Director

Don Roy is a champion fiddler with depth in many styles of fiddling. His uniquely Maine sound has roots in New England, Quebec, and the Canadian Maritimes.

Don has been a pivotal member of many successful groups including the Maine French Fiddlers and Fiddle-icious, and currently performs internationally with the Don Roy Ensemble.READ MORE

Artist in Residence

Séamus Connolly’s feats on the fiddle were the stuff of legend across Ireland by 1976, the year he immigrated to the United States. It is hard to imagine equaling, let alone outshining, his exceptional musical legacy in Ireland, but Séamus did precisely that in the United States. Whether through private tutelage, classroom instruction, summer school curricula, or music camp workshops, he has steadfastly taught U.S.-born students the techniques and regional styles of Irish traditional fiddling.READ MORE

Bonnie Black is a versatile cellist and pianist and a passionate leader of aspiring musicians of all ages. She has served as artistic director, conductor, and master teacher for many successful programs, including the Harlem School of the Arts, the Harlem Children’s Orchestra, the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras, New England Conservatory, and Boston University. READ MORE

Erica Brown developed an interest in music at an early age. At the age of seven, Erica was competing in fiddle contests with kids twice her age. At age nine, she was traveling throughout New England, Canada, and even Louisiana with the Maine French Fiddlers. Erica also performed as a special guest with Mac McHale And The Old-Time Radio Gang for five years. Currently, she has her own bluegrass band, Erica Brown & The Bluegrass Connection, which performs all over New England. READ MORE

Rob Flax is an award-winning multi-instrumentalist, composer, and educator from Evanston, IL with a playful heart and an open mind. He has performed nationally and internationally with groups of many different styles, including opening for B.B. King and Tower of Power, playing viola and violin with the Trans Siberian Orchestra and YouTube star Jacob Collier, upright bass in an Argentine tango ensemble, mandolin and fiddle in various bluegrass bands, electric violin in several rock bands, collaborations with modern dancers, and more.READ MORE

Eric Weest Johnson, of EWJ Sound Production, discovered the New England contra dance scene in 1979 when he first attended the Maine Country Dance Orchestra’s dance at the Bowdoinham Town Hall. In the mid-1980s, Eric co-founded Scrod Pudding with band mates Greg Anderson, Jim Joseph, and Becky Tracy. After playing guitar and doing sound for Scrod Pudding for many years, friends started asking him to do sound for them. READ MORE

Wendy is an award-winning fiddler, piano player and step dancer from Creignish, Nova Scotia. By age fifteen, she was playing dances all over Cape Breton Island, forming the sound that makes her so recognizable today. With five albums to her credit, she is a favourite with traditional audiences everywhere. Wendy has toured all over the world as a solo performer, and with The Rankins, Mary Jane Lamond, Ashley MacIsaac and Beolach. READ MORE

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, but also with Lisa Ornstein, André Brunet, Yvon Mimeault, and Liette Remon. This music has completely captured her heart and she uses a traditional Québécois repertoire for contra dances, concerts, and other venues. Learning, teaching, and sharing this special music is her greatest joy.

Robert T. Miller has been in business as a restorer of stringed instruments and maker of bows since 1981. Over the last thirty-plus years, Bob has studied with master craftsman and internationally renowned violin restorer Hans Nebel, as well as with the bow-maker William Salchow and violin-maker Charles Smith. He attends annual workshops which focus on specific facets of restoration, most recently visiting New Brunswick to study varnish retouching with violinmakers Oliver Pérot and Paul Weissmeyer.READ MORE

A founding member of the band Beolach, Mac has continued to perform his innovative Cape Breton piano style while touring and recording full time with Natalie MacMaster for nearly the last two decades. He has also appeared live and recorded with The Rankin Family, Yo-Yo Ma, Buddy MacMaster, and The Chieftains, and has recorded on many of the traditional projects produced in Cape Breton in the last twenty years. READ MORE

Bill Olson is a contradance caller and choreographer, a community “barn dance” leader and caller, and a community dance organizer from Maine. Bill has played and called for dances in over 25 states. His dance compositions, known for their high potential energy and excellent flow, are called by contradance callers all over the world.

Bill also plays guitar and acoustic bass in several Maine and New England based bands.READ MORE

Multi-instrumentalist, stepdancer and host of podcast TradCafe, Neil Pearlman is a vital and distinctive voice in contemporary traditional music. Described as “a tremendous pianist” on BBC Radio Scotland and “a force to be reckoned with” by WGBH’s Brian O’Donovan, Neil is recognized in many Celtic music circles for his unique approach to the piano. Rooted in traditional Cape Breton piano styles, he adds jazz harmony and the syncopations of funk, Cuban, and Brazilian dance music to create a unique and infectious sound.READ MORE

One of the hugely influential Rankin Family – legends on the Canadian music scene – she plays fiddle, sings and also step-dances up a storm. Born in Mabou, Nova Scotia, Mairi has been influenced by some of the best Cape Breton traditional musicians and instructors on the island. She has developed her own unique style by being immersed in such a rich musical culture. She has toured nationally and internationally as a solo artist. She has performed with the Rankin Sisters, Unusual Suspects and Bruce Guthro to name but a few. For the past 9 years, Mairi has been part of the internationally renowned celtic group, The Outside Track, and is touring their 5th studio album “Rise Up”  This past year saw a collaboration with cellist Eric Wright from The Fretless titled “The Cabin Sessions.”

Andy Reiner, an award-winning fiddler, composer and educator, began playing at age five with the Reiner Family Band.  He has since developed his own style featuring creative, rhythmic melodies, and thoughtful fusing of world styles.  Earning a BM in Violin Performance from Berklee College of Music in Boston launched Andy into a flurry of touring and teaching around the globe – including Heavy Metal with Devil in the Kitchen, Folk/Hip-Hop with FiddleFoxx, Swedish/Appalachian with Blue Moose and the Unbuttoned Zippers, Electronic/Celtic with Firecloud, and Bluegrass with The Earth Stringband, which toured Southeast Asia on the 2011 American Music Abroad tour for the US Department of State. READ MORE

At the forefront of the Franco American community in Maine, one finds Cindy Roy who has long entertained audiences throughout Maine and beyond. Hailing from roots deep in the Maritimes, Cindy’s musical passion lies with the French Canadian tradition, followed closely by Celtic music. Cindy has been a member of many successful groups including the The Don Roy Trio, Fiddle-icious and the popular Maine French Fiddlers for its duration. READ MORE

Karen St.Clair is an AAMET Certified EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) Practitioner and Usui Reiki Master of Masters including Holy Fire Karuna Reiki. Karen is a leading expert in the growing field of EFT Energy Psychology and Matrix Reimprinting and the founder of Reiki Tap RenewalSM, a unique modality that combines Reiki Master skills with EFT. She is a highly skilled professional with a true gift for facilitating her clients’ healing outcomes, specializing in thorough energy clearing. Karen practices at Touch Point Studio, founded in 2010.READ MORE

Sanford Maine native, Barry Saunders, is a very active musician and educator. Barry has performed extensively throughout the US and abroad with such notable musicians as Stew & TNP, Mike McGinnis +9, Erik Deutsch, Asphalt Orchestra, Portland Symphony Orchestra, Rhode Island Philharmonic, New Hampshire Music Festival, Opera North Festival and the Monadnock Music Festival. Barry has two decades of public school teaching experience and he has taught at Williams, Bates and Bennington Colleges. READ MORE

Calling Maine his home for many years, Matt is no stranger to the performance circuit throughout New England and afar. Having studied and played traditional music for many years, Matt is a multi-instrumentalist and songwriter. His main instruments are guitar, mandolin, bouzouki and clawhammer banjo. Matt can be heard playing with Darlin’ Corey, Erica Brown and the Bluegrass Connection, Josephine County and High Range. READ MORE

Sally K. Sommers Smith is a biomedical scientist who traded the lab bench for the joys of studying and playing traditional music. She has been a Visiting Researcher in Traditional Music at the University of Limerick, and also studied traditional Irish music in Boston at Boston College.  A fiddler in the Irish and Cape Breton traditions, she has published and presented widely on adaptation and evolution in traditional music, particularly in migrant traditions. She is currently at work on a book on traditional music transmission at summer music camps, as well as statistical studies of repertoire change in Cape Breton.

Pam Weeks is a multi-instrumentalist, singer, and contra dance caller from Bowdoin, Maine, who believes in sharing the “joie de vivre” of traditional music and dance with everyone! Pam is fiddler and singer in the Maine-based Cajun dance band, Jimmyjo & the Jumbol’Ayuhs, sings and plays several instruments in the folk trio, T-Acadie, plays fiddle and mountain dulcimer in  the Maine contradance band, Scrod Pudding, and also performs solo or with guitar player and caller Bill Olson.READ MORE

Paul Wells, one of the country’s leading fiddle scholars, has been researching, studying, playing, and presenting fiddle music for more than four decades. He specializes in the social and cultural history of fiddling, and in tune and repertoire studies. The founding director of the Center for Popular Music at Middle Tennessee State University, Wells moved to Maine in 2010 upon his retirement from university life. READ MORE