Mary Cay Brass began her involvement with traditional music at the age of nine and hasn’t looked back. With a degree in ethnomusicology, Mary Cay won a Fullbright Scholarship to the former Yugoslavia, and for two years studied the language and cultures throughout the former Yugoslavia and conducted fieldwork in the singing traditions of the region. Mary Cay is an accomplished piano and accordion player for contra and other dance, and has, for 30 years, lead Village Harmony camps for teens and adults. The experience with Village Harmony led Mary Cay to form a local community choir, The River Singers, in Saxtons River, VT and later, Greenfield Harmony, in Greenfield, MA. Both groups are rollicking intergenerational choruses of about 70- 90 singers, that explore the vocal music cultures of many community-based world traditions – from the Balkans, the Republic of Georgia, Africa, the British Isles, France, and American folk traditions such as shape note, Appalachian and African-American gospel.