Saturday April
8th, 2006 in Amherst, Massachusetts USA
The Staff
David Cornell
Paul Groff
Wendy Morrison
John Roberts
Bob Snope
David CornellDavid Cornell will be well known to attendees of the annual Northeast Squeeze-In
where he can be found playing the Maccann duet and swapping songs until
early morning. He has been the duet tutor at workshops in England at
Kilve, Swaledale and Concertinas at Witney. Some of his arrangements for duet concertina can be found on Bob Gaskins’ Web site Concertina.com.
Frank Edgley
Frank Edgley has been a performer and teacher of Celtic music for over 40 years.
In the 1970s he became the Pipe Major and musical director of the
Scottish Society of Windsor Pipe Band. Under his direction, the band
won the North American, Inter-Provincial, Canadian, and U.S. Pipe Band
Championships. In the early 1980s, he became interested in Irish
traditional music and began to play the Anglo concertina. Over the
years he has performed with several Trad bands in the Windsor/Detroit
area at festivals in Ontario and Michigan, including Saline,
Celtic Spirit, AACTMAD (Ann Arbor), Windsor, and Goderich. In Ireland,
he performed at the Mrs. Crotty Concertina Festival and was one of the
solo performers at the concertina concert at “Willie Week” in Milltown
Malbay. He has won the Midwest Concertina Championship
three times and has represented North America in the All-Ireland
Competitions three times.
Frank has been one of the staff teachers at the Celtic College in Goderich for nine years and has taught at the Milwaukee Celtic Summer School. He has repaired concertinas for over 25 years and has been manufacturing hand-crafted Anglo concertinas for almost 5 years. He is the author of a concertina tutor, The Anglo Concertina, a Handbook of Tunes and Methods for Traditional Irish Music, as well as a session tune book, Irish Traditional Melodies Book One. Soon to be released are Book Two and a concertina instructional DVD.
Frank has been one of the staff teachers at the Celtic College in Goderich for nine years and has taught at the Milwaukee Celtic Summer School. He has repaired concertinas for over 25 years and has been manufacturing hand-crafted Anglo concertinas for almost 5 years. He is the author of a concertina tutor, The Anglo Concertina, a Handbook of Tunes and Methods for Traditional Irish Music, as well as a session tune book, Irish Traditional Melodies Book One. Soon to be released are Book Two and a concertina instructional DVD.
Paul
Groff has played and taught many musical instruments and in many styles
for most of his life. Paul met the Anglo concertina while living in
Wales and traveling in Ireland twenty years ago. There he had the
opportunity to hear and learn from fine players such as Amanda Lacy,
Micilin Conlon, Tony Crehan, Tommy McCarthy sr, and John Kelly sr. On
returning to the U.S., Paul has tried to keep learning from Irish
musicians based in this country, including Maureen Murtagh, Sabra Daly,
Miliosa Lundy, and Brendan Tonra to name a few. Before his recent move
to Miami (brightened by the new opportunity to gig with the great
fiddler James Kelly), Paul worked regularly as a "session anchor" in
the Boston area and played in festivals around New England and Quebec
with Sarah Blair, Seamus Walker, Kathleen Conneely, Noel Scott, Johnny
O'Leary, and many more.
Paul has taught Irish style concertina at Boston College's Gaelic Roots festival, at the Comhaltas North American convention, the John Boyle O"Reilly club in Springfield MA, in his own shop, and in countless kitchens, parlors, and dives. He has many recording sessions to his credit (though no solo record yet), including with David Byrne (Talking Heads), and his music was featured on a broadcast of the Irish radio program, "Ceili House." Paul is also well-known as an accompanist (mostly guitar, piano, and Hammond organ). For several magical years he was the house "backer" on quiet Tuesday nights at the Burren pub (Somerville), playing with its owners Tommy McCarthy jr. and Louise Costelloe, along with Peter Molloy and other fine musicians visiting from Ireland and elsewhere.
Paul has taught Irish style concertina at Boston College's Gaelic Roots festival, at the Comhaltas North American convention, the John Boyle O"Reilly club in Springfield MA, in his own shop, and in countless kitchens, parlors, and dives. He has many recording sessions to his credit (though no solo record yet), including with David Byrne (Talking Heads), and his music was featured on a broadcast of the Irish radio program, "Ceili House." Paul is also well-known as an accompanist (mostly guitar, piano, and Hammond organ). For several magical years he was the house "backer" on quiet Tuesday nights at the Burren pub (Somerville), playing with its owners Tommy McCarthy jr. and Louise Costelloe, along with Peter Molloy and other fine musicians visiting from Ireland and elsewhere.
Rachel Hall
Originally from Cincinnati, Rachel
Hall grew up in a musical family, with her mother playing hammered
dulcimer and her father on concertina and accordion. Rachel began piano
lessons at age 6 and landed her first paying gig as a teenager in a
contradance band. She started playing English concertina while in
college and has become recognized for her excellent technique and the
unusual styles she plays.
After graduating from Haverford College, Rachel was awarded a Watson
Fellowship to study and collect traditional music in Scandinavia and
the British Isles. As part of that grant, she spent six months in the
Shetland Islands and three months in Norway and visited Ireland and
Scotland. She joined the folk trio Simple Gifts in 1995 and has
recorded three albums with the band: Time and Again (1999), and Crossing Borders (2005).
Wendy Morrison
Native Marylander Wendy Morrison is a longtime mainstay of the
Washington DC area folk music scene. She is known as a solo and band performer,
dance accompanist, studio musician, teacher, workshop leader and is currently a member of the bands Klezmos, Klezcentricity, and Shalshelet. In addition to Irish dance music, which she plays in
"wish-I-could-play-anglo" style, Wendy plays Klezmer, Old-Time,
Contradance, Scandinavian & other assorted European traditions,
Baroque, and her own compositions on English and Anglo concertina as
well as on piano and button accordions, piano, banjo, and tinwhistle.
She is notorious for her ability not only to pick up and recall
tunes by ear, but also to forget all the tune titles.
Wendy is featured on 13 albums of folk and traditional music, and is the author of the book The Pretty Complete Guide to Squeezeboxes, which is currently out of print. Three of her original compositions garnered awards in the 2004 Festival of New Jewish Liturgical Music.
Since 1982, she has worked as the Accordion Specialist at the House of Musical Traditions. She also operates Wendy's Home for Wayward Accordions, where she meddles in squeezebox repairs and barters music lessons for home improvements.
Wendy is featured on 13 albums of folk and traditional music, and is the author of the book The Pretty Complete Guide to Squeezeboxes, which is currently out of print. Three of her original compositions garnered awards in the 2004 Festival of New Jewish Liturgical Music.
Since 1982, she has worked as the Accordion Specialist at the House of Musical Traditions. She also operates Wendy's Home for Wayward Accordions, where she meddles in squeezebox repairs and barters music lessons for home improvements.
Richard Morse
Richard Morse, concertina and melodeon player, Morris musician and dancer (Muddy
River, Newtowne, Wake Robin and Marlboro Morris), free-reed enthusiast
and founder of The Button Box, has been deeply involved in the traditional music and dance scene in
the Northeast since the 1970's. He was responsible for starting the Northeast Squeeze-In festival in 1989, where he continues to lead concertina band and duet concertina workshops. He is the designer of the R. Morse & Co.
line of concertinas produced by The Button Box. Rich plays and is one
of the leading proponents of the relatively new and lesser-known
Hayden duet concertina.
Born in Wales and raised in
Kidderminster, England, John Roberts got involved with the emerging folk music
scene as a teen. When he came to the States in 1969 to
attend graduate school at Cornell University, he met Englishman Tony
Barrand and a 35-year singing partnership began.
Moving to Vermont after college, the two became fast friends with Margaret MacArthur, a great source of Vermont and New England songs, thus adding song treasures from the American and Canadian branches of British folk song to their repertoire.
Since then, John and Tony have performed around the country, at pubs, folk clubs, festivals, coffee houses, maritime museums, and even art museums. John has been on staff at the Augusta Heritage and Country Dance and Song Society music and dance camps. He has also been a member of Nowell Sing We Clear, featuring seasonally-themed performances of song and "mumming" (ritual folk theater). Not content with that, in the past few years he has also been performing in a trio called Ye Mariners All, which performs maritime song, and he has played for Morris dancing and for English country dancing.
John has recorded over a dozen CDs with Tony and the members of Nowell Sing We Clear, as well as appearing on several other recordings including Ye Mariners All. Oh, and he has a "day job" doing music typesetting (especially guitar and banjo tablature) for Mel Bay, Homespun Books and Tapes, and Stefan Grossman's Guitar Workshop.
Moving to Vermont after college, the two became fast friends with Margaret MacArthur, a great source of Vermont and New England songs, thus adding song treasures from the American and Canadian branches of British folk song to their repertoire.
Since then, John and Tony have performed around the country, at pubs, folk clubs, festivals, coffee houses, maritime museums, and even art museums. John has been on staff at the Augusta Heritage and Country Dance and Song Society music and dance camps. He has also been a member of Nowell Sing We Clear, featuring seasonally-themed performances of song and "mumming" (ritual folk theater). Not content with that, in the past few years he has also been performing in a trio called Ye Mariners All, which performs maritime song, and he has played for Morris dancing and for English country dancing.
John has recorded over a dozen CDs with Tony and the members of Nowell Sing We Clear, as well as appearing on several other recordings including Ye Mariners All. Oh, and he has a "day job" doing music typesetting (especially guitar and banjo tablature) for Mel Bay, Homespun Books and Tapes, and Stefan Grossman's Guitar Workshop.
Bob
Snope acquired his first English concertina almost 25 years ago. In the
mid-1980's he played for many contra dances in the Boston/Cape Cod area
with the band Nantucket Sound. During this period, he was also the
musician for the Northwest Clog Morris team Rose Galliard. Since
joining The Button Box, where he oversees the repair and
manufacturing side of the operation, he has performed regularly for
English Country Dances in the Amherst area and has taught concertina
privately and through the town's Leisure Services Department. A
self-taught player, he enjoys working with beginners and has led
workshops in music theory and playing by ear at the Northeast
Squeeze-In and through the Eastern Cooperative Recreation School.