Almonte Celtfest Saturday Workshops

Almonte Celtfest 2011 Instrument Workshops
(sorry for late posting, but I get this stuff a bit late, too....)

Saturday, July 9, 2011

All workshops are 1 1/2 hours and will be held between 11:30 a.m. and 1:00 p.m.

Please register at the Old Town Hall before 11:15 – room locations will be provided at that time. We intend to hold all workshops within the Old Town Hall except for piano, which will be at the Mississippi Mills MusicWorks (we will give you directions at registration)

Fee is $20 cash or cheque (payable to Almonte Celtfest) at registration

While not necessarily intermediate, the workshops are intended for those who are familiar with their instruments and have mastered basic fingering and/or chording patterns, know some tunes, and would not be completely intimidated or uncomfortable playing with others in a slow jam. The intent of the workshops is to allow participants to hone the skills they have, pick up some new tips that will their improve playing, and possibly learn a new tune or two. The workshops being offered this year are listed below with their instructors, many of those being well-known to Valley Celtic musicians.

Irish Style Fiddle with Matt Pepin. Matt is well known to the Ottawa Valley traditional music scene having performed at Celtfest and regional events many times and through teaching fiddle at the Ottawa Folklore Centre and the Ottawa Valley School of Traditional Music in Almonte. Matt has toured extensively outside of Ontario, notably in Newfoundland and Ireland. Matt's fiddle playing blends traditional Irish and Scottish with his Old-Time, Valley, and Québecois roots to create a refreshing style of his own, which can be heard on his CD Pass It Down.

Cape Breton Style Fiddle with Don Fletcher. Don has been playing fiddle for over 25 years and enjoys many styles including Cape Breton, Irish, Québecois, and Bluegrass, and also teaches these styles. Don's playing is influenced by Jerry Holland, Howie McDonald, Liz Carroll, Jim Van Cleve, André Brunet, to name a few. He has been taught by many well-known fiddlers including Pierre and Louis Schryer, Denis Lanctot, Jerry Holland, JP Cormier, and Alasdair Fraser. Don is a regular at the many sessions held in and around the Ottawa area.

Piano Accompaniment with Jim Hunter. Jim is a well-known session piano player in Ottawa and began chording as a kid when the world was a lot younger. Over the years Jim has played piano accompaniment with many local Canadian and Celtic fiddlers and groups including the Ottawa Fiddle Ensemble, the Ottawa Comhaltas Ceili Band, the Dunvegan Ceilidh Band, the Valley Stompers, and the Sarah Burnell Band.

Bodhran & Bones with Alistair Dennett. Alistair spent 25 years in Winnipeg where he was involved with organizing their annual Irish Fest. During that time he learned to play the bodhran, bones, and other percussion instruments and played in various traditional folk bands such as Meadowlark, Marty's Party, Skruj McDuk, and The Duks. He also taught the bodhran privately and at various music camps, and also built drums and invented a single key tunable bodhran. Alistair continues to teach in Ottawa and also plays the drums with various artists around the city including Ball and Chain, Sneezy Waters, Keith Glass (Prairie Oyster/Lynn Miles) and Pat Moore's Vinyl Frontier.

Whistle & Flute with Chuck Quick. Chuck has a love of Celtic music and plays the whistle, wooden flute, and uilleann pipes with several Brockville groups includingFiddlers Plus and Avalon who perform regularly at community and related events in that area. He has taught whistle to seniors at St. Lawrence College in Brockville several times as a part of their Encore Programme.

Irish/Celtic Harp with Clare Dwyer. Clare grew up with Irish music and has been playing Irish and other Celtic music on the harp for many years. In addition to traditional music, step-dancing is also in the family and Clare has studied dance with the Canadian dance master, Gilles Roy. She is also well known in the region for generously hosting her house concerts throughout the year featuring Irish, U.S., and Canadian artists in all forms of Celtic music from fiddle to song. Clare recently spent a year in the Galway area, Ireland, where she studied both Irish harp and Sean Nos style step-dance.