Bill Quern is a multi-instrumentalists and has been playing for Contra and Square dances, English Country Dances , Balfolk dances and concerts with several bands for 25 years. He is a co-coordinator of Philadelphia’s open contra dance band SPUDS. He and his wife, Sarah Gowan [a.k.a Box and String] have been on staff at the Ashokan Family Music and Dance camp for 3 years. He is the foreman of Kingsessing Morris Dancers [15 times winner of the Philadelphia Mummers Parade],
Sarah Gowan started her career as a professional scenic artist and loves applying her background in the theater arts to her passion for traditional music, dance, arts, and crafts. She is on staff at Ashokan Family Week teaching crafts, folk toys, crankies, music and dance. In addition to performing with her husband Bill Quern as Box and String, she plays guitar and English concertina with Coracree, Live Wire, the Big Phat American K-Lee Band,
A founding member of the Maivish and Good Foot Dance Company, Matthew Olwell is a performing and teaching artist whose work blends percussive dance, live music, and visual media. The son of renowned wooden flute-maker Patrick Olwell, Matthew began his career touring with Footworks Percussive Dance Ensemble, including a guest performance in the original London production of Riverdance. Matthew has been a featured performer and teacher at a number of festivals and performance events including the Dublin Dance Festival,
Stefan lives in Brattleboro, Vermont with his wife Zara Bode and their son Desmond. He graduated from Oberlin College as a jazz percussion major. Stefan is percussionist, singer and founding member of the Sweetback Sisters, a “honky tonk band for the modern cowboy and girl”, featuring lead singers Zara Bode and Emily Miller (The Sweetback Sisters have appeared on Prairie Home Companion, coming in second in Garrison Keillor’s national “Twenty-somethings Bands” competition); a founding member and bass singer in Starry Mountain Singers a cappella ensemble (which also includes Zara Bode),
Deb Shebish is a dynamic, nuanced, and versatile fiddler. Her playing conveys a distinctive style with an effortless mastery and infectious joy. Deb was awarded the 2023 North Carolina Arts Council Folklife Apprentice Grant to study Old-Time music under Travis Stuart of Haywood County, North Carolina. Deb fell in love with Old-Time and Irish fiddling in Bloomington, Indiana in 1998 and was greatly influenced by the musicians she met there. In 2000,
Dave Langford is an experienced and versatile fiddler and guitarist and fiddle teacher from the Boston area. A veteran of 30+ years of playing for public dances, weddings, parties and late night sessions, Dave combines multiple styles of fiddling with fierce energy and drive. He has been a staff member for music and dance weeks at Pinewoods, Ogontz, Mendocino, Augusta and Christmas Country Dance School at Berea KY as well as hundreds of weekend dance events around the US and beyond.
Eric Schedler plays accordion, banjo and piano for contra and English country dancing with Midwest-based bands the Cosmic Otters and Supertrad. With his playing firmly rooted in traditional Irish music, Eric has performed and taught at camps and festivals around the country, and currently serves as program director of Cascade of Music and Dance and the all-ages Cumberland Dance Week, a project of the Lloyd Shaw Foundation, of which Eric is also a member of the board of directors.
Kappy has been teaching children, teens and adults English ritual dances for many years at CDSS and LSF intergenerational camps and local schools.
She enjoys adapting traditional ritual dances (rapper, longsword, garland and border morris) to create a fun and dynamic experience while meeting the needs of the students.
Kappy was the CDSS Camp Director for CDSS Cascade week (formerly known as Adult and Family week (Buffalo Gap/Timber Ridge/Camp Louise) for 25 years and has been Co-Camp Director of Terpsichore for the last 5 years. Read More
Dave Wiesler (Newark, DE) began his musical journey as “the guy who could figure out the chords” in his high school garage band. Nearly 20 years later he discovered playing folk music for dances, and felt that the job description had been written just for him. At home in a wide range of styles, Dave is in demand for contra, English and Scottish country dancing, swing, waltz and vintage dance; and his music has taken him across the country and into Canada,
Bio coming soon.
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