Faculty
Our 2025 Faculty
Folk College brings you teachers who, besides being outstanding musicians, are kind and generous people who are anxious to share their love of music with you.
Acoustic Nomads
Music of South & North Americas
Acoustic Nomads is a band blending together musical styles from the Appalachians to the Andes, creating soaring original melodies, playful improvisations, and driving grooves that celebrate shared American musical heritage.
Listening to Acoustic Nomads live performances and studio albums, you will hear elements of jazz, newgrass, candombe from Uruguay, chacarera from Argentina, samba and forró from Brazil, landó & festejo from Perú, huayno from the Andes, joropo & jota from Venezuela, and progressive acoustic music from all over, played at the highest level of musicianship.
The musicians in Acoustic Nomads are also tremendous performers, and audiences will be swept away on a musical journey across the Americas.
Band members include Noah Harrington (upright bass), Clara Rose (fiddle), Maurizio Fiore Salas (Guitar/Venezuelan Cuatro), and Karl Henry (cello).
The Chivalrous Crickets
English, Celtic & Baroque Music
The Crickets’ backgrounds, skills and passions combine in a unique sound centered on rich vocal harmonies,
provocative instrumental blends, rousing arrangements and innovative programming of traditional, original
and historical music from the Celtic, American roots and European early music traditions.
Based in eastern PA, central NJ & NYC, the 2018 sister-formed band, which includes partners and best friends, plays diverse venues from museums to forest preserves to schooners, classrooms to theaters, concert series to folk festivals around the nation.
They specialize in creating visually stunning theatrical folk holiday shows, dances, cross-genre collaborative and educational experiences with partner organizations, seasonal & nature-based programs, concert-theater works, and shows that demonstrate the historic roots and broad reach of Celtic music around the world.
Band members are Fiona Gillespie (vocals, bodhran, Irish whistle), Genevieve Gillespie (fiddle, vocals),
Paul Morton (banjo, guitars, lutes, vocals), Ben Matus (pipes, tenor whistle, recorder, bassoon, vocals), and Bradley King (vocals, bass, cello).
High Horse
Progressive Acoustic Bluegrass
High Horse is a progressive-acoustic boy band featuring four friends, three bows, and one pick. A mix of Bluegrass, Old-time, and Celtic music, it’s a band of brothers playing alternative rock on acoustic instruments. It’s a rollicking romp of great vibes, virtuosic chops, and tight vocals.
Comprised of fiddler Carson McHaney, cellist Karl Henry, guitarist G Rockwell, and bassist Noah Harrington; the band draws from their varied musical backgrounds to explore and perform original compositions and tunes from diverse folk traditions.
High Horse is based in Boston, collecting the skills and artistry learned from their education at the Berklee College of Music and New England Conservatory.
Their debut album will be released in 2024, produced by world-renowned mandolinist Jacob Jolliff and engineered by sound wizard Dave Sinko.
Jamie Anderson
Singer, Songwriter, Humorist
Singer-songwriter-parking lot attendant Jamie Anderson hails from Ottawa, Ontario except for the few months of the winter when she hides out in Arizona. She has played her unique original songs in hundreds of venues in four countries including forty-seven US states. Proficient on guitar, ukulele, and mandolin, this musician with an expressive soprano is folk without the Birkenstocks, country without the big hair, and jazz without the weird chords. Her twelve recordings offers a variety of topics from body image (“Beautiful”) to wanting to marry Rachel Maddow because really, who wouldn’t? Jamie loves being a musician, so she doesn’t really park cars, but her mama said she should have something to fall back on.
Her most recent recording is Songs from Home, written and recorded during the pandemic. She initially went into James Stephen’s Quebec studio (Ian Tamblyn, Lynn Miles) to record one song, “Six Feet Away,” and ended up recording six. Because it wasn’t safe for a whole band in the studio, James and Jamie played all of the instruments.
Her 2019 release, The Truth Appears, was also recorded with Stephens and some of the area’s finest musicians. This collection of seventeen originals includes “Between,” a poignant pop/folk song about the gray area between the lines of a relationship, and “A Very Sad Tail,” a dramatic piece co-written by her cat who threatened to shred the furniture if Jamie didn’t record it.
Jamie started releasing albums in the late eighties, selling thousands of albums at a time before YouTube and Spotify. She’s appeared at folk and women’s music festivals, coffeehouses, colleges, pride events, and even made an appearance on CNN where a clip of her performance aired at the top of every hour for one day.
Laughter is a big part of Jamie’s live performance. Her offbeat song intros and stories help keep the performance fun, but don’t be surprised when she delves into more serious issues. She’s emceed at many events and she can hula hoop while playing the ukulele.
Midnight on the Water
Fusion of traditional fiddle tunes, jazz, tango, classical and more!
Midnight on the Water started as an idea. Nathan Bishop, Tom Krumm, and Dani Hawkins have collectively played well over one thousand performances with classical, jazz, trad, and pop ensembles, and in those engagements they have met a lot of crossover artists: classical musicians who play arrangements of pop songs, or trad musicians who dabble in jazz. But the trio never really met other string players who are equally at home across all those musical contexts – until they met one another! What would happen, they thought, if the three of them got together to play ALL the music in a single ensemble? After about a year of musical exploration and rehearsal, they are pretty excited about the results. All that’s missing is the most important part: you, our audience!
Piedmont Blues Acoustic Duo
Country Blues
The Piedmont Blūz Acoustic Duo, comprised of Valerie and Benedict Turner, are ambassadors of Country Blues music, the Piedmont style of fingerpicking, and roots percussion. Their mission is to help bring awareness to these unique aspects of African-American culture and the contributions of early blues artists through performing and teaching.
Studying at New York University and the Fashion Institute of Technology led to successful careers in Information Technology for Valerie and Advertising/Graphic Design for Benedict. Retiring early, they now enjoy exploring the world through music, and this husband-and-wife duo is much loved wherever they go.
They feel that “there are stories to tell, people to remember, and things that must be said” so, in addition to tickling your ears with delightful music, they weave a bit of history into the presentation of each song. Aside from performing, the duo enjoys teaching early blues history and hands-on instrument workshops.
Valerie’s fingerpicking is reminiscent of the intricate stylings of Mississippi John Hurt, Elizabeth Cotten, and Etta Baker. Although the Piedmont style is her main focus, her repertoire also includes pieces from the Delta Blues tradition. Benedict tastefully accompanies Valerie with a washboard style he developed after being inspired by Newman Taylor Baker, a classically trained drummer, and Washboard Chaz of Louisiana fame. Sometimes, he chimes in on bones or harp.
When they’re not busy playing music, you’ll find them out and about on skis or snowboards, or perhaps working on dance moves at a roller disco. And when the weather is just right – you might catch a glimpse of them in colorful skinsuits while cycling or inline speedskating. Keeping up with this dynamic musical duo isn’t easy!
Inducted into the NY Blues Hall of Fame in 2018, these tradition bearers have been featured in numerous festivals including the Newport Folk Festival, Chicago Blues Festival, Tel Aviv Blues Festival, Clearwater Revival, and Brooklyn Folk Festival to name a few. In addition to performing at domestic venues, Piedmont Blūz has traveled as far as Europe and the Middle East to share their music.
Simple Gifts
Our Host Band
Folk College’s host band, Simple Gifts, is two women (Linda Littleton and Karen Hirshon) 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, banjo, recorders, and bowed psaltery. 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.
Rachel Hall
Rachel Hall grew up in a family of folk musicians. She recorded three albums and toured throughout the Mid Atlantic with Simple Gifts. She has travelled to Norway and the Shetland Islands to study traditional dance music on a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship. Rachel plays English concertina, diatonic accordion, and piano. She organizes shape note singing in Philadelphia and is one of the authors of the Shenandoah Harmony. She is an associate professor of mathematics at Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia.
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.
Jay Best
Mark Twain said, “When you want genuine music — music that will come right home to you like a bad quarter, suffuse your system like strychnine whisky, go right through you like Brandreth’s pills, ramify your whole constitution like the measles, and break out on your hide like the pin-feather pimples on a picked goose, — when you want all this, just smash your piano, and invoke the glory-beaming banjo!”
Jay Best has invoked the “glory-beaming banjo” for decades and has explored a wide variety of “genuine music” including old-time, folk, and blues. Jay leads a fiddle-mentoring group at the Confluence Creative Arts Center and performed on and produced the community CD Confluence: Coming Together. He loves playing banjo, guitar, and fiddle with friends and family, but his magnum opus was a recording made with a steel guitar tuned like a banjo and performed with cicadas at twilight.
Richard Sleigh
Richard has been exploring the harmonica from the inside out for over 30 years. He has performed with Taj Mahal, Maria Muldaur, Bo Diddley, Susan Werner, and many others. His studio work includes award winning films, TV, radio, and theatre soundtracks, and other projects. As a soloist, he combines his fluid and highly developed rack playing with soulful vocals, guitar, and intricate solo harp flights. Richard’s music is American roots – ranging from rural and urban blues, fiddle tunes, swing, country, gospel, to early rock and roll. He has three solo releases – “Steppin Out”, The Joliet Sessions”, and his most recent collection titled “Celtic Instrumentals”. You can also follow Richard on his blog.
Steve Buckalew
Steve credits Folk College for starting his musical career! Throughout his life, he also picked up the guitar and mandolin, bringing the same Buckalew magic to those instruments as well.
Stephen has played many types of music in many bands over the years, and that diversity clearly shows up in his music. Stephen grew up on Tussey Mountain, and he still lives practically right beside it. He loves the Central PA area, Steve currently plays in three bands: the Tussey Mountain Moonshiners, Poe Valley Troubadours, and Sweet Gum.
He teaches music lessons on fiddle, mandolin, and guitar.
Cathy Petrissans
Cathy Petrissans sings three-part harmony in the California-based Basque-American NOKA trio. Singing in the endangered Basque language, NOKA has released four albums, has toured internationally, and was interviewed on NPR. In Clarion PA, she adds melodica, harmonium, and bass to Celtic music performed by the four women who make up Keridwyn. Cathy’s musical highlights include singing at the Kennedy Center, the Library of Congress, the National Portrait Gallery, and at the Smithsonian Folk Life Festival. She has performed and recorded with Basque Grammy Award-winning accordionist Kepa Junkera and recently enjoyed adding vocals to a recorded single with Simple Gifts.
Bob Nicholson
Based in Syracuse, NY, Bob Nicholson 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!
Bob is a Folk College tradition, making our annual Saturday night contradance truly special.