Latest News

Updated Sept 1, 2010

To my Johnson City students and the Toast n' Jammers -

As you may have seen in the Press and Sun Bulletin, the NYPenn Center where I have my teaching studio has been cited
for several code violations, including a broken furnace and malfunctioning sprinkler systems. As we've had no
communication from the landlords, several of the tenants, myself included, met with code enforcement yesterday.

Code Enforcement told us that the landlord has legally stated that they have no intention of repairing the building. As a
result, effective immediatly the public is not allowed inside. All of the tenants on the top two floors are to begin moving
out right away, the bottom floor has until the end of the month.

So where does this leave us for lessons, and Toast n' Jammers? I've been looking at several locations the last few weeks.
Most have been inappropriate or too expensive, but there are a few possibilities. In the meantime, I will be offering
private lessons out of the studio in my home in Owego, 527 Strong Road, just 18 miles from NYPenn. If possible we'll
keep the same lesson times, but please call or email if you need a change in schedule, have other concerns, or if you need directions.

I have a strong lead on a potential new home for the Toast n' Jammers, which I'll know more about in a few days.

I'll keep this"Latest News" section of my website updated as things progress.

Thanks for your patience with this process! I'm very sad to be losing our room!

Hope

Updated August 1, 2010

Adventures I'm looking forward to this month:

Fiddle camp with Liz Carroll, Donna Hebert, and Jane Rothfield. Performing in the Thousand Islands with Tom Hodgson and Rick Manning - twin fiddles and vocal harmonies included! My concert at the New York State Fiddlers' Hall of Fame; twin fiddles and mandolin with Rick, Tom on guitar, Jim on guitar and banjo. And twin fiddles with Kathy Selby at the Syracuse English Country dance.

Can you tell that I enjoy the sound of fiddles in harmony?

Between 1919 and 1934, local industry magnate George F. Johnson donated six Herschel carousels to the townships of our area, with the stipulation that rides for children would always be free. All six of these antique machines, with their exquisite hand-carved horses, are still functioning today.

Generations of families in our area, from great-grandparents to their great-grandchildren,all share happy memories of riding those carousels, myself included. Fewer than 170 antique carousels remain in the entire United States.

The 1923 carousel at C.F.Johnson park (my favorite) recently re-opened after renovation. I had the opportunity to photograph the horses this week before the machine opened to the public. I was in heaven! These are not the "cartoon" fiberglass horses you see on modern carousels. Each horse is a unique, timeless piece of art. Kudos to the civic leaders of our area for protecting our priceless heritage.

For a slideshow with more photos, click HERE.

For local folks:

Old Time Fiddlers' Fair at the Genesee Country Museum in Mumford, N.Y., August 14 - 15th. A wonderful weekend of jamming, open stages and performances, and a chance for fiddlers of all ages and walks of life to mingle and share tunes. Click HERE for more information.

As much as I love my teaching space in Johnson City, there are rumors that little if any progress has been made by the absentee landlords toward fixing the furnace there. Anyone know of a space to rent (or co-rent) in Johnson City or the vicinity for a reasonable price? I'd need a classroom-sized room. Thanks in advance for any tips you might have!

Group Class Update:

Still a few spots left in the Beginning Fiddle Repertoire and Intro to Bluegrass classes, to be held Mondays in August at my studio in Johnson City. Registration deadline is Thursday, July 29th. Click HERE for more information.

Please note: Even if you're not into bluegrass, the Intro to Bluegrass course will cover some universally essential skills such as learning how to back up a singer, and some easy improvisation techniques.

The 10th annual Fiddlin's Fun Festival in Binghamton, N.Y. was a full day of fabulous fiddle tunes and fantastic friends (I'm feeling alliterative today!)

Thanks to all who made the day such a success, and for the Chenango County Council on the Arts for their continued support of the event.

Click HERE for more photos of the day.

For Local Folks:

• The New York State Old Time Fiddlers' Association is holding their annual Fiddler's Picnic the weekend of July 23 - 25 in Osceola, N.Y. Canadian fiddler Ivan Hicks will be featured at the event. Lots of workshops, jamming and open stage opportunities as well. Click HERE for more information.
  
  
• It's not often I perform locally, but this month I actually have three local performances (Owego contradance, Newark Valley, and Hiawatha Island in Apalachin - see schedule). Hope to see you out and about!
  
  
• Really NEAT brand new event in Ithaca next week, Watermusic (I'm hoping to make it there myself):
  
  Musicians, music lovers, paddlers, rowers, sailors, walkers, bikers, skaters and sunset watchers are converging on Ithaca's Cayuga Lake inlet on Thursday evening, July 15 from 7:00 pm to sunset to play and enjoy impromptu acoustic music on the waterfront.
  
  Concept: Musicians, individuals and groups, will gather in various spots along the west and east banks of the Cayuga inlet. Trail benches, overlooks, grassy nooks - anyplace near the water where you can be seen and heard from both the water and the shore.
  
  Paddlers, rowers and boaters: Quietly wander along the shores of the Inlet in your boats to find live acoustic music.If you don't own a boat, consider renting one from Puddledockers or borrowing one from a friend.
  
  Landlubbers:Walk along the Cass Trail or the east shore, look and listen for music, relax, and watch the sunset.
  
  Help spread the word!

Fiddlin's Fun Festival News!

Thanks to Peg Nocciolino for donating a commission for renowned children’s book illustrator Calef Brown to create a design for this year’s festival. Calef Brown has done work for Time Magazine, Newsweek, the New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, as well as for a host of award-winning children’s books. Thank you Peg! We will have a vendor on-site creating t-shirts “on-demand” with the new design.

For more festival info, visit www.fiddlinsfun.org/festival.htm

More festival news

We're celebrating the 10th anniversary of the festival this year with a special tribute to fiddler Larry Downey (1910 - 2001) in whose memory the event was founded. Larry's love of music was an inspiration to musicians young and old.

We're gathering a good group of folks together to honor Larry by playing his tune, "Baltimore Rag", composed in 1940, on the main stage. If you play the fiddle (or the guitar, or any melody instrument) come join us!

Here are some files to help you learn the tune:

MP3 of the tune
PDF of a simpler version of the tune
PDF of the tune (showing all drone notes, etc)

Summer Group Lessons

I'm offering two fun-filled four-week group sessions on Mondays in August. Registration deadline is Thursday, July 29th.

Beginning Fiddle Repertoire: Expand your repertoire of fiddle tunes with this class, targeted at the beginning fiddler. Learn some common old-time, Irish, bluegrass and New England style fiddle tunes while practicing your right and left hand techniques.

Intro to Bluegrass Fiddle: Targeted at fiddlers who feels comfortable playing tunes in first position, this course will use common bluegrass songs to teach the role of the fiddle in a bluegrass setting, the do's and don't of backing up a singer, and how to "take a break" and play fills. We'll touch on a little bit of improvising (it will be fun, I promise!) and learn the standard etiquette of a bluegrass jam.

Click HERE for more information.

Every weekend in June has a fantastic fiddle-related festival in New York State:

Sunday, June 6th at the Ithaca Festival: There will be a fiddle tune jam tent at the festival with rotating styles throughout the day ranging from cajun to contra and Irish to old time. Click HERE for more information.

Saturday, June 12: Fiddlin's Fun Festival, Roberson Museum, 30 Front St. Binghamton, N.Y. Noon to 6:00. Hot concerts, an acoustic open stage, all-day jam tent, fiddle workshops, along the banks of the Chenango river. Click HERE for more information.

Saturday June 18 - Sunday June 19: The Watkins Glen Old Time Fiddler's Gathering, Watkins Glen State Park, Watkins Glen, N.Y. Concerts, jams, workshops in a gorgeous setting. Click HERE for more information.

Friday - Sunday, June 25 - 27. Old Songs Festival, Altamont, N.Y. The hottest folk talent on the planet. Not to be missed! Click HERE for more information.

Updated 5/5/10

We played for a contradance at Hartwick College in April. The dance is set in a building tucked into a grove of hundred year old trees. A glistening lake is just a stone's throw away, and a chorus of spring peepers welcomed us to the evening's festivities. I'd never played for a dance where all of the dancers were 21 and under! The energy spinning around the room was phenomenal. Lots of laughter spilling out and overwhelming enthusiasm for the music and the dances (called by Katy Heine). It was a memorable evening!

Summer is nearly upon us! Before your summer calender fills up, check out these fantastic fiddle camps in New York State. There's nothing that compares to being immersed in tunes and technique for a week among people who share your passion.

Jim and I are planning to attend the one of the camps hosted by the Old Songs organization in Voorheesville, N.Y., and are looking forward to a glorioius week of Irish (Liz Carroll), French Canadian (Donna Hebert), and old time (Jane Rothfield) music.

Here are a few links to camps in New York State:

Old Songs Camps - Organized by renowned fiddler Donna Hebert, these camps are located just outside the Albany area. There are three weeks to choose from: Fiddle and Strings Youth camp, French Music Week, and Fiddling Demystified for Strings week. Fantastic instructors at all three camps! We went to French week last year and had a ball.

Ashokan Fiddle and Dance Camp - Multiple camps in the Catskills with outstanding staff. Pick from Northern Week, Southern Week, or Swing Week, or if your budget allows go to all three!

Catskills Irish Arts Week - Renowned instructors for fiddle, whistle, button accordian, uilleann pipes, and more. You'll think you're on the Emerald Isle.

Mountain Arts Gathering - this is a new camp on the lakeshore campus of Paul Smith's College in the Adirondacks. With Lissa Schneckenburger, Pete Sutherland, and John Kirk on staff (among many others) this looks like a great event!

New York State Old Tyme Fiddlers Assoc. Kids Kamp - A weekend event nestled in the North Country. The featured young fiddlers this year are Autumn Rose Lester and Ruby Williams.

Favorite Fiddle Video of the Month:

The Quebe Sisters performing the 1936 hit "It's a Sin to Tell a Lie".

Updated 4/05/10

This past month was filled with a potpourri of adventures:

- Performing for a formal Civil War era ball, with re-enactors in woolen uniforms and hoop skirts dancing the Virginia Reel in an elegant ballroom.

- Journeying north across the Thousand Islands to Ottawa, Canada, where we played for a charming group of English Country dancers, visited the locks near Parliment Hill, zipped up to Montreal to see the old town illuminated at night, and wound our way back home through the misty peaks and springtime waterfalls of the Adirondack mountains.

- Learning about astronomical wonders at the Fuertes Observatory at Cornell. Built in 1920, the white domed structure crowns a small rise at the north end of the campus, where it glows like a pearl in the moonlight. The original telescope is still in use, and surrounded by its levers and pulleys, polished wooden handles and gyrating time pieces I felt like we'd stepped back in time to the world of Jules Verne.

- I have finally caved in and joined Facebook. It's another new world to explore...

Spring Group Lessons

Beginning Fiddle II will be starting on Monday, April 19th. We'll pick up where Beginning Fiddle I left off, and continue to build your skills and repertoire. Join us for six weeks of fun, low-pressure learning! Registration deadline is Thursday, April 15th. CLICK HERE for more information.

Join us on stage Saturday, June 12th, for the Big Baltimore Rag!

This year the Fiddlin's Fun Festival in Binghamton will feature a special tribute to fiddler Larry Downey, in whose honor the event is held. We'd like to have as many folks as possible on stage playing Larry's tune from 1940, "Baltimore Rag", as part of his tribute.  Here are links to:

MP3 of the tune
Sheet music for the tune
Sheet music for a simpler version of the tune.

Upcoming fiddle events for local folks:

Saturday, April 10: The New York State Old Tyme Fiddlers' Association will hold its annual Spring Fling at the Kellish Hill Farm, 3192 Pompey Center Road, Manlius (just south east of Syracuse). Activities include a workshop on NYS fiddle tunes from 11:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m. with Jackie Hobbs and Dave Ruch, a free afternoon jam from 2:00-5:00 p.m. and an Old Time Round and Square Dance at 7:00 p.m. with an open band. Come to play or listen! For further information, check www.nysotfa.com or call 315-487-8806.

Saturday, April 10: The fantastic Quebecois band Reveillons will be in Ithaca for the Hands Four dance, and is offering workshops as well:

Fiddle with Richard Forest (2:30-4:00)
Step-dancing with Jean-Francois Berthiaume (2:30-4:00)
Quebecois social dance with Jean-Francois Berthiaume (4:30-6:00)
History of Quebecois music (4:30-6:00) with David Berthiaume

The workshops are $15 each, or two for $25. Space is limited. To register, contact Laura Taylor at LBT1@cornell.edu.

Updated 3/4/10

We had a whirlwind trip to Albuquerque, Buena Vista, and Colorado Springs this month, visiting family and friends. One of my favorite pasttimes on trips is taking photos through the windshield of the car. But not while I'm driving....well, ok I must admit, I have done it while driving, but only on rare occasions when the view was spectacular and no other cars were around! Often the photos are just mystifying blurs of color, but sometimes the stars align and a good image is captured. Here's one of my favorites from our latest adventure.

In a relatively rare event, Jim and I will be performing in a local concert at the Roberson Museum and Science Center (in the mansion) on Sunday, March 14, between 1:00 and 4:00 p.m. . I think we're on first. Curt Osgood (hammered dulcimer) and John Wobus (keyboard) will be performing as well, and I'm sure we'll all pick some tunes together before the afternoon is done. The Roberson Mansion is a lovely, historic venue for listening to music.

For my students: I'd love to see your friendly faces in the audience! You may actually get to hear me play without babbling on and on between snippets of music. Well, I may babble just a little...

p.s. Thanks to everyone for the lovely feedback on last month's "Tune of the Month". I heard from fiddlers in Louisiana, Texas, Ohio, Nova Scotia, and more. Your comments are greatly appreciated (especially from those folks who found the chord typos on the last line - I've fixed them now - thanks!)

For local folks, some fun fiddle events happening this month:

1) The PENNY MidWinter Bluegrass Festival, March 6th, 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.. Concerts with local bluegrass bands and lots of jamming. Vestal American Legion, 118 S. Jensen Road Vestal, NY.

2) Bruce Molsky!! Sandwiched between a tour of Norway and a tour of the U.K, Bruce Molsky, one of my all-time favorite fiddle players, will be offering a workshop on March 21st, 3:00 - 5:00 p.m. and concert, 7:00 - 9:30 p.m., at Kellish Farms, 3192 Pompey Center Rd. Manlius, N.Y. Call 315-682-1578 for info.

A quote from Bruce's website for those of you who might not be familiar with his music:

"While most identified with traditional American old-time music, Molsky’s influences range from the Appalachian soul of Tommy Jarrell to Delta blues; from the haunting modal strains of Irish music to the rhythmically nimble music of Eastern Europe."

I'll be playing a dance up in Ottawa and will miss getting to hear Bruce, so if you go to the workshop, say hello and take good notes for me!

Updated 02/06/2010

Save the date!

Our grant request for the 2010 Fiddlin's Fun Festival has been approved. Thanks to the Chenango County Council on the Arts for their continued support of this event.

The festival will be held at the Roberson Museum in Binghamton on Saturday, June 12, 2010, Noon to 6:00, and will feature concerts by the dynamic Jane Rothfield and Allan Carr, the impeccable musicianship of The Contradictions, festival favorites City Fiddle, and many more. This will be the festival's 10th anniversary, and this year's event will include a special tribute to fiddler Larry Downey, in whose memory the festival is held. Join us along the banks of the Chenango River for a delightful fiddling day of jamming, workshops, and concerts!

Coming up in February:

Fiddle workshop with George Wilson! Renowned New England fiddler George Wilson will be presenting a fiddle workshop in the Ithaca area at Mike and Raylene's Ludgate's on Canaan Rd., Sunday February 21st from 12:00-2:00 pm. Cost is $15. To RSVP and for directions email Mike at michael at canaaninstitute dot org.

If you can't make it to the workshop, you can still hear (and dance to!) George's fiddling later that afternoon at the Tioga Trails Cafe on Lake Street in Owego. George will be performing for the contradance at Tioga Trails from 4:00 - 7:00 p.m., accompanied by innovative guitarist Tom Hodgson.

The Owego Free Academy music department is presenting the play "Fiddler on the Roof" the weekend of February 12 - 14. Our own Toast n' Jammer fiddle club member Jesse King will be fiddling in the opening scene. For ticket information, click HERE.

Updated 01/02/10

Happy New Year everyone!

While digging through a closet I came across an old video tape of the CD release concert for the trio "Dragonfly" that I played with in Colorado Springs. The group was composed of myself on fiddle, Suzanna Schulz on cello, and Cathy Davidson on bass. My project this weekend was taking some video clips from the performance and loading them up to YouTube. You can see bits of the show at twoYouTube links:

Click HERE for part 1

Click HERE for part 2

If you're like me, you have a pocketful of resolutions that you're determined (and hopefully eager) to get started on. Getting regular exercise is perennially on my list. If it's on yours too, and you're looking for a creative way to get your heart rate moving, give contradancing a try!

You not only burn calories, it's easy to learn, and you can meet new people while exercising to some hot fiddle tunes. If you've never danced before, here's a YouTube link to show you what it's like.

You can google "contradance" and the name of a city near you to find your new workout spot.

For local folks, my group "Rosie's Ready Mix" will be playing the Binghamton contradance on Saturday, January 9th at the Trinity Memorial Church, Main St., 7:00 - 10:00. Come by and say hello!

It's a snowy, overcast day here in Owego. The bare brown remnents of my perennial garden are poking up through a blanket of snow, and evergreens boughs are dressed up in winter white cloaks. Birds form mixed flocks this time of year, and a group of juncos, chickadees, cardinals, mourning doves, bluejays and titmice are regular visitors at our feeder. There are also pawprints from the neighbor's cat tracking across the lawn, but the birds have been vigilant while they dine and there's a nearby forsythia bush for them to dart into for safety.

Christmas at my sister Faith's in Maryland was a delightful bustle of noise and excitement. We had 19 family members gathered there. Faith loves to cook, and we feasted on beef tenderloin, crab cakes, shrimp, turkey, the creamiest mashed potatoes on the planet, and a heady assortment of pies and cookies. A quick visit to the Smithsonian museums in D.C. on Boxing Day rounded out a lovely holiday.

Winter group classes will be starting up again soon:

Intro to Irish Fiddle will begin Monday, January 25th, 2010 and will run for four weeks. Beginning Fiddle for Adults will begin Monday, February 22nd, and run for six weeks. Watch the happyhollow.com website for more details.