First meeting in Scotland, Jocelyn Pettit and Ellen Gira joined their musical forces. Fusing together traditional and contemporary influences, they create powerfully uplifting and soulful music. Their instruments weave a dynamic, rhythmically driving and textured sound, with nuanced fiddle-cello interplay through delicate and fortissimo arrangements. They bring life and fire into their own original melodies, and high-energy tunes from Scotland, Ireland, North America, and Scandinavia – with Canadian stepdancing, to boot. Jocelyn and Ellen are keen to perform, and have been gracing stages and captivating audiences in both North America and the UK.
Performance highlights include: Celtic Connections Festival, Northern Streams Festival, Niel Gow Festival, Edinburgh Castle, Blair Castle, a Royal Visit performance for HRH Prince Charles, and live broadcasts on BBC Radio 3.
Dirk Powell is a musician with deep roots in several rural American traditions. He learned banjo and fiddle from his Kentucky grandfather, James Clarence Hay, and has been a part of the thriving Cajun/Creole music community in Louisiana since his early 20s. He has toured and recorded with musicians such as Eric Clapton, Joan Baez, Buddy Miller, Jack White, Loretta Lynn, and Levon Helm, while his contribution to film has found him collaborating with directors like Anthony Minghella (“Cold Mountain”), Ang Lee (“Ride with the Devil”), and Spike Lee (“Bamboozled”). His solo records, which often combine a traditional foundation with a wide-ranging commitment to emotion and original expression, have had impact around the globe. He is also in demand as a producer and owns his own studio on the banks of Bayou Teche near Breaux Bridge, Louisiana.
With its unique mix of driving cello, 12-string guitar, and a hell of a lot of foot percussion, Calico brings a fiery twist to the fiddle music of Québec and New England. Whether they’re playing archival crooked tunes or new compositions, Casey Murray, Jesse Ball, and Eric Boodman create a joyous sound all their own. They’re bound to make you want to get up and dance!
Effervescent and engaging, Boston-based fiddler Hanneke Cassel is a performer, teacher and composer whose career spans over two decades. Her style fuses influences from the Isle of Skye and Cape Breton Island with Americana grooves and musical innovations, creating a cutting-edge acoustic sound that retains the integrity and spirit of the Scottish tradition. Hanneke’s music is a blend of the contemporary and traditional, described by the Boston Globe as “exuberant and rhythmic, somehow wild and innocent, delivered with captivating melodic clarity and an irresistible playfulness.”
Newfoundland-born guitarist Keith Murphy began absorbing his native musical languages – folksongs, ballads and dance music – from an early age. A proficient multi-instrumentalist, he has long applied considerable energy to the rhythmic side of music, becoming a valued band member and highly sought-after sideman on guitar, mandolin and foot percussion.
Comprised of Lindsay Straw (guitar, bouzouki, vocals), Dan Accardi (accordion, concertina, fiddle), Armand Aromin (fiddle, English concertina, vocals) and Ben Gagliardi (concertina, harmonica, vocals), The Ivy Leaf sings rich, powerful songs and plays bouncy, danceable tunes, highlighting the best of traditional music from Ireland, England, Scotland, and America.
First formed to explore the interconnected streams of folk music that cross the northern Atlantic, the band interprets a thorough and diverse repertoire – often culled from print collections and field recordings of the 19th and early 20th centuries – through a lens of ringing voices, lyrical strings, and punchy free reeds.
Louise is an artist and musician who grew up in Orkney, a group of islands in the north of Scotland. She graduated from the Glasgow School of Art in 2011 with an honours degree in Visual Communications, specialising in photography.
Growing up on a farm, she has always been inspired and influenced by the landscape and nature around her and feels privileged to be able to use her creativity and love for art and music to make her living. Louise shoots mainly on 35mm film using an Olympus OM2 once belonging to her father. She uses natural light to capture images which are honest and organic.
As a fiddle player, Louise enjoys a wide variety of music, but mostly plays and writes folk and traditional Scottish music. After being awarded a place and a scholarship to study at Berklee College of Music, Louise traveled to Boston in September 2015 to take some time to explore other genres of music.
Between her studies, Louise has been concentrating on her project ‘Out of My Own Light’ exploring her family ties to Canada and her own connection to her late Grandmother, Margaret Sarah Tait.
The Fretless has toured and recorded together since 2012, winning multiple Canadian Folk Music Awards, Western Canadian Awards, and most recently, a JUNO Award for Instrumental Album of the Year.
The Fretless is a new approach to folk music that is quickly gaining high acclaim around the world. This unique band is taking string music to fascinating places as it transforms fiddle tunes and folk melodies into intricate, beautiful, high-energy arrangements.
Called “One of the brightest fiddlers around today” by WGBH radio host Brian O’Donovan, multistyle violinist and champion fiddler MARI BLACK has been delighting audiences across the country and around the world with her energetic playing, sparkling stage presence, and dazzlingly virtuosic fiddling.
Raised on a rich blend of traditional musical styles, Mari made her entrance onto the international stage when she became Scotland’s Glenfiddich Fiddle Champion, 2-time U.S. National Scottish Fiddle Champion, and 2-time Canadian Maritime Fiddle champion, all within a three-year period. Ever since then, she has been spreading her love for dance-based music, performing as a featured artist at Celtic festivals, celebrated folk venues, world music concert series, and acclaimed classical concert venues including Carnegie Hall. Mari has appeared with such diverse artists as Irish fiddle champion Liz Carroll, Americana master Mark O’Connor, and jazzman Willie Ruff. Her music has been heard on the BBC Radio Scotland’s “Take the Floor”, Fox and CBS morning news, NPR’s “Here and Now,” WFMT Chicago’s “Folk Stage”, WGBH Boston’s “A Celtic Sojourn”, and on dozens of other music radio shows across the country.
Mari’s passion for diverse traditional musics extends far beyond the concert stage, as reflected in her work as a teacher, performance coach, dancer, competition judge, and musical ambassador dedicated to connecting people through music. Known as a master teacher with a playful and unconventional approach to helping students expand their horizons, Mari has taught workshops at the Acadia Trad School, the Swannanoa Gathering, the Jink & Diddle School of Scottish Fiddling, the Mark O’Connor fiddle camp, the Tanglewood Festival, the Yale School of Music, and more. Currently touring nationally with her trio and a new duo with world accordion champion Cory Pesaturo.
Grammy nominated artist Bobby Britt was born and raised in Chapel Hill NC, and started playing fiddle at age five. In high school, Bobby became fascinated with all styles of music, from Miles Davis, to Wu-Tang to the Grateful Dead. At 18, he moved to Colorado to join Rounder Recording Artists and internationally acclaimed bluegrass band Open Road. Later, he joined Asheville based Town Mountain, and has been touring with them ever since.
He also tours with members of Della Mae, Joe K. Walsh, and David Grisman Quintet veteran Grant Gordy. He was also winner of the IBMA Momentum Performer of the Year. While Bobby’s role for most of his musical life has been about supporting the musical vision of artists that he loves, he recently completed his first solo album with Andrew Marlin and Emily Frantz of Mandolin Orange, as well as Josh Oliver and Allison de Groot. This marks an exciting new era of composing, performing and recording exclusively as Bobby Britt.
The Band of Friends is a Boston based group of musicians that have been creating music together ever since they started studying at the Berklee College of Music and the New England Conservatory. The band features original music rooted in bluegrass and fiddle traditions as well as drawing from inspirations from around the world. Whether they are celebrating a melody or soaring high on improvisational creations, The Band of Friends offers a fresh new perspective on string band music.
Built on longtime friendship and frequent collaboration, the Band of Friends is comprised of Sam Leslie on guitar, Ethan Setiawan on mandolin, Dan Klingsberg on bass, and Julian Pinelli on fiddle.
