 Donna
Hébert
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!”
 George
Wilson
George (Weeks I & II) teaches intermediate
to advanced fiddling, banjo, string bass, harmony and “Bowing
707”, as well as Cape Breton fidding. Also a skilled luthier,
he can adjust fiddles to maximize their sound. A mainstay of the
Northeast’s fiddling community, George plays for dances with
many people and performs with Groovemama, The Beaudoin Project,
in Fennig’s All-Stars with hammered dulcimer legend Bill
Spence and in the Whippersnappers with Peter Davis and Frank Orsini.
George also plays for school dance programs with caller Paul Rosenberg.
With Beaudoin family members, fiddler Donna Hébert and the
Vermont Folklife Center, George co-directs The Beaudoin Project,
documenting, preserving and presenting the music of Vermont fiddler
Louis Beaudoin and his family.
 Marie-Soleil
Pilette
(Week IV)
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).
 Yann Falquet
(Week IV) 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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 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 (all three weeks) 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.
 Renata
Bratt
(Week III) As a
member of the ASTA Alternative String Styles Advisory Committee,
cellist
Renata Bratt (www.renatabratt.com)
is helping to revitalize and reinvent string teaching at every level.
In addition to working from Donna’s
Fiddling Demystified for Strings book and Renata’s own Mel
Bay and Alfred publications, Renata demonstrates adding rhythm and
chords to a melody and finding and playing counter and rhythm lines
under a tune. Teachers will work with her to develop lesson plans
using fiddling, swing and jazz rhythms to create a fertile learning
environment in the classroom that also meets the National Standards
for Music Educators.
In addition to publishing
orchestra music with Alfred, Renata is the author of “The Modern
Cello Method,” "The
Fiddling Cellist" and “Celtic Grooves for Two Cellists” for
Mel Bay Publications. Her CDs, “Great Big Taters” and “Jazz
Trio 2006” are available through CD Baby. Renata received
her Ph.D. in Music from the University of California at San Diego.
 Pascal Gemme
(Week IV) 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.
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