Mickey Nelligan is a multi-instrumentalist based in New Orleans, where he can be found playing regularly around the city with his band the Sister Street Aces. Originally from Atlanta, he grew up learning traditional music from his family, and was steeped in the stringband music of the South and the fiddle music of Ireland. Best known for his greasy Georgia-style fiddle playing, he also can be heard playing the button accordion, banjo, guitar, and more,
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Maggie Shar
Born and raised in Winston-Salem, North Carolina and now living in western Massachusetts, Maggie teaches private and group banjo classes to people of all ages from all over the world. She has offered banjo workshops at Ashokan Music and Dance Camps, Augusta Heritage Center, Banjo Camp North, Jam Camp North, Suwannee Banjo Camp, and Midwest Banjo Camp. She won 1st place at the 2018 Northeast Fiddler’s Convention Banjo Contest and the 2018 Oldtone Roots Festival Banjo Contest and received 3rd place in the 2022 Online Oldtime Banjo Competition.
Jessica Harwood
Jessica Harwood has been a yoga teacher for almost 20 years. She is the Director of Faith Development & Community Engagement at the Unitarian Society of Northampton and Florence. Prior to that, she was an elementary classroom teacher and environmental educator. She is inspired by the natural world, creativity, community, and kids.
Chenda Cope
Chenda Cope is a musician, performer and visual artist based in Southern Vermont. Her interest, cross-discipline, has always been in creating spaces for people to come together in fleeting moments of community through music making, performance creating, object fixing, giant outdoor puppet show building, etc.! She plays and sings with the Old Fashioneds and organizes a monthly Country Karaoke with live band in Greenfield, MA. Chenda also teaches art at Greenfield Community College.
Sasha Hsuczyk
Sasha Hsuczyk is a singer, fiddler, and guitar player currently based in New Orleans, where she plays with her Cajun honkytonk band the Sister Street Aces. She has previously lived in Ireland, where she studied at the University of Limerick under fiddler Siobhan Peoples. She went on to get a degree in ethnomusicology from Hampshire College. Her love of Irish traditional music led her to develop a passion for old time music, as well as Sacred Harp singing.
Matt Turino
Matt Turino has been playing music for most of his life, starting at a young age playing fiddle with his Dad and family friends and later teaching himself guitar. He gained a passion for playing for dancers early on and continues to seek the connecting moments between music, dance and people from the stage and the dance floor. As a musician he has primarily done this by playing contra and Cajun dances around the country,
Miriam Larson
Miriam Larson has been an elementary school librarian, a labor union organizer, a children’s book reviewer, a pupeteer, and a human statue. She currently directs the Independent Media Center in Urbana, IL. She plays flute and jaw harp in the Mean Lids.
Ben Smith
Ben Smith has been playing dances and dancing dances since he was just a wee laddie. Ben has played his characteristic black fiddle with many bands, across many genres, including bluegrass, swing, old-time, Irish, jug-band, Cajun, country, western, rock, and classical. He is also a father, computer programmer, and kite flyer.
Lindsey Dono
Washington-based Lindsey Dono brings crystal-clear teaching and thoughtful programming to the caller’s mic. When not on stage, Lindsey can be found geeking out over choreography, mentoring up-and-coming callers, and exploring floorcraft across a range of dance forms.
(haiku version):
Lindsey calls dances
And attempts to be succinct
So here’s a haiku
Yaya Patterson
Yaya Patterson was born & raised in the East Coast wetlands, once home to the Alquoquin Native Americans & a popular destination for African Americans looking for a fresh start during the Great Migration. Yaya grew up in a multicultural household where she was exposed to theology, folk healing arts, & performance artistry. Yaya studied music therapy in hopes of expanding on the music healing techniques she was taught as a child, but found the collegiate &