The 2008 festival program brings together a tantalizing mix of entertainment under the Main Tent and in the Demo Tent (see line-up below). Read on for more about this year’s great line-up of performers.

You can view last year's 2007 Schedule of Events here. The 2008 schedule will be posted in early September, so please check back soon….
 

2008 LIne-up

View descriptions of individual performers:

Accordion Warrior, Gary Sredzienski
Akwaaba Drum and DanceEnsemble
African Drumming Workshop
Barbershop Quartets of the Granite Statesmen
Blue Hill Brass Quintet
Children's Musical Medley
Chinese Folk Art Workshop
Captain Fiddle, the Strolling Minstrel
Extreme Air Jump Rope Team
Family Sing-Along and Rhythm Workshop
Fiddler Brendan Carey Block
Grupo Fantasia Latin Band
Dick Kaplan’s Excellent Jazz Band
Harpsichord Concert with R.P. Hale
Indian Dancers
Irish Dancers
Juggling with Brett and Jenny
King Ludwig's Bavarian Band
The Reminisants
Stranger Than Fiction
Strolling Minstrel Ryan Thomson
The Thomsons
TWO: High-Energy Juggling
Voices from the Heart
Washboard Minstrel Leif Gerjuoy
Mr. YooWho and the Art of Clowning

friday, september 19, 2008

King Ludwig’s Bavarian Band

This five-member band is led by Ludwig himself, aka Lenny Holmes, a jovial entertainer who has been in the business for 24 years. Four of the band members met back in the late 1970s when they attended the University of Lowell and played at a local ski area on weekends. Before long, the invitations to play other venues were rolling in. Now King Ludwig and his crew play every weekend from July to mid-November, entertaining enthusiastic audiences with waltzes, polkas and other traditional German mountain music. Decked out in Lederhosen shorts, white shirts, suspenders and Alpine mountain hats, the band comes complete with a genuine yodeler, Switzerland native Mike "Fritz" Kaelin.  more

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SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2008

Extreme Air JUMP ROPE DEMO AND WORKSHOP

The Extreme Air Competition Jump Rope Team performs nationally competitive single-rope, pairs, and double-dutch freestyle routines, original long-rope routines, and group choreographed routines, all to high-energy music. The team has brought home gold medals from a number of competitions and has performed at many charitable and community events, thrilling audiences of all ages. Founded in 2003, Extreme Air of New Hampshire is a nonprofit group dedicated to promoting the sport of jump rope by training amateur athletes for national competition and educating the public about the benefits of jump rope as a fun, physically challenging, and rewarding activity for individuals of all ages and abilities.  more

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fiddler Brendan Carey Block

Twenty year-old Brendan Carey Block, the fiddler for The Glengarry Bhoys of Ontario, Canada, began playing fiddle at age ten and has been performing for the past nine years. His festival and concert appearances have consistently led to rave reviews. Brendan has been called one of the finest and most dynamic young fiddlers in the country. (Beware, warned one reviewer, “He plays the paint off the walls!”) Recently he was the only American musician invited to perform at the famed week-long Mountainfilm Festival in Telluride, Colorado. He has also headlined for several years at the North Georgia Celtic Festival in Gainesville, as well as appearing at numerous concerts and events throughout New England, including opening for Natalie MacMaster at the Lebanon Opera House and repeat appearances at the New Hampshire Highland Games.

Brendan's energetic and passionate playing most strongly reflects the Cape Breton tradition from his extensive studies there with the great fiddlers Natalie and Buddy MacMaster, but also incorporates Scottish and Irish fiddle styles. Brendan was the 2000-2001 US National Junior Scottish Fiddle Champion, three time New England Champion, as well as winner of many other New England fiddle contests. He is accompanied by his father, Rich Block, who has been performing and recording folk, Celtic, and jazz on guitar and bass since the early 1970s. Occasionally, Brendan performs with his new band, which includes Mari Black on fiddle, Owen Marshall on guitar, and Matt Phenix on drums.

At home on a small sheep farm in Antrim, New Hampshire, Brendan listens to Cape Breton, Scottish, and Irish music continually, plays for contradances, and performs at a variety of events throughout the east. For four years he studied with Mary Lea (of Bare Necessities and Yankee Ingenuity) from Brattleboro, Vermont, and recently completed an apprenticeship under a grant from the New Hampshire Council on the Arts with Rodney Miller, a National Endowment for the Arts Master Fiddler. Also under apprenticeship grants, Brendan studied Highland pipes for two years with Gordon and Lezlie Webster of the New Hampshire School of Scottish Arts, where he is on the faculty as a fiddle instructor. He also teaches a number of fiddle students through Ted Herbert's Music in Manchester, New Hampshire. In addition to the many hours he devotes to fiddle and pipes each week, Brendan helps maintain and race a team of Siberian Husky sled dogs and is an avid mountain biker, sailor, and certified telemark ski instructor.. more

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INDIAN DANCErs

Neha Parikh is a native of Bombay, India and currently lives in Nashua. She is an accomplished Indian classical dancer, specializing in two styles known as Bharatanatyam and Mohini Attam. The movements of classical Indian dance are often symbolic of ancient mythology and have been handed down carefully through the generations. Hand, feet, and facial gestures are elegant and timed precisely to the complexities of classical Indian music. The costumes, often lavish in color and texture, are an important part of the tradition. Parikh began learning to dance in Bombay when she was six years old. She has a Masters in Fine Arts in Classical Indian Dance and Philosophy from Nalanda University and is active in the Indian Association of NH and has a small dance school based in Nashua. more

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THE THOMSONS

Newmarket’s own father and son duo, Ryan and Brennish Thomson play Celtic, French Canadian, Appalachian, and other ethnic music on instruments including twin fiddles, flute, whistle, rub board, banjo, wooden spoons, jaw harp, and more. more

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ACCORDION WARRIOR: GARY SREDZIENSKI

Better known as the accordion warrior, Gary Sredzienski has had a life-long love affair with the accordion. His professional career began at age 9, when he made his debut traveling around New England performing with a vaudeville act called The Hog Hollow Hooters. He’s been hooked ever since. Owner of more than 50 accordions, Gary demonstrates the diversity of the instrument with a wide variety of styles representing several continents. His solo recordings on his own Bellows Music label have landed him national performances with various cultural organizations. In May of 2000 Gary represented NH in a performance at the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage. In July of 2000 he performed throughout Romania on a tour sponsored by the Smithsonian Folklife Center and the State Department. He is continually involved in recording projects. In addition to performing for choral and dance groups, Gary performs 1960s surf rock, traditional ethnic music, and his accordion compositions with the Portsmouth based group, The Serfs. He was awarded an Arts Fellowship from the NH State Council on the Arts in 1997 and received the Artist Achievement Award by Seacoast Newspapers in 2002. Gary represented New Hampshire at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in 1999 and the Lowell National Folk Festival in 2003. Gary also hosts a 1950's style ethnic radio show, "Polka Party" weekly at WUNH-FM in Durham. more

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IRISH DANCErs

Murray Irish Dance Academy in Stratham, the Seacoast’s only school for Irish step dancing, is home to over 160 students, from beginners to championship level dancers. Murray Irish dancers are skilled at performing a variety of dances, from traditional to more modern choreography exclusive to the academy. Its students have successfully competed at numerous “feisanna” (Gaelic for competitions) throughout New England and have received top awards in a variety of dance and age categories. In addition, Murray dancers attend many local festivals and special events, delighting audiences with a range of team and solo dances performed in both soft, ballet-like shoes called ghillies and “hard” shoes that create a tapping sound.

The academy’s owner and director, Anne Murray MacRitchie, began the dance school in September of 2005 in an effort to bring the fun, fitness and excitement of Irish dancing to the seacoast. Anne started her Irish dancing career in Cleveland, Ohio, at the age of 7 under the direction of well-known and respected Theresa Burke, TCRG, ADCRG. There she was an open champion level dancer with extensive competitive and performance experience, as well as an instructor. While dancing competitively, she earned top five placements, including first, in all regional championships she attended and placed fifth at the national level as well. Anne obtained her teacher’s certification from the Dublin, Ireland-based international Irish Dancing Teacher’s Commission and is currently a member of the Irish Dancing Teachers Association of New England and the Irish Dancing Teachers Association of North America.  more

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MR. YOOWHO AND THE ART OF CLOWNING

Kosovo, Tokyo, Rio, Jerusalem, Barcelona, San Francisco, El Bosque, Katmandu, Brooklyn. Theaters, festivals, concert halls, circus, varieté, schools, coffee houses, cultural centers, parks, town squares, cafeterias, clinics. In more than 1000 performances in more than 30 countries, Moshe Cohen (a.k.a. Mr. YooWho) has developed an approach to humor that crosses all borders. Children laugh. Adults laugh. Even serious people laugh. They laugh a lot. What's so funny? Perhaps, it’s simply his way of doing things, choices he makes, objects he transforms. Maybe it’s the way he dances flamenco with oversized plastic bags. Or the way he plays a sonata with twirling plastic tubes. Maybe it’s his fascination with Japanese kazaguruma (pinwheels) or oversized orange sunflowers. Whatever it is, it’s universal. There are no words. Mr. YooWho’s language is one of expressions and actions, rhythms and emotions.

Mr. YooWho brings an old school, European clown perspective to his performances, steeped in a Yiddish absurdist sense of humor and spiced with a taste of Japanese Kyogen and Butoh dance.  more

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Chinese FOLK ART WORKSHOP

The Chinese Folk Art Workshop is a non-profit organization based in the Boston area. The workshop aims to promote interaction with and understanding of Chinese culture. Its members range in age from 12 to 18, and they perform a variety of traditional Chinese folk arts such as Dragon Dance, Lion Dance, Taiwanese Drums, Chinese yo-yo and Folk Dance. The purpose of the Chinese Folk Art Workshop is to highlight the beauty of Chinese Folk Arts and to help a new generation of American-born Chinese showcase their talents and gifts. The workshop completes its mission by organizing lessons in traditional Chinese arts as well as public performances in the New England area. We conduct more than thirty performances a year. more

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HARPSICHORD CONCERT with R.P. HALE

R. P. Hale is an interdisciplinary artist and musician from a Mexican family noted for its long involvement in the arts. Born in Tucson, Arizona, he is a sixth-generation master calligrapher and illustrator, fifth-generation musician and third-generation wood engraver, printer and gilder. Mr. Hale is a harpsichordist, organist, builder of early keyboard instruments and period-design hammer dulcimers. He also makes and supplies marbleized papers for bookbinders, other artists and of course harpsichords. Hale took his degrees in microbiology and organic chemistry and minored in scientific illustration at the University of Arizona, Tucson, and taught courses there in scientific illustration and technical photography for six years and also worked as a medical illustrator.

He studied harpsichord at the University of Arizona with Dr. James Anthony for several years and then worked with a succession of mentors, including and especially the late Igor Kipnis. Hale built his first harpsichord in 1976. In 1980, he resigned from the university to work as a carriage-smith and harpsichord maker and as a touring concert harpsichordist, finally moving to Concord, NH, in 1982. Hale was recently cited by the Smithsonian Institution as one of this country's premier harpsichord/dulcimer makers and was the sole harpsichord maker featured in an Institute exhibit devoted to American instrument makers. The two dozen early-keyboard instruments he has built are all Zuckermann models originating from the Stonington shop. more

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DANCE PARTY WITH THE REMINISANTS

The Reminisants have been entertaining audiences of all ages throughout New England since 1973. Although primarily categorized as an Oldies act, the band's repertoire features dance music that appeals to a variety of musical tastes across several generations. The Reminisants have performed for just about every type of function imaginable. Their Oldies routines are a favorite at car shows and rallies, and each year they entertain on a weeklong cruise to Bermuda (on Norwegian Cruise Lines). During the summer, the band performs at over 45 concerts and festivals throughout New England. The band also entertains regularly in restaurants, nightclubs, and at the Seashell Stage at Hampton Beach. The Reminisants are also actively involved in raising funds for many local charities.

The Reminisants have performed with many Rock N' Roll legends: Felix Cavaliere with his Rascals, Danny & the Juniors, BJ Thomas, Johnny Rivers, Chubby Checker, Paul Revere & the Raiders, Bill Haley's Comets, Shirley Reeves and the Shirelles, Herb Reed and the Platters, The Belmonts, The Marvellettes, The Tokens, The Contours, Charlie Thomas' Drifters, Norman Wright's Del Vikings, Bobby Lewis, Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels, Poco and country music stars Gretchen Wilson, Josh Turner, and Patty Loveless.

Formed in 1973, the Reminisants are proud of their reputation as one of Boston’s most enduring and popular stage acts. Dom "Rocky" Viscione, vocalist and guitarist, co-founded the band with lead singer and high school best friend Mike "Teen Angel" Joyal. They have nurtured the act over many years to its current five-man compliment. Featured keyboard player "Bobby John" Spitaleri provides creative orchestrations distinctive to the group's sound. Bass player, Mac Hayes is The Reminisants' third solo vocalist and an important ingredient to the band's harmonies. Drummer Peter Veneto provides not only downbeats, tempos and rhythms, but also a refreshing sense of humor and a fifth vocal to the band. more

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sunday, september 21, 2008

Voices from the Heart

Voices from the Heart is a 200-voice women's alternative chorus located in Portsmouth, NH. The chorus sings a rich mix of soulful music from many cultural and musical traditions. Women of all ages and all walks of life attend weekly rehearsals at South Church in downtown Portsmouth. Women come from New Hampshire, Maine, and Massachusetts to sing and to share the joy that comes from making music together. The powerful and eclectic songs range from African-American spirituals to Korean songs for unity, South African anti-apartheid songs to Macedonian love songs. The songs are powerful testaments to the triumph of the human spirit. Sung with the strength of 200 voices, the songs delight and inspire audiences. This year, in a very special follow-up performance celebrating their recent trip to Croatia, Voices from the Heart brings to the festival stage proof of the power of music to carry a message of peace. (A photo presentation of some of the group’s recent goodwill tours to Ireland and Croatia will accompany the performance.) more

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AFRICAN DRUMMING WORKSHOP

See Akwaaba Drum and Dance Ensemble, below.

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FAMILY SING-ALONG AND RHYTHM WORKSHOP

Music teacher Jeanne Russell and friends offer some musical fun for all ages, based on Music Together, an internationally recognized early childhood music program for babies, toddlers, preschoolers, kindergarteners, and the adults who love them. The idea behind the program is simple: All children are musical and all children can learn to sing in tune, keep a beat, and participate with confidence in the music of our culture. Music Together classes build on children’s natural enthusiasm for music and movement. more

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CHILDREN'S Musical Medley

Newmarket’s Elementary School chorus and band perform a selection of American classics.

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AKWAABA DRUM AND DANCE ENSEMBLE

Theophilus Nii Martey of Manchester is originally from Ghana in West Africa. Martey began his drumming and dancing studies in Accra as a child of six. Today he is a master of West African drumming and dance, a heritage that has many subtle variations in rhythmic patterns, dance styles and clothing, all specific to a wide variety of tribal groups from the region. Martey started his drumming and dancing studies in Accra at the age of six, working under master drummers and dancers. As a young man, he journeyed to London and Australia where he studied with other master artists. Since moving to Manchester, he has founded the Akwaaba Drum and Dance Ensemble, which offers weekly classes to people of all ages. Martey has become increasingly active in community settings, giving demonstrations, performances and school workshops. He is part of a network of musicians who love West African music and dance and who sometimes perform together. more

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BLUE HILL BRASS QUINTET

The Blue Hill Brass Quintet has been delighting audiences throughout New England for over twenty years. Whether playing a formal concert or wedding, strolling the grounds of a country fair, or ensuring the success of a special party, a Blue Hill Brass Quintet performance is guaranteed to make you smile! Members of the group, five of Maine’s most prominent and active musicians, perform wherever fine music is heard. Group members have played with the foremost musical ensembles in the state including the Portland Symphony Orchestra, the Bangor Symphony Orchestra, the Al Corey Orchestra, and the Maine Chamber Ensemble. Performances by the Blue Hill Brass Quintet feature music of the past five centuries, but even more importantly, they feature a great time for all. This talented group of versatile musicians makes any event exciting, memorable and most important, FUN! more

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TWO: HIGH-ENERGY JUGGLING

Dubbed “one of the hottest juggling acts in the country,” Jason and Matthew Tardy have created a high-energy performance that captivates audiences everywhere they perform. Their innovative, funny show features everything from high-tech juggling and fire eating to physical comedy and full body contortion—all choreographed to up-beat, original music. TWO has performed at the Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas, the International Juggling Festival and the White House. They have also been featured on CBS Sunday Morning and Inside Edition.   more

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GRUPO FANTASIA

TOriginally from the Dominican Republic, Angel Wagner began his career making music with a cheese grater and a fork. Today he is musical director of Grupo Fantasia and master percussionist, and he plays more than 30 instruments. Angel has studied at the Harbor Arts Academy in New York and at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. His performance career, which began at age eleven when he went on tour with a Merengue band, has included performances with groups such as "Aramis Camilo," Orquestra Café," "Luis Ovalles," and "Manguito."

In 1993, Angel formed Grupo Fantasia with musicians from all over the world. Over the years, Fantasia has performed at the "Calle Ocho" festival in Miami and toured extensively throughout the Northeast. The band provides traditional island entertainment and much of the music is performed on original, handmade, indigenous instruments. The band’s repertoire includes original and cover songs from the Caribbean and Latin America. Also represented: Cuban, Dominican Merengue, Puerto Rican Bomba and Plena, Colombian Cumbia, Mexican Mariachi, Calypso, Reggae and Salsa music.

Angel and Grupo Fantasia have performed for the Tall Ships Boston 2000 and Tall Ships Newport, RI 2007 and for the January 2003 Inauguration Gala of Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney at the World Trade Center. On October 2005, at World Trade Center, he opened up for The Counting Crows and in 1998 at the Tsongas Center in Lowell, he opened up for Marc Anthony. Fantasia has won many awards in Latin categories, including Boston's 1993 Expose Award for Best Spanish Band and the 2003 Boston Music Award Nominee for Best World Class Act. The band also has accumulated several television and film credits.  more

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STROLLING ENTERTAINMENT 2008

Blue Hill Brass Quintet

Fiddler
Brendan Carey Block

Akwaaba Drum
Ensemble

King Ludwig's
Bavarian Band

Extreme Air
Jump Rope Team

Mr. YooWho and
the Art of Clowning

Gary Sredzienski
Accordion Warrior

Indian Dancers

Chinese Folk Art

RP Hale on
Harpsichord

The Reminisants

Leif Gerjuoy
Washboard Minstrel

Murray Irish
Dance Academy

Voices from
the Heart

Ryan Thomson

Stranger Than Fiction