Click on names to jump to bios, or just scroll down:
Andy Irvine, Martin Hayes, Blayne Chastain, Dain Forsythe, Doug Goodhart, Stanley Greenthal, Will Harmon, Roger Landes, Paddy League, Luke Plumb, Moira Smiley, Chris Smith, Steve Smith
Special Guest Artist Andy Irvine
We’re very pleased to announce that Andy Irvine will be on staff at ZoukFest 2010 at the University of New Mexico at Albuquerque.
Since his early days with Sweeney’s Men in the 1960s to Planxty, Patrick Street, and Mozaik, Andy has been at the forefront of the revival of Irish traditional music. His virtuosity on the mandolin, mandola and bouzouki, as well as his unique approach to arranging, have made him one of the most influential musicians of his generation.
To learn much, much, more , please see this exclusive interview with Andy by Roger Landes!
New Staff
Fiddler Martin Hayes Martin Hayes has been the recipient of major awards: most recently the prestigious Gradam Ceoil, Musician of the Year 2008 from the Irish language television station TG 4; previously Man of the Year from the American Irish Historical Society; Folk Instrumentalist of the Year from BBC Radio; a National Entertainment Award, and six All-Ireland fiddle championships.
A native of County Clare, a region rich in traditional music, Martin has been living in the U.S. for the past twenty-five years. He returns to Ireland frequently to perform and teach. He performs regularly throughout North America, Europe, Australia and Japan with his musical partner, guitarist, Dennis Cahill. Their collaboration continues to reveal the often hidden emotional depth of the music. In addition to Martin’s two solo albums, the three duet recordings of Martin Hayes and Dennis Cahill have been widely praised and cherished by fans throughout the world.
Blayne Chastain discovered traditional Irish music through the band, Siucra. Inspired by their flute and whistle player, Shannon Heaton, Blayne devoted himself to mastering the whistle and later, the flute. This new found passion led him to found WhistleAndDrum.com, an online shop specializing in tin whistles and bodhráns. In 2005 he moved to Ireland to study at the University of Limerick’s Irish World Academy of Music & Dance. There he studied with some of the best Irish flute players in the world and played in loads of sessions. He graduated with honors with a Master of Arts in Traditional Irish Flute Performance.
Blayne currently teaches privately and online at http://blaynechastain.com/i-teach. He also leads a local session at Patrick’s Irish Pub. His love of Irish music deeply influences his “day job” as Music and Arts Director at Saint Patrick Presbyterian Church. Blayne lives with his wife, Deborah, their 3 year old daughter, Erin and 1 year old son, Grady, in the loft of their historic storefront in downtown Greeley, Colorado.
Will Harmon has played Irish traditional fiddle for almost 30 years, an obsession sparked by stumbling onto sessions at John Vesey’s home in Philadelphia in the early 1970s. At that same time–and at only 15 years old–Will also started teaching music at a music store and at Delaware County Community College, starting with bluegrass banjo and guitar and eventually adding mandolin and fiddle. In more recent years, Will has taught at festivals, workshops, and Montana Fiddle Camp. He’s added tenor banjo and Irish flute to the quiver of instruments. Will currently teaches 50 students a week in his studio, plus a weekly Irish music class, and runs a weekly Irish session in Helena, Montana.
Returning Staff from Prior ZoukFests
Dain Forsythe performed and taught bodhrán throughout the Southeast, placing first at the 2006 Southeastern Regional Irish Music Competition in Atlanta and later accompanying flute/whistle player John Skelton (of The House Band) during his evening performance at the Southeastern Pipers’ Club Tionól . After relocating to New Mexico a few years ago, he began teaching bodhrán privately and offering workshops through Apple Mountain Music and the University of New Mexico. In addition to performing throughout the state with Roger Landes, Dain’s experience has been playing traditional Irish music in small ensembles, and it is from this that he has cultivated a keen sensitivity to the rhythmic subtleties of Irish traditional melodies. He also has gained the reputation as a fine teacher who is detailed and comprehensive, as well as humorous. [return to top]
Fiddler Douglas Goodhart has spent 30 years studying and performing Appalachian music of the upper South. In 2000, he began studying the long-bow tradition of West Virginia with Alan Jabbour as well as Dr. Jabbour’s own unique style. He has studied extensively the fiddling of Michoacan, Mexico with Atilano Lopez and Dimas Camilo. He has spent years performing Cajun fiddle in southwest Louisiana with ensembles headed by Donald Fontenot and Ally Young, among others. In addition, Doug has been performing and teaching West African polyrhythmic music for 25 years with legendary performers Abubakari Lunna (Dagomba music), Gideon Foli Alorwoyie and Kwaku Ledzekpo (Ewe music). His pursuit and passion of polyrhythmic traditions has also led him to Afro-Cuban drumming (Agustin Romero Diaz), Flamenco Guitar (Miguel Rodriguez) and Mexican music from Veracruz (Alberto de la Rosa). Doug’s unique and gentle teaching style is known for getting students “up and running.” From 1987 to 1994 Doug was director of Center For World Music, an arts organization dedicated to performance and pedagogy of many world traditions including West Africa, France, Spain, Ireland, the United States, Mexico, Cuba and Brazil. From 1994 to 1997 Doug lived in France learning and performing traditional French music. Over the last few years Doug has added the music of Renaissance vihuela, lute and viola da gamba to his repertory. His latest CD entitled A Box of Fiddle Tunes, which focuses on Appalachian fiddling, was released in 2006. [return to top]
With mastery of guitar and bouzouki, Stanley Greenthal performs a compelling mix of original songs and fresh arrangements of instrumental music from Brittany, Scotland, Ireland and the Balkans. Self-taught on guitar since the age of 14, and later on the bouzouki, he has explored world folk music cultures, traveling widely through England, Scotland and Ireland, where he was profoundly influenced by the traditional players and singers in the rich Celtic musical heritage. His work attracted the interest of Micheal O Domhnaill, who produced and played on Stanley’s first recording, Songs for the Journey (1987), along with Kevin Burke and other seminal players of contemporary Celtic music. Subsequent travels to Brittany and Greece sparked his passion for Breton and Balkan music, which culminated in the production of his most recent album, Melodie, an instrumental collection that stretches musical borders from Scotland, Ireland and Brittany to Greece and the Balkans.
Stanley has released four highly praised recordings, and has been a guest on several other critically acclaimed albums, including releases by Randal Bays and Jamie Laval. He has taught numerous workshops, including ZoukFest, the Festival of American Fiddle Tunes, Lark in the Morning camp, and at Dusty Strings in Seattle. A keen interest in the laouto and lavta (Greek and Turkish lutes) took Stanley to Crete in 2006, where he he studied with composer/multi-instrumentalist Ross Daly and other renowned performers from modal music traditions at the Labyrinth Musical Workshop. Stanley’s current projects include the Seattle-based Breton dance band Sonerion, and a trio with his wife Kip Greenthal and Greek multi-instrumentalist/singer Christos Govetas, performing Stanley’s original songs and a range of music from Greece and the Balkans.
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Celtic Heritage Magazine said of ZoukFest founder and director Roger Landes: “Not only is Landes helping to legitimize the instrument — he is taking it to a whole other level.” Roger took up the bouzouki in 1981 and co-founded the popular Celtic band Scartaglen. His critically acclaimed CD Dragon Reels is the result of his work mastering the intricacies of Irish traditional music. The Janissary Stomp, with folk and roots musician Chipper Thompson, is a ground-breaking collection of mostly original duets for two bouzoukis. In 1998 and 1999, Roger hosted ZoukFest, the first international gatherings devoted to the Celtic bouzouki, in Missouri. He appeared in and contributed to the soundtrack of the 1999 film Ride with the Devil, directed by Ang Lee (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), and has appeared on the National Public Radio shows Mountain Stage and A Prairie Home Companion. In April 2001, his music was featured in a PBS documentary, Last Stand of the Tallgrass Prairie. In October 2002, Roger joined Galician piper and Chieftains alumn Carlos Nuñez in his first US tour, and toured in a trio with Irish fiddle phenom Frankie Gavin (De Dannan) and harmonica virtuoso Rick Epping (Pumpkinhead). In April of 2004 he had the pleasure of accompanying legendary Irish fiddler Tommy Peoples (Bothy Band) for a week of concerts. House to House, a live duo CD with fiddler and guitarist Randal Bays was chosen one of the Top 5 Releases of Irish traditional music by the Irish Times (Dublin) in 2005. [return to top]
The grandchild of Greek and Irish immigrants, Paddy League grew up surrounded by the music of both cultures. By his teenage years, he had become a driving force on the North American acoustic and traditional music scene, contributing bodhrán, percussion, and guitar to recordings and concerts by dozens of artists in a variety of genres. He later immersed himself in the traditional music of Greece, living and studying in Athens and Crete for several years and becoming a highly proficient performer on violin, various lutes (including the old style three-course bouzouki), and tsambouna, the Greek island bagpipe. Paddy has been featured on nearly a hundred recordings, and has collaborated with artists such as Mick Moloney, Susan McKeown, Connie Dover, Sean Keane, Cathie Ryan, Grey Larsen, Seamus Egan and Solas. His current projects include the group Triptych (featuring fiddler Laura Risk and percussive dancer Kieran Jordan), the Boston-based Balkan brass band the Polydaktylos Orchestra, and a duo with Greek violinist Michalis Kappas. Paddy also lectures in Modern Greek Studies and Music at Hellenic College in Brookline, Massachusetts. [return to top]
Luke Plumb emerged onto the Australian music scene in 1998 and was immediately recognized as an exciting new talent. He won the Declan Affley Award that year and became a regular of the festival and session circuit in Australia. His experience as a jazz pianist and orchestral violinist has given him a wide range of musical influences from which he draws to create a very recognizable and inventive style. Equally at home playing melody on the banjo and mandolin or accompaniment on the bouzouki and guitar, his skills as a session musician saw Luke playing with musicians from many genres around the country. While on a tour of Australia, the Scottish group Shooglenifty recruited Luke for a gig in his local state of Tasmania. This chance meeting led to a full tour of Australia and an invitation back the UK to join the band full time. Since then he has toured the world, playing and teaching with Shooglenifty.
A keen composer — his tunes make up most of the latest Shooglenifty album — he also worked on several classical string quartet pieces that premiered in 2006. [return to top]
Composer-vocalist Moira Smiley travels the world as a soloist in Early and Traditional music and creates new work with dance, theatre and film. Moira was born in Vermont, moved to Indiana to pursue a piano performance degree at Indiana University School of Music, and finished with a degree in Early Music Vocal Performance, having studied voice with Thomas Binkley, Paul Elliott, Paul Hillier and Alan Bennett. While at IU, Moira toured with her vocal quartet, VIDA, singing a cappella folk song from Eastern Europe and various other vibrant harmony traditions, recorded three CDs of traditional and original songs, and performed in concerts throughout the U.S., Canada and Europe.
Moira moved to California to sing with KITKA Eastern European Vocal Ensemble, with whom she recently premiered the new folk-opera “Rusalka: Between the Worlds.” She continues to study Irish Sean Nós (old-style) singing and Appalachian ballad and dance-song. She recorded a solo CD, Rua, of Irish, Appalachian and her own songs (rua means “red” in Gaelic). With VOCO, her fiery roots vocal-band, Moira fuses a new sound with voices, banjo, cello and percussion that is rooted in traditional song.
Moira taught a semester at University of Birmingham (UK), toured and recorded with the acclaimed Theatre of Voices, Fretwork Consort of Viols, The Dufay Collective, Sinfonye and The Concord Ensemble. In 2001 and 2002, she won Barbara Thornton Memorial Scholarship for Medieval Music, given by the Sequentia Ensemble, and recorded Disc three of the Complete Hildegard Works with Sinfonye (Celestial Harmonies). [return to top]
Christopher J. Smith is Associate Professor and Chair of Musicology & Ethnomusicology, and director of the Vernacular Music Center and of the TTU Celtic Ensemble, at the Texas Tech University School of Music. He has taught at the University of Massachusetts at Boston and Indiana University, in addition to Texas Tech, as well as leading roving field-trips for students in the West of Ireland. His research interests are in American and African-American music, 20th century music, Irish traditional music and other folk musics and cultures, improvisation, music and politics, performance practice, and historical performance. He has published widely on many topics in jazz, classical, and world musics. He records and tours internationally with Altramar medieval music ensemble and the Irish band Johnny Faa, and has lectured or performed at hundreds of colloquia, concerts, workshops, and pub sessions across the North America and in Europe. His current book project, for Illinois University Press, is an examination of Afro-Celtic musical exchange before the American Civil War. He is also a published poet. [return to top]
Steve Smith has been performing mandolin, guitar, mandola and vocals for over twenty-five years in about as many types of musical situations as one can imagine. From hard driving traditional Bluegrass, his first love, to New Acoustic, Celtic and Jazz ensembles along with Old-Time and chamber music. His solo shows incorporate original vocal and instrumental works and include unique arrangements of traditional and modern tunes from delicate fingerstyle to hard driving rhythms.
In addition to a regular touring schedule, Smith maintains a busy teaching and workshop schedule including his seventh year as mandolin instructor at Camp Bluegrass and the Puget Sound Guitar Workshop along with a broad pallet of recording sessions on mandolin, mandola and guitar. [return to top]
