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Julie Lyonn Lieberman,
(http://JulieLyonn.com)
has helped develop the alternative string field over the last thirty+
years through her work as an educator, author, radio producer, composer,
recording artist, journalist, and performer.
Ms. Lieberman is the author of eight music books, including The
Creative Band and Orchestra, The Contemporary Violinist, 12 Rock Strings
Lesson Plans, Improvising Violin, Rockin’ Out With Blues Fiddle, You Are
Your Instrument, and Planet Musician. One of her newest books,
Alternative Strings: The New Curriculum, is helping to change the
landscape of the string world. 2007 includes the release of a DVD titled
“Teaching Alternative String Styles in the Classroom.” Ms. Lieberman
wrote, produced, and edited this video for American String Teachers
Association.
A dynamic, participatory workshop leader, her ability to stimulate
participants to think and grow in new ways has earned respect for her
work throughout the world through organizations like American String
Teachers Association, European String Teachers Association, National
Orchestra Festival, Music Educators Association, International
Association of Jazz Educators, Suzuki Institute, National String
Workshop, International String Workshop, the Juilliard MAP Program,
National Young Audiences, the Carnegie Hall LinkUp Program and The
Academy (a Carnegie/Weill Hall/Juilliard-sponsored program).
Lieberman has also created five instructional music videos, seven
hours of programming for National Public Radio on jazz violin, and over
fifty articles for music magazines, including STRAD, STRINGS, Fiddler
Magazine, and American String Teacher Journal. In addition, Ms.
Lieberman produced four American Jazz String Summits in the eighties and
nineties featuring many of the top improvising string players in
America, and co-produced three alternative string festivals within
American String Teachers 2003, 2004, and 2005 conferences, serving as
the chair for the 2004 component
Martin Norgaard is the author of the groundbreaking method books
Jazz Fiddle Wizard and Jazz Fiddle/Viola/Cello Wizard Jr. for Mel Bay
Publications. He is currently a Doctoral Fellow in Music Education with
a jazz emphasis at The University of Texas at Austin. Norgaard taught
jazz and commercial strings at Belmont University and Vanderbilt
University in Nashville for six years and was director of the Belmont
Jazz String Quartet and Jazz String Septet, which have been featured at
IAJE 2001, MENC 2002 and ASTA 2003. Norgaard is a frequent clinician at
state and national conventions of ASTA, TMEA, OMEA, IMEA, MENC, and IAJE
and has taught at summer workshops such as the IAJE Teacher Training
Institute, the South Carolina Suzuki Institute, the Augusta Heritage
Festival and Vanderbilt's International Fiddle School.
Dear Martin,
I had so much fun this past Friday at the FOA Fall Workshop. You're
approach to jazz and improvisation in general made it seem a lot
more accessible. Being a classically trained musician myself for
over 19 years, it is extremely difficult to trust yourself enough to
perform without music. Your 1-2-3 step approach to improve gave me
the confidence and belief that even I could eventually do it as
well. This week I have been using your book 1 in some of my
elementary, middle, and even high school classes and the response
has been overwhelming! I am currently in the process of purchasing
classroom sets for my schools and I am eagerly awaiting their
arrival.
Sincerely,,
Bobbe Jo Butler, Eau Gallie High School Orchestra Director,
Melbourne, Florida
What Norgaard does best is, in a word, balance. He is a player, and
he is a teacher. We don’t always find the two combining so
efficiently. For example, he begins with a lesson on improvising
with rhythms. Exactly! I’ve always thought the best way to learn
jazz violin is to just put down the violin and study drums for a
year. As Duke Ellington said, “It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got
that swing.” And since Norgaard has thoughtfully designed this set
to teach by imitation, the CD goes a long way towards getting the
student on the right track.
Review in Fiddler Magazine Fall 2003 by Hollis Taylor
Janet Farrar-Royce is a leading authority on including fiddling in
the mainstream string curriculum as a means to meet National Standards
and create "Rich Lessons." She was one of the original On-line MENTORS
for the MENC (Music Educators National Conference.) She was the
first string teacher to receive a National Education Grant for her
"First Fiddling Lesson" and is presently a member of the ASTA (American
String Teachers Association) National Alternative Styles committee.
Her career includes over 30 years of private and public school and
college teaching. She has been a conductor for two leading Youth
Symphonies and guest conductor at several Orchestral Festivals in the
North East. Her 40 professional performance career spans both the
classical and American fiddling worlds. Her many articles and reviews
span both professional performing and educational concentrations and two
of them were chosen for MENC's 2006 publication "Spotlight on
Orchestra" The first printing of her book of fiddling lessons,
"White Mountain Reel Companions" was a sell-out in less than a year.
Her new book of fiddling lessons for private studio and string class
instruction, "Fiddling Fingers" with Doris Gazda, Jay Ungar and
Molly Mason, is due for publication by Carl Fischer in mid-February,
2006. She gives frequent workshops for teachers and student musicians at
schools, colleges and conferences.
Janet Farrar-Royce is to fiddlin' what whip cream is to a sundae.
Janet's music covers all of the national standards with such detail it
allows the time crunched public school teacher a chance to what they do
best...teach.
Roberta Warfield
Orchestra Director
Bedford Public Schools, New York
March 11, 2005
Matt Turner is regarded as one of the world's leading improvising
cellists. Equally adept in many styles, Turner performs everything from
jazz standards and twentieth century new music to alternative rock and
improvised avant-garde.
Turner completed his undergraduate studies at Lawrence University and
his Master of Music degree in Third Stream Studies at the New England
Conservatory of Music, where he studied with Dave Holland, Geri Allen
and Joe Maneri, and where he was the recipient of a Distinction in
Performance Award.
Turner taught jazz piano, jazz strings, composition and
improvisation for many years at the Lawrence Conservatory of Music. He
is featured on more than 50 recordings on Sketch, Meniscus, O.O. Discs,
Asian Improv, Geode, Cadence, and other labels. He has performed at the International Cello Festival in Montreal,
the Chicago Asian American Jazz Festival, and with CUBE, Present Music,
and Dadadah. He has shared the stage with Bobby McFerrin, Kevin
Mahogany, Natalie McMaster and Randy Sabien. His compositions and
arrangements are published by Latham Music and Alliance Music. He
presents numerous improvisation workshops to string students and string
teachers each year. Turner is a Yamaha performing artist.
"Turner dazzles with his own improvisational excursions and displays
his expansive cello vocabulary..." Strings Magazine
"...represents Matt Turner as one of the great American
cellists...this rates as an important document of a major voice on the
cello..."
Joee Conroy -- The Improvisor Review of Turner's solo
cello recording, "The Mouse That Roared"
Robert Gardner joined the faculty
at Penn State in 2003. He is an assistant professor of music education,
specializing in stringed instrument playing and teaching, alternative
styles for string ensembles, and orchestral conducting.
A double bassist and conductor with experience in a variety of
musical genres, he has written articles for the American String Teacher
and GIA Publications, and has given presentations at conferences and
workshops throughout the country. Gardner's research has focused on the
nature of improvisation and composition, as well as the supply and
demand of American public school music teachers.
He received his undergraduate degree in music education from the
Ohio State University, and his master's and Ph.D. degrees in music
education from the Eastman School of Music. Prior to joining the faculty
at Penn State, he served as orchestra director and instructor for public
school districts in Ohio and New York. Gardner was also music director
for two youth orchestras at the Hochstein School of Music and has been
guest conductor for many honors ensembles. He has designed and directed
programs for adult learners and alternative styles for string ensembles.
Gardner is a member of MENC: National Association for Music
Education, and the American String Teacher Association (ASTA). He is
currently serving as president of the PA/DE chapter of ASTA, as well as
a member of the alternative styles committee for the 2007 ASTA national
convention.
Steven Vance is the co-founder and Director of the Extreme Strings
Academy . He has been a performer, booking agent, and entertainment
producer in the Pittsburgh area for over 20 years, covering many styles
including Strolling, Jazz, Irish, Bluegrass, Country, Pop. Rock, Jazz,
and more.. Through his business,
Steven
Vance Strolling Violins, he has played nearly 3,000 gigs of all types from
traditional strolling violin and ethnic music, to playing fiddle in
country rock bands, to fronting a 20 piece orchestra. He has
presented workshops and clinics for the American String Teachers Assn,
(ASTA) and for the Christian Howes Creative Strings Workshop. Mr. Vance
is a clinician for Yamaha Corporation.
Melinda Crawford was the 2003 U.S. National Scottish Fiddling Champion.A
primarily self-taught fiddler, Melinda was eleven when her parents
bought her her first fiddle book, The Scottish Violinist, while they
were attending a highland games. She had just started to play the
violin in school, and fiddling sounded like "fun." From that time on,
she gleaned what she could from the annual competitions and workshops at
the local highland games. Finally, while in college, she went to
Scotland as a Vera I. Heinz scholar for her first formal studies in
fiddling and Gaelic.
After receiving her first degree, Melinda taught strings and
orchestra in the public schools in both Maryland and Virginia before
moving to Ohio for graduate school. While she was in both places, she
developed and directed highly successful fiddling clubs, each of which
were hard to leave when it was time to go. She loves teaching, and has
continued to teach Scottish fiddling through private lessons and many
workshops. Though still a graduate student at The Ohio State
University, she has already developed and taught a graduate-level
course on various fiddling styles.
Melinda has played in several different Scottish performing
groups. She started performing many years ago with her mother, a
bodhran player, and sister, a fellow fiddler, in their family group,
Celtic Strings. She has done shows with her father, a bagpiper, and is
currently working on more bagpipe/fiddling collaborations with him. She
was a co-founder of a fiddling trio, Loch't Oot, and played dueling
fiddles with close friend, Andrew Dodds. She currently performs as a
solo act with guitar accompaniment.
Despite her busy life as a graduate student, Melinda continues to
be an active Scottish fiddling performer, instructor, clinician, and
Scottish F.I.R.E. judge. She is also the new national president for
Scottish F.I.R.E. Her fiddling was recently heard in Scotland, in
Austria, and on the soundtrack of the Discovery Channel's two-hour
special, Seven Wonders of the Wild West.
Roy Sonne - Founder and Artistic Director
Roy Sonne started playing jazz violin at age 60, after a 40
year career as a symphony musician. He was a founding member of “Blues
on First” Pittsburgh’s Jazz String Quartet. He studied jazz
improvisation with James Guerra at City Music Center and attended the
Christian Howes/Yamaha Creative Strings Camp. He plays regularly with
jazz pianist, John Burgh.
Through playing jazz, Roy's musical universe became so much
richer, so much more exciting and fulfilling, that he became determined
to share this experience with other string players. In August 2004, Roy
organized Pittsburgh's first Jazz String Workshop for classically
trained string players. Based on the success of that workshop, in 2005
he organized the Pittsburgh Jazz and Fiddling Camp, now preparing for
it's second season.
Roy is active as a
conductor, violinist, pianist and teacher. He is a member of the first
violin section of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. He is a faculty
member of the CMU Preparatory division. For eleven years he was the
Music Director of the Edgewood Symphony Orchestra. He maintains a large
private teaching studio in his home in Mt. Lebanon. He is also a
Pittsburgh Symphony Ambassador, making frequent visits to many high
schools in the Pittsburgh area, to do workshops and coaching sessions.
Dr. Stephen Benham is Assistant Professor of Music Education at
Duquesne University. He is the coordinator of national music education
development project in Ukraine, Music in World Cultures, Inc. He is the
Music director and conductor of the National Christian Symphony
Orchestra of Ukraine. He is an active workshop clinician on string
teaching, pedagogy, and urban music education. He was formerly a public
school string specialist and youth orchestra conductor. Dr. Benham has
received grants for research and development of music education programs
from the Reimer Foundation (2001), Presser Music Foundation (1998),
Mustard Seed Foundation (1998-2004), and ATSA. Member, MENC, ASTA with NOSA.
JAMES GUERRA Saxophonist, composer, arranger, educator — is on the
jazz faculty of Duquesne University and also of City Music Center. He
directs the jazz band at CAPA (High School for the Creative and
Performing Arts) in Pittsburgh and also at Rogers CAPA. He is a graduate
of the Berklee College of Music. On the Pittsburgh jazz scene, Jim is
the founder and musical arranger of Pittsburgh's Sax Pack. He is the
leader of the Almost Famous Little Big Band. He is a member of John
Wilson Big Band .He has performed with the Buddy Rich Band, Manhattan
Transfer, the Glenn Miller Orchestra, Woody Herman Band, Pittsburgh
Symphony Orchestra, Civic Light Opera and Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre.
As violinist, composer, educator, lecturer and conductor,
Stanley Chepaitis has spent
the last twenty-five years offering the public an exciting mix of
expertly performed classics, sizzling jazz improvisations, and original
works that bridge the gap between these musical styles. Chepaitis is
currently on the string faculty of Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
He is the Music Director of the Chamber Orchestra of the Alleghenies. He
also performs on a regular basis with his own jazz quartet called Nosmo
King.
Chepaitis holds a Doctor of Musical Arts Degree as well as the
coveted Performer's Certificate from the Eastman School of Music. He
studied jazz composition and improvisation with John Blake, Bill Dobbins
and Rayburn Wright. He performed with the legendary jazz violinist, Joe
Venuti. He has also performed with John Blake, Diane Monroe, Bob
Schneider, Tony Camaria and Tyrone Brown.
Chepaitis has recorded several CDs.
Old
News and Borrowed Blues is eclectic and wide-ranging. The title cut
from his most recent CD,
Transformative Dreams, evolved out a series of disturbing dreams.
Other compositions include Child's Play for String Quartet which won
second prize in MTNA's national Distinguished Composer Competition;
Chaos For Two, for two violinists; Paganini in the Vernacular, for
violin and piano; and The Four Seasons, for violin and orchestra, and
the Concerto for Two Violins with Jazz Trio and String Orchestra.
RICHARD GREENE
Richard Greene, "one of the most
innovative and influential fiddle players of all time," grew up in Los
Angeles and studied classical music until his encounter with the
pyrotechnic fiddling of Scotty Stoneman; from then on Richard was a
fiddler. He first attained prominence with Bill Monroe and the
Bluegrass Boys in 1966 as one of Monroe's first "northern" band members,
then went on to found the revolutionary Folk-Rock group Seatrain,
pioneering the first use of the electric violin in Rock. His advanced
technique and intense yet "cool" tone shocked audiences and prefigured
such players as Jean-Luc Ponty and others, influencing a generation of
fiddle players including Darol Anger, Alison Krauss, Sam Bush and Stuart
Duncan.
Richard's return to acoustic
music occasioned the invention of "New Grass" or "New Acoustic"
instrumental music, now a mainstay throughout the world's acoustic music
festivals. As one of Los Angeles' premier string session players he
founded the trailblazing Greene String Quartet creating the first ever
amalgam of Jazz-Folk-Rock-Chamber music and producing three seminal
albums. His many acclaimed releases in the folk and bluegrass world
have been honored with Grammy and IBMA awards, his CD Sales Tax Toddle
was Grammy nominated for Bluegrass Album of Year.
Mr. Greene currently leads
seminars on all aspects of fiddling and violin playing nationwide,
teaching courses at The Mancini Institute, the RockyGrass Academy, the
Festival of Fiddle Tunes, the Mark O'Connor Fiddle Camp, the Rocky
Mountain Fiddle Camp, The Swannanoa Gathering, and dozens of ad hoc
workshops throughout the year. Also last year marked the debut of
Richard Greene's Piece for Bluegrass Violin and Orchestra entitled "What
If Mozart Played With Bill Monroe?".
Richard Greene Resume
Music genre
Authentic Old Time
fiddle music (much of which learned one on one from Bill Monroe,
inventor of BlueGrass Music) and New Acoustic (original instrumental
compositions). Richard co-invented the genre New Acoustic with
David Grisman circa 1974 (The Great American Music Band).
Major Festival Performances as
Headliner
Telluride, Durango
Meltdown, Mayfest (Scotland), Wind Gap, Winterhawk (now Grey Fox),
MerleFest, RockyGrass, Live Oak, Winfield, Old Settlers, Strawberry,
Supergrass, Blythe, Mayville, Sedona
Awards
GRAMMY AWARD: Best
Instrumental Performance of the Year (1997)
GRAMMY NOMINATION: Best
Bluegrass Recording of the Year (1998)
IBMA: Recorded Event of
the Year
IBMA Nomination:
Instrumental Band of the Year
Honorary Kentucky
Colonel
Performed as Leader with his own
groups
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Seatrain (1969-1972)
(produced by George Martin of Beatles fame). 1st occurrence of
electric violin in Rock and Roll
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The Great American Music
Band (co-lead with David Grisman, circa 1974)
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Muleskinner (band
members: Bill Keith, Clarence White, Peter Rowan, David Grisman)
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The Greene String
Quartet
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The Grass Is Greener
(David Grier, Bill Keith, Chris Thile, Butch Baldasarri, Tony
Trischka)
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Richard Greene & The
Brothers Barton
Recording & Performance History as
Sideman (highlights only)
Red Allen (Richard’s 1st
ever recording session - 12 classic sides), Bill Monroe (14 classic
sides), Gary Burton, The Jim Kweskin Jug Band, Melissa Manchester,
The Blues Project, James Taylor, Tony Rice, Dolly Parton, Emmylou
Harris, Bob Seger, Old And In The Way, Brian Wilson, Eddie Adcock,
George Strait, Loggins & Messina, Crosby-Stills & Nash, Peter Rowan,
Deana Carter, Rod Stewart, Lacy J. Dalton, Jerry Garcia, Van Dyke
Parks, Bruce Springsteen, The Brothers Barton, Tony Trischka, Sting,
Joss Stone, Richard Thompson, Kelly Clarkson, Mandy Moore, Tony
Bennett, The Wagner Ensemble (Jeannine Wagner), Jennifer Leiham, Dan
Hicks
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This site was last updated
10/30/08
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