 Donna
Hébert
(Weeks I, II & III) A Franco-American
fiddler who was mentored in the 1970s by Acadian fiddler
Gerry Robichaud
and Québécois-style
Franco fiddler Louis Beaudoin, Donna Hébert has taught
eight Franco fiddling apprentices through the NEA’s Master-Apprenticeship
in the Folk Arts program. Donna was named a 2008 Massachusetts
Artists’ Fellow in the Folk Arts by the Mass. Cultural
Council, which also named her Creative Teaching Partner in Fiddling
in the
Massachusetts schools. A national ASTA clinician and adjunct
fiddle instructor at Amherst College, Donna works with school
string teachers
in the Northeast to develop a regional model and curriculum integrating
fiddling into school string instruction.
With Groovemama, Donna
directs and coaches The Great Groove Band of young musicians
at both Old Songs and Philadelphia Folk Festivals every year,
as well as directing the program for these four summer weeks
of camp
at Old Songs. Performing with Chaterelle and The Beaudoin Legacy,
Donna fiddles and sings in French. Her workshops focus on incorporating
French rhythms and variations into the repertoire, and on the
music of the family of Louis and Julie Beaudoin. She teaches
a weekly
adult novice fiddle class in Amherst from Sept. – June
and will teach the novice class at Adult Week II and at French
Accent
Week IV. Donna is the publisher of the Fiddling Demystified
series of instructional materials for violin, viola and cello.
Says Darol
Anger in his foreword to her Practical Guide for String Players, “Donna
gets it all right!”
 Liz
Carroll
(Week II)
Since she was 18, when she astounded the Celtic music world
by winning
the Senior All-Ireland Championship, Liz
and her fiddle have been amazing audiences around the globe. Her
recordings and appearances on concert stages, television and radio,
have established Liz as one of traditional music's most sought
after performers. It should be noted that Liz's recordings are
in the majority her own compositions, and they have given her a
stature equal to that
of her playing. When you listen to a Liz CD, you're hearing the
tunes of a composer celebrated for invigorating the traditional
styles of Irish music. Her compositions have entered into the repertoire
of Irish and Celtic performers throughout the world. In 1994, the
National Endowment for the Arts awarded Liz a National Heritage
Fellowship for her great influence on Irish music in America,
as a performer and a composer. First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton
presented the award which bestows national recognition on artists
of international stature.
 Marie-Soleil
Pilette
(Week III)
Choreographer, caller, traditional step and contemporary
dancer, Marie-Soleil Pilette spent years
specializing in
Québec's own traditional stepdance. Having graduated
with a bachelor's in contemporary dance from UQAM, she has
performed with "La Compagnie de Danse ethnique Migration" and
the "Zogma Collective", amongst other dance troupes.
Nowadays, she dances with the Rapetipetam band (led by stepdancer
Pierre Chartrand) and is soloing in various projects and
contexts, as well as her own work, throughout North America
and Europe. Founder of "SANS TEMPS danse" dance
company, she has choreographed "Échos Signés", "Mémoire ", " Chaises " and " Zone
Gigue ", original pieces that integrate Québec
stepdancing and percussive dance to contemporary dance.
Since 2005, Marie-Soleil has also been teaching stepdancing
classes of all levels within her dance company. In high demand,
she has been invited to share her expertise and talents as
a teacher across Canada and the United States (Alasdair Fraser's
Sierra Fiddle camp and Ashokan's Northern Week amongst others).
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 Jane Rothfield
Jane (Weeks I, II) has been teaching
fiddle for over 25 years, at music camps, festivals and in her
home studio in Niskayuna NY. Her method utilizes concepts from
the Suzuki method (she was one of the 1st Suzuki kids!) and
her own approach for e-z and quick learning! Jane easily moves
between Appalachian Old Time, Scottish and Irish music while
maintaining the essence, rhythm and feel of each fiddle style.
She teaches, performs and records solo and with her teaching
partners in five-member string band Groovemama as well as with
her dance band, Jane's Gang and her new concert band, Red Hen.
Her tune "Too Late for the Bacon" won the coveted award
for Best Non-Traditional Tune at the 2006 Clifftop Appalachian
Mountain Music Festival Contest.
 Max
Cohen
Max (Weeks I & II) will teach beginning-advanced
guitar for standard and open tunings, flatpick and fingerstyle. Bring
your own or borrow a guitar! Max covers the basics of playing for
the novice and will also challenge the experienced player with advanced
tunings and chord progressions, theory and arranging, accompaniment
styles and rhythm patterns. An audio engineer and producer, Max will
demonstrate easy digital audio editing, so bring your laptop. A master
of many grooves, Max plays for the daily jam sessions and works with
small groups throughout the week. Max performs and teaches with Groovemama,
singer-songwriter Richard Berman and with folk singer Priscilla Herdman.
 Pascal Gemme
(Week III) Since the completion of his
degree in big-band arrangements and classical and jazz guitar,
Pascal
has been searching
for seldom
heard songs and melodies and interpreting his own compositions
with a unique, unmistakable style. Inspired to take up the fiddle
by the playing of his grandfather, he developed a solid technique
and acquired a wide repertoire through the years. He has played
with and has been inspired by many great Québécois
singers and fiddlers. He gave some master classes in the USA
in recent years and since 2003 has taught fiddle in a folk music
school in Montreal (École des Arts de la Veillée).
Pascal is also a great singer of Quebec folk songs with a rich
and interesting style and repertoire, mostly learned from older
singers. Pascal does most of the arrangements for Genticorum
and was also the arranger/composer for the show Chantier by Zeugma,
a Québécois-Celtic-World dance company. He’s
also working as a producer for different musical projects and
a studio musician for commercial radio and television.
 Daniel
Boucher
(Week III) Franco-American
fiddler who grew up in the French community of Bristol, CT. A builder
by trade, and a prolific tune composer and a master of crooked-metered
tunes. Also a fine singer with a true gift for comic timing, his
funny French songs are bringing down the house at Beaudoin Legacy
concerts.
 Yann
Falquet
(Week III) Yann is a truly 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, etc). His involvement in traditional
French Canadian music brought Yann to perform on numerous recordings,
and to tour throughout Canada, the United States, and Europe.
He also toured for three years with the Edmonton based celtic/world
group The McDades.
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