Click on names to jump to bios, or just scroll down:

Randal Bays, Mason Brown, Dave Cory, Polly Tapia Ferber, Kaila Flexer, Eliot Grasso, Doug Goodhart, Stanley Greenthal, Roger Landes, Angela Mariani, Steve Paxton, Luke Plumb, Don Richmond, Moira Smiley, Chris Smith, Steve Smith, Chipper Thompson

Special Guest Artist!

We’re very pleased to announce that Andy Irvine will be on staff at ZoukFest 2008 next June at the College of Santa Fe, New Mexico.

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.

JUST POSTED: Be sure to read the exclusive interview with Andy by Roger Landes!

New Staff

Mason Brown has played guitar since the age of five in many styles, and also sings, plays clawhammer banjo, upright bass and various viols. He has studied at Naropa Institute and has performed all over the U.S. and in Japan. He currently resides in Weston, MO.

New to ZoukFest from Oakland, California, Dave Cory has been playing folk/traditional music of many kinds on guitar, tenor banjo, bodhran, and bouzouki from the age of 16. After learning about his Irish heritage, he began learning Irish music from the many great players in and around San Francisco. Since then, he has lived and/or toured in Ireland, Japan, and Canada, and the States.

In 2000, a recurring group of Irish session players in and around Boston formed The Magic Square. Dave has helped produce 2 albums with The Square, both of which have gotten excellent reviews, and an independent following in the States and Ireland. In 2006, Dave and Eliot Grasso released /North by Northwest,/ an album of Irish Tunes on pipes and tenor banjo.

He is also a member of the Portland, Oregon based group Bridgetown, with Johnny Connolly (button accordion/melodion), and Cary Novotny (guitar/vocals). They have been playing all around the Northwest regularly, and occasionally enlist the talents of Joe Trump (percussion), Eddie Parente (fiddle), and/or Hanz Araki (flute, vocals). A competent sideman, he regularly supports artists and bands such as Dale Russ, Tom Creegan, The McKassons, Lissa Schneckenburger, Glen Road, Hanz Araki, and Huck Notari, and has taught at camps throughout the U.S., including The Friday Harbor Irish Music Camp and Lark In The Morning. He regularly spends time in Ireland, and is currently planning a solo album. [return to top]

Baltimore native and Oregon resident Eliot Grasso hails from a long line of familial musicians. He began playing Irish traditional music on the flute at age seven, tin whistle at age eight, and uilleann pipes at age eleven, his earliest exposure including the music of The Chieftains and The Bothy Band. In January of 1995, Eliot began studying rudimentary piping technique with Paul Levin and later that year, began studying advanced piping technique with Na Píobairí Uilleann instructor, Kieran O’Hare. Since 1996, Eliot has won regional and international first, second, and third place titles at the Mid-Atlantic Fleadh Cheoil and Ireland’s International Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann in the uilleann pipes and tin whistle divisions.

Eliot has made appearances at the Kennedy Center with Liz Carroll, Constitution Hall with Ethnomusicologist Dr. Mick Moloney, the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall with The Chieftains, the Library of Congress with Cherish the Ladies, the National Building Museum, the National Geographic Concert Hall, and the home of the Irish Ambassador. In addition, Eliot has performed for the National Heritage Awards, Island, the Washington Cathedral Art Symposium, The American Ireland Fund, the US-Ireland Business Summit, and has entertained President and Mrs. Clinton at the National Endowment for the Arts Awards. At the conclusion of the 1998 Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann, Eliot performed alongside other All-Ireland champions in a concert for Irish President Mary Robinson. [return to top]

Steven Paxton is Associate Professor of Music and Director of the Contemporary Music Program. He previously served at Texas Tech University, where he taught composition, electronic music, and music theory, and directed the New Music Ensemble and the Studio for Experimental and Electronic Music. Paxton is active in collaborative inter-disciplinary projects, and has worked with dramatists, stage directors, choreographers, and visual artists to create unique interarts projects that have been seen and heard around the world. His opera Bellini’s War was premiered at Texas Tech in 2002. Steve holds BM and MM degrees in composition from the University of North Texas, and the PhD in Fine Arts from Texas Tech University. [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]

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]

Randal Bays Returns!

“Bays is the genuine article,” says The Rough Guide to Irish Music. Among the many Americans who play Irish fiddle, Randal Bays is one of the few to find serious acceptance and respect for his music in Ireland. His 2005 release, House to House (with Roger Landes) was selected by the Irish Times as one of the top five traditional recordings of the year, and the Cork Examiner called him “a rare beast, a master of both the fiddle and the guitar.”

Bays has performed all over the U.S., Europe and Canada, including appearances at major festivals such as the Gaelic Roots Festival in Boston, the San Francisco Celtic Music and Arts Festival, the Festival Des Musiques-Vivantes in France, the Willie Clancy Summer School and Festival in Ireland, Catskills Irish Arts Week in New York, the Swannanoa Gathering in Asheville, North Carolina, Augusta Heritage Week in Elkins, West Virginia, the Friday Harbor Irish Music Camp, the Alaska Irish Music Festival, California’s Sebastopol Festival and many more. Randal has recorded or performed with many great musicians, including James Kelly, John Williams, Daithi Sproule, James Keane, Martin Hayes, and Tony McManus. [return to top]

Returning 2007 Staff

Percussionist Polly Tapia Ferber is a music educator, performer, and recording artist who specializes in hand percussion from the Middle East, Turkey, North Africa, the Balkans, and Spanish Andalucia. She is noted for her melodic style of playing on darabukah (middle-eastern goblet drum), frame drum, riqq (middle-eastern tambourine), and cajon (Spanish wooden box-drum).She has traveled to Egypt, Greece, Spain, Morocco, and Israel, seeking out the finest teachers and performing with some of the world’s most renowned musicians. In 2003 she toured southern Spain with the middle-eastern/jazz fusion trio TRANSITION. She was voted Santa Fe’s Best Local Musician by the Santa Fe Reporter in 1997.Polly maintains an active performing and teaching schedule in the United States. For the past twenty years she has been a regular instructor at the East European Folklife Center’s annual east coast and west coast Balkan camps, and at the Middle Eastern Music and Dance Camp in Mendocino, California. She is currently a member of several New York-based bands and ensembles, including Orkestra Keyif, Merak, Eros Taksimi and Transition. She is on the faculty at the College of Santa Fe in the Contemporary Music Program where she teaches percussion, is developing classes in World Music and Women in Music, and also directs the MidEast/Balkan Ensemble.Her extensive list of recordings includes Near East Far West,Tulku 2, Inlakesh, ShamanSong, Dezeo, Buddah Bar, and Anoush. [return to top]

Kaila Flexer is a violinist, composer, producer and Artistic Director of Worldview Cultural Performances, an Oakland-based non-profit arts organization. She is best-known locally for having founded and produced Klezmer Mania!, a much-loved annual Bay Area Jewish music event for over 10 years (1989-2002). She has been at the helm of bands such as Third Ear, Next Village, The Klezmer Maniax and Kaila Flexer’s Fieldharmonik, ensembles that feature Flexer’s original material. As a composer, her work reflects her deep respect for folk music, while showcasing her ability to forge new and expansive musical landscapes. She has performed both nationally internationally with her own ensembles as well as with groups including The Hollis Taylor-Kaila Flexer Duo , The Flexer-Marshall Duo, Club Foot Orchestra, The Composer’s Cafeteria, The Bay Area Jazz Composer’s Orchestra and KITKA (Bulgarian Women’s Vocal Ensemble). She has recorded two CD’s of original music for Compass Records (Nashville) to critical acclaim. Flexer, along with collaborating organization The Crowden School, were recipients of a 2005-2006 Creative Work Fund grant. Her current project is Teslim, a duo that performs Turkish and Greek folk music as well as original music by Hegedus and Flexer. In addition to performing, Flexer loves teaching both violin and composition and has a thriving studio in Oakland, where she lives with her eight-year-old daughter. [return to top]

Doug Goodhart 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” with polyrhythmic music.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.As a fiddler Doug 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.

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]

Of Stanley Greenthal, Rock ‘N’ Reel writes: “A gifted instrumentalist and writer with a sharp eye for detail and poetic flair, Stanley Greenthal stands among the finest neo-Celtic talents.” With mastery of guitar, bouzouki and tenor guitar, Stanley 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, travelling widely through England, Scotland and Ireland, where he was profoundly influenced by the traditional players and singers in the rich Celtic musical heritage. 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. Melodie features ZoukFest founder and director Roger Landes and longtime ZoukFest staffer Paddy League.

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 in a variety of settings, including ZoukFest, the Festival of American Fiddle Tunes, Lark in the Morning camp, and at Dusty Strings in Seattle. A recent interest in the laouto and lavta (Greek and Turkish lutes) took Stanley to Crete this past August. He attended the Labyrinth Musical Workshop, studying with renowned composer/multi-instrumentalist Ross Daly and other world class instructors and performers from modal music traditions. [return to top]

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]

Angela Mariani is a specialist in the performance practice of medieval music, whose career has included experience in rock, folk and traditional styles. While at Indiana University, Angela Mariani studied medieval music performance practice with the groundbreaking early music scholar and performer Thomas Binkley; she has also studied medieval music with Benjamin Bagby and Barbara Thornton of Sequentia. She writes, produces, and hosts the nationally-syndicated public radio program Harmonia, and has appeared on National Public Radio and Deutsche Welle Radio. Angela Mariani records and tours internationally with Altramar medieval music ensemble (7 CDs to date on the Dorian Group label), and is also a member of the traditional Irish music group Last Night’s Fun. She is currently an Assistant Professor at Texas Tech University, where she directs the Collegium Musicum and teaches courses in Music History and the History of Rock and Roll. [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]

Don Richmond has been a professional performing musician for more than thirty-five years. He regularly performs and records on more than a dozen instruments including electric and acoustic guitars, mandolin, violin, viola, dobro, pedal steel guitar, banjo, harmonica, accordion, trumpet and percussion. He has released five solo CDs, four other albums with the Colorado band Tumbleweed earlier in his career, three with the Taos based group Hired Hands, and a new release in 2004 with the New Mexico based group The Rifters. Don owns and operates Howlin’ Dog Records, which has recorded and released numerous other recordings by many local, regional, and national artists. Don has also been an Artist-In-Residence and Aesthetic Institute instructor in Colorado Council of the Arts’ Art in Education program. Don created and recorded the music for the public television documentary Roy Bedichek’s Vanishing Frontier, the independent short film Hexama, Hexama, as well as the highly acclaimed civil-rights documentary film We Did It All Ourselves. Don is currently celebrating the release of his fifth solo CD, No Man’s Land. In late 2004, Don published a book on performance psychology and creativity entitled Getting Your Music Past the Fear. [return to top]

Chris Smith is Professor of Musicology/Ethnomusicology Texas Tech University, and he has taught at Indiana University, U. Mass. Boston, and University College Cork in addition to TTU. His research interests are in American and African-American Music, Irish traditional music and other folk musics and cultures, improvisation, music and politics, performance practice, and historical performance. His “Celtic Backup for All Instrumentalists” is the standard text for those wishing to understand the theory and practice of improvised accompaniment in Celtic musics. His most recent publication, “Reclaiming the Commons, One Tune at a Time,” an analysis of his 15 years leading Irish slow sessions, was the featured cover article in New Hibernia Review (Winter 2007). Chris leads roving field-trips for students in the West of Ireland every spring, and his Vernacular Music Center grants an annual scholarship in traditional music at Texas Tech. In addition, he records and tours internationally with Altramar medieval music ensemble, leads the Irish traditional band Last Night’s Fun, and directs the Texas Tech University Celtic Ensemble. His 2005 CD of Irish traditional music, “Coyotebanjo,” with Randal Bays and Roger Landes), was the winner of Global Rhythm magazine’s May 2006 Song Contest; his latest disc with Last Night’s Fun is “Johnny Faa.” He directs the TTU Celtic Ensemble and the annual Caprock Celtic Christmas, produces the Internet radio program The Celtic Shores. As an instrumentalist, he concertizes on Irish bouzouki, tenor banjo, button accordion, mandolin, slide guitar, saz, lute, gittern, Turkish lavta, and percussion. [return to top]

Singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Chipper Thompson grew up in the heart of the Tennessee Valley, a microcosm of the Old South with both cotton fields and Appalachian foothills. It was in this rich and diverse setting that Chipper was grounded in the musical traditions of his Scots-Irish ancestors as well as regional Black blues music… not coincidentally the very foundations of rock-n-roll. Chipper’s unorthodox bottleneck slide bouzouki playing created quite a stir at the first ZoukFest in 1998. He has since become known for his lyrically adept songs that draw from a variety of folkloric traditions. His first CD, Strange Lullabies, was released in 1997. His debut recording with Mason Brown, Am I Born to Die, was reissued by Dorian Group in 2001. The Janissary Stomp, a recording with Roger Landes of mostly original music for two bouzoukis, followed in 2002. Chipper’s latest solo recording is Penny Dreadfuls. [return to top]