these instruments, as a means to define and express the commonality in their cross-cultural musical vision, creating a unique musical expression. This, combined with a repertoire of material based on traditional Asian and Western “folk” songs, is the foundation of the AppalAsia experience.

 

The band consists of Jeff Berman, Mim Jong, and Sue Powers.

 

 

Changeling

Changeling presents the fire and stark beauty of the Celtic traditions with (in the words of one fan) "the power of ten in a package of two." They travel from concert halls to dance halls, delighting fans and winning friends with their tunes, songs and stories.

 

Deborah Clark Colón's (fiddle, viola) skill and emotional depth have earned her national recognition in Irish and Scottish circles for her fiddling on blistering reels, playful jigs and heartbreaking airs. She has been recording and performing professionally for over ten years, from Chicago and New York to the Bahamas. Her tremendous energy and presence in the music keep her in demand as a performer, studio musician and teacher. Deborah contributed outrageous fiddling to the three new tracks on Gaelic Storm's Billboard World-Music Charting Album (#2!) Special Reserve, adding her to the list of traditional Irish fiddlers to record on Nashville's Music Row.

Deborah is a prolific composer of tunes, including "Blue Ash," "The Thirtieth Year," and the notorious "Pizza Reel" on Changeling's latest album, The Hidden World.

 

Changeling guitarist and singer Karl Clark Colón (guitar, vocals, odd stories) is the perfect Celt: a delicate cross between a scholarly monk and a professional wrestler. One moment he's quietly hunched over his guitar, eyes closed, creating intimate soundscapes to highlight a lament or slow air, but in the blink of an eye he's stamping, shouting and leaping from the rafters in the spirit of a reel. His songs, stories and humor welcome and enthrall a crowd, helping them to discover that traditional music is best enjoyed among friends.

 

Simple Gifts

Folk College's host band, Simple Gifts, is three women (Linda Littleton, Karen Hirshon & Rachel Hall) playing twelve instruments, with styles that range from old time to Celtic to Klezmer and beyond. Karen Hirshon plays fiddle, mandolin, guitar, 6-string banjo, bowed psaltery, doumbek, and spoons. Linda Littleton plays fiddle, hammered dulcimer, recorders, and bowed psaltery, and she's starting to learn banjo. Rachel Hall is recognized as one of the leading English concertina players in the U.S., and she also performs on piano, accordion, and tabla. Based in State College and Philadelphia, PA, Simple Gifts members designed Folk College and work with the Huntingdon County Arts Council to make it a reality. They have a strong philosophy that everyone can play music, that music is best when shared, and that above all, music is about communication, not competition.

 

 

Laurie Hart

Laurie Hart is a fiddler from Ithaca in central New York State. She specializes in Irish, Québécois, Scandinavian, French and American dance music. She also plays Swedish nyckelharpa, Norwegian Hardanger fiddle and a bit of hurdy-gurdy. Laurie is known for her beautiful tone, agile bowing, large repertoire, and fidelity to the diverse styles she plays. She has seven albums in her growing discography, created the soundtrack for two documentaries, and appears as a guest artist on many CDs.

 

Laurie's passion for fiddling, dancing, languages and travel has led her on research and tune-collecting expeditions to Ireland, Québec, Scandinavia and France, which in turn have led to writing tunebooks, and to new recordings and workshop offerings.  She was the recipient of a Fulbright Award to study the music and dance of Norway and Sweden. She is now working on a five-volume CD/book series entitled Scandinavian Fiddle Tradition.

 

Jamie O'Brien

Coming from a London-Irish family, Jamie O'Brien (vocals, guitar, ukulele) has been involved in Irish music all his life. An in-demand accompanist, as well as solo performer, he has played with numerous musicians on both sides of the Atlantic.  In 2000, he was introduced to Hawaiian music and has since collaborated with many traditional musicians from the Islands, becoming an adept slack key guitarist and ukulele player.

 

Henry Koretzky

Henry Koretzky is a mandolinist, guitarist, and singer from Harrisburg, PA, who has performed in a wide variety of styles and groups, from bluegrass with Cornerstone, Sweetwater Reunion, and High Strung; klezmer with The Old World Folk Band; old-time with the duo Rootbound; as well as swing, celtic, contemporary folk, and contradance music. He has taught at Folk College in previous years as part of The Keystone Rebels and as part of a duo with singer-songwriter- guitarist Kevin Neidig, and has also been a staff regular at Greenwood Furnace Folk Gathering.

 

 

Jerry Trusty

Jerry Trusty grew up in Mississippi where he learned and played traditional music at an early age. He has a bachelor’s degree in music education and a master’s degree in music performance (French horn). Jerry was a high school band director for several years, and he is now a professor in counselor education at Penn State. His current musical passions include playing, researching and building clawhammer and old-time banjos.

 

 

 

 

Gordon Bonnet

Gordon Bonnet is multi-talented and multi-faceted: a novel writer and science essayist, a high school teacher of biology and environmental sciences, and a gifted musician. Gordon plays flute and bagpipes, and can often be seen with the Ithaca area bands Crooked Sixpence and Alizé.  His specialties include music from central France, Brittany, the Balkans, and any music with non-standard rhythms.

 

 

 

 

Debbie Rifkin

Debbie Rifkin is an award-winning music theory and sight-singing teacher at Ithaca College in upstate NY. She started out as a classical violinist, earning prizes and prestigious seats in regional orchestras in her youth. Now, she is an avid fiddler. Her main specialty is klezmer music, but she dabbles in French-Canadian, New England, and Scandinavian styles as well. She has played in several klezmer bands, directs the Ithaca College Klezmer Band, and occasionally performs at Scandinavian folk festivals.

 

 

Bob Nicholson

Bob Nicholson is a Folk College tradition, making our annual Saturday night contradance truly special. Bob is in demand as a contra and square dance caller who is known for his relaxed teaching style, patience, energy, and ability to make the dance fun!