MASTER CLASSES
Get a head start to the weekend with an intensive workshop. Improve your technique, learn more about how to get the certain “sound” you’ve been looking for. There are master classes for all abilities from beginner to advanced. Master classes are held just before the start of Folk College.
Master Class Cost & Registration Information
• Master Classes are from 10am – 1pm Friday, May 27
• Separate registration and fee required
• Registration fee includes lunch at 1pm
• Class size is limited – reserve your spot early!
• Registration fee: $65, includes lunch immediately following
Choice of Master Classes:
Blues Guitar
Taught by Rory Block.
Designed for intermediate/advanced levels.
Five times Blues Music Award winner by The Blues Foundation, Rory Block will demonstrate foundations and techniques for country blues guitar as well as the strumming style of Tommy Johnston. Bonnie Raitt is quoted saying, “Rory Block has been an inspiration to me since we started out years ago. Her guitar playing, singing and songwriting are some of the most soulful in traditional and modern blues.” When you leave Folk College, Rory wants you to be a stronger, more inspired player that grabs the attention of your listeners and brings a greater sense of excitement to your playing. This class will be about “kicking it up a notch”.
Irish Fiddle
Taught by Kevin Burke.
Designed for intermediate/advanced levels.
Kevin Burke will teach reels and jigs; bow patterns, including slurs that produce a lilt or over beats to create natural back-beat in reels; and melodies embellished through forms of ornamentation, such as rolls, trebles, and cuts.
Burke’s fiddle playing has been at the forefront of traditional music for more than 30 years. Awarded a National Heritage Fellowship, the USA's highest honor for excellence in the folk and traditional arts, he joins other honorees including B.B. King, Doc Watson, and Bill Monroe. He has earned international acclaim in both Europe and America as a solo performer, a respected teacher, and as a member of some of folk music’s foremost groups, including the exciting Celtic Fiddle Festival and Ireland’s long admired and respected Patrick Street.
Gypsy Fiddle
Taught by Steven Greenman.
Designed for all levels beyond beginner.
Described by the Washington Post as “particularly impressive” and “extraordinary” by the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, Steven Greenman is a multi-talented musical artist, who will help you to play passionate East European Romani (Gypsy) music. Depending on class interest, we may also touch on Klezmer or Romanian fiddling.
Steven has taught music master classes internationally and has been a teaching artist with the Cleveland Orchestra’s “Learning Through Music” program since 2001. A member of Cleveland’s East European ensemble Harmonia, he is well-versed in various East European folk music styles and has been a guest soloist with the Cleveland Pops Orchestra, the Canton Symphony, and the Akron Symphony, performing his own arrangements of traditional East European Romani (“Gypsy”) violin music.
Folk Cello
Taught by Valerie Thompson.
Designed for all levels beyond beginner.
An avid educator, cellist, and composer Valerie Thompson has been on the faculty of Cello Chan Woods, CCE MAD Week, Miles of Music Camp, Illinois Wesleyan Cello Camp and the Joe Val Bluegrass Festival Kids Academy. Valerie will share her interest in creating new paths and roles for the cello in folk music drawing from Irish, Scottish and American traditions. She is a graduate of Berklee College of Music with a B.M. in music performance and holds a masters in Contemporary Improvisation from New England Conservatory. In addition to being a member of Laura Cortese & the Dance Cards, Valerie has performed with Boston based chamber duo-Goli, Neo-Trad group Long Time Courting, progressive rock band Fluttr Effect, the Jake Leg Jug Luggers (old time,) the Yurodivy Quintet (klezmer/grass/jazz/avant garde ensemble.) Music will be taught by ear with sheet music to be given after class.
Ukulele
Taught by Ehukai Teves.
Designed for intermediate/advanced levels.
Ehukai (pronounced Eh-hoo-ka-ee) Teves will take us to the next level of ukulele playing. We'll look at chords, theory, finger picking, strumming and improvising to help you get the most fun out of your ukulele. Ehukai has won musical competitions for his outstanding playing, has written over 300 songs (among them a Hawaiian Grammy winner), and has appeared regularly on the original “Hawaii Five-O” television series. He has a B.A. in voice and music theory and sings and performs regularly in Hawaii. His musical influences range from Jean Richie to rock & roll to acapella singing, and his band “The Jolley Rogues” will soon to release their second CD “Folk 'n Hillbilly Music.”
Mandolin
Taught by Henry Korezky.
Designed for all levels beyond beginner.
A native of Harrisburg, Henry Koretzky is a longtime favorite teacher of mandolin and guitar at Folk College. Henry is consistently one of the top-rated teachers according to past Folk College student surveys. In this class, Henry will show a wide variety of techniques to be played on the mandolin, including bluegrass, old time, swing, celtic, and klezmer. Henry first picked up the guitar seriously at age seventeen and made his stage debut in 1979 with a garage band whose repertoire ranged from traditional blues to Dave Brubeck to the Allman Brothers. He has played with a variety of bands and individuals since then, and he is a regular contradance musician, playing with York county fiddler Todd Clewell as well as a number of other bands and configurations.
Harmonica
Taught by Richard Sleigh.
Designed for all levels beyond beginner.
Richard Sleigh, described as a harmonica wizard, will show you how to get the most out of this small but powerful instrument. He has been exploring American Roots Music and the harmonica from the inside out for over 40 years. His latest adventures include being a featured soloist with the Wooster Symphony Orchestra and Paquito D’Rivera; playing and teaching Blues harmonica in Clarkesdale, Mississippi; and opening as a solo act for the Marshall Tucker Band and Nancy Griffith. Over the years he has also appeared with Taj Mahal, Bo Diddley, Maria Muldaur, and many others, and he has performed and given harmonica workshops here and abroad. A quote on his website reads, “Music self played is happiness self made.”
Bring a harmonica in the key of A.
Mountain Dulcimer
Taught by Lois Hornbostel.
Designed for all levels beyond beginner.
Lois Hornbostel will teach the many possibilities of the mountain dulcimer, an extraordinary Appalachian instrument. In her class, she will look at right- and left-hand techniques that allow playing to have a better flow and bring more variation of expression into your musical vocabulary. We’ll begin with DAD tuning and can cover other tunings and playing in different keys. Music taught both by tablature and by ear.
As a musician, she has helped to introduce with authenticity several different styles of music to the mountain dulcimer's repertoire, and she has been recognized with several dulcimer championships, including those at the Galax, Virginia, Mount Airy and Fiddlers Grove in North Carolina.
Lois is the author on 7 books on playing the mountain dulcimer. A natural and inventive teacher, she has taught the instrument to thousands of people, young and old. This led to her organizing several annual events including the Appalachian State Dulcimer Playing Workshop, the Western Carolina University Mountain Dulcimer Workshop, the Swannanoa Gathering Dulcimer Week, and her own event, “Dulcimerville.”
Accordion
Taught by Walt Mahovlich.
Designed for all levels beyond beginner.
In this class, Harmonia’s founder Walt Mahovlich will share tips and techniques for getting the most out of your piano accordion. Walt’s specialty is Eastern European music, though we anticipate this will be a small class that can be driven by student interest, so bring your questions.
Walt is a faculty member at the Balkan Arts Music Camp as well as director of the Cleveland Tamburitzans. His album “Nova Domovina: Balkan Slavic Music from the Industrial Midwest” won the Unesco award for ethnomusicology. He's played extensively at traditional events for East European immigrant communities throughout the United States and Canada as well as in frequent concert tours of Europe. His career has included performances at Smotra Foklora in Zagreb, Croatia; the Smithsonian's Festival of American Folklife; Jimmy Carter's Inaugural; the Rededication of Ellis Island; the Bicentennial Celebration of the Constitution in Philadelphia; as well as performances in Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center.
Songwriting
Taught by Small Potatoes.
Designed for all levels.
Immerse yourself in the art of songwriting with these award-winning singer-songwriters and explore lyric and melody writing, as well as ideas that will help your creative process, including a variety of skills, tools, and exercises that will help you get started or enhance your songwriting. If you are planning to attend both sessions we can use your work as a study example in Saturday’s class.
Small Potatoes is Jacquie Manning and Rich Prezioso. A Chicago-based duo, they have been touring on the folk circuit since 1993 and are sought-after regulars at many clubs, coffeehouses across the U.S. They have made repeat appearances at major folk festivals, including the Kerrville Folk Festival, the Walnut Valley Folk Festival, and Philadelphia Folk Festival, and Jacquie is a past winner of the Kerrville New Folk Songwriting Contest. They describe their music as “Celtic to cowboy,” saying it has taken them “years of careful indecision” to come up with a mix of music that ranges from country, blues, and swing to Irish, with songwriting that touches on all of those styles and more. Their four recordings, “Alive!,” “Waltz of the Wallflowers,” “Time Flies,” and “Raw” cover all these styles. They both sing, play guitars, and an array of other instruments, and they even yodel.
Folk Music Skills
Taught by Ira Gitlin.
Designed for all instruments, advanced beginner.
In this special workshop designed for advanced beginners, Ira Gitlin will address skills that will help you get more out of the weekend. In particular, we will look at how to learn tunes by ear, how to jam, how to play backup, how to play melody, and how to play well with other musicians.
Ira Gitlin moved to the Washington, DC area at the end of 1986 to take advantage of its vibrant bluegrass scene. In the years since, he has made a place for himself as an instrumentalist, music teacher, and writer. He has performed with many noteworthy musicians, including Peter Rowan, the Johnson Mountain Boys, Laurie Lewis, and Frank Solivan and Dirty Kitchen; played on dozens of recordings; and helped countless amateur musicians to express themselves on the banjo, guitar, and bass. Along the way he has racked up a National Bluegrass Banjo Championship (1992) and a shelf full of “Wammies” from the Washington Area Music Association.
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