Playing for dances this winter & spring

As a fiddling fiddler-in-residence, I thought I'd post some contra dances I'll be playing for, starting This Saturday, February 27th! Hope to see you dancing...

With the Whatnots (Seth Gruenwald, cello; Carole Bestvater, fiddle...a contra dancing string trio!):

Sat, Feb 27th, 8 PM, Mystic, CT "The pie dance" - serving cherry pie at the break!
At Frohsinn Hall, aka the German Club, across from Mystic Seaport, $8

With the Cicadas (Bill Shevin, guitar; Ed Dale, bass; Jennifer Cooke, flute; Tim St. Jean, mandolin):

Sat, March 6th, 8 PM, Quiet Corner Contra Dance, Hampton, CT
Hampton Congregational Church, 263 Main St (on Rt 97), $10

Sat, March 20th, 8 PM, New Haven Country Dancers, Branford, CT
Branford Community Center, 46 Church St, $10

Sun., April 18th, 7 PM, Shindig at the Barn, Enfield, CT
Powder Mill Barn, 32 South Maple St, Hazardville (Enfield), $8

Sat., May 1st, 8 PM, Quiet Corner Contra Dance, Hampton, CT
Hampton Congregational Church, 263 Main St (on Rt 97), $10

Fri., May 21st, 7 PM, Foster, RI
Little Rhody Vasa Park, 10 Boswell Trail, Foster

Fiddling at Le Foyer

Today was filled to the brim with great music! I began by sitting in with the Yams at their Wintertime Farmer's Market gig in Pawtucket's Hope Artiste Village. Stopped by McCarten Violins to pick up some recently set-up instruments for new students.

Then it was off to the big event of the day: Donna Hébert, Max Cohen & Daniel Boucher's workshop at Le Foyer, the French club in Pawtucket. Le Foyer invited all Fiddle & Dance Project participants as well as Fiddle Lab from Community MusicWorks to participate in a day of French music workshops and dancing.



It was thrilling for me to see and hear my students learning from Donna Hébert's fiddling (and joyful attitude towards music learning in general) And to play along with her and Max Cohen for some of the dances. Plus, a bunch of students had the chance to learn a favorite fiddle tune (La Marionette) directly from its composer, Daniel Boucher.

And to top it all off, we were visited by Rhode Island's Lt. Governor, Elizabeth Roberts as a part of her statewide Arts & Culture Tour, in opposition to cuts to Arts & Culture small businesses.



Bonne nuit!

Photos from Fiddle & Dance workshop @ Boston Public Quartet

Fiddle & Dance @ BPQ

BPQ is the Boston Public Quartet, founded and led by Betsy Hinkle. It's an awesome, like-minded program to Community MusicWorks. BPQ uses a Chamber Music Model to provide instrumental music programming as a part of the daily life of public school, creating community around this music. I ran an interactive fiddling & dance workshop on Saturday in Dorchester with the help of musical guests Max, Sophia & Dave. We all jammed on a fiddle tune, learned a new tune by ear, and danced together (and just as importantly, enjoyed pizza together!). I look forward to coming back in the future to share more tunes & dances. Hope to have photos follow!

And the winner is...

Congratulations to Ned Boyer, the winner of our December appeal letter raffle! He won a house concert in his living room, but due to the fact that he lives across the country, he is sharing his prize with friends in Exeter, Rhode Island.
He was one of 7 generous donors who gave $250 each to support Fiddle & Dance Project.


the Pawtucket Red Sox hat with raffle entries


"dancing fiddle guy" looks on (a new mascot for Fiddle & Dance Project, created by Linda Daniels)

Our first appeal letter was a great success overall, collecting $2680 (as of Feb. 1) to support the work of Fiddle & Dance Project during the 2009-2010 school year. Thank you to everyone who has given. It's incredibly humbling and exciting to know how many people already believe in this project.

tunes together

On our first week back of 2010, 5 Fiddle Lab students from Community MusicWorks (CMW) visited Pawtucket to play tunes and dance with 5 Fiddle & Dance Project students. They each shared their names and their favorite strings, then proceeded to play tunes for each other that each group had recently performed. We also found ways to play together by accompanying each other on open strings. And finally, we danced to the music of Kirby (CMW student leader) and Carole (CMW teacher/fellow).



Over at Community MusicWorks, we asked fiddlers (some who have been in Fiddle Lab 2-3 years & counting!) what they wanted to do this year in Fiddle Lab. Here were some of their answers:
"play a fast jig," "play a waltz," "dance." How awesome is that? I am so proud of fiddlers who can appreciate both slow & fast, both jigs & reels, both playing the music & doing the dancing, themselves!

Students at Fiddle & Dance Project (who are in their 4th month on their instruments) were just as enthusiastic in their hopes for 2010. We had some requests for "more complicated tunes" and lots for "more music!"

Photo highlights from Fiddling Celebration

Here are some of the highlights from our December 19th Fiddling Celebration. A big thank you to photographer Bobbie Hunger for capturing these! You can see even more in the slideshow at our website: www.fiddleanddance.org/see--hear.html