Mandolin Festival Returns for 13th Year

The 13th Annual March Mandolin Festival will take place March 6-8, 2015, at the Concord Community Music School, 23 Wall Street in downtown Concord, N.H. This three-day event offers group lessons, jam sessions, and workshops on a variety of topics, and presents two concerts—one on the Seacoast and one in Concord. (Please note that all lessons, workshops, and jam sessions are sold out.)

This year, the Festival features nationally known folk musicians Don Stiernberg, Skip Gorman, Glen Loper, and David Surette, with special guest Susie Burke.

“The concerts are a real highlight, and a great opportunity for listeners to hear some of the finest players in New England—and the whole country, for that matter,” says David Surette, who organizes the Mandolin Festival and heads the Folk Department at the Music School. “Don is one of the top jazz mandolin players in the country, so you can expect plenty of jazz and swing. But we also have bluegrass and old-time, Irish, Celtic, and contradance tunes, and folk and blues as well.”

As in past years, the Festival will begin with a kick-off concert on Friday in Newmarket, featuring the same performers over on the Seacoast. This year the show will be returning to the Stone Church, one of the Seacoast’s premier venues for live roots music. (This is a separate ticket from the Concord events.) The concert will take place at 7:00 p.m. on Friday, March 6, at the Stone Church Music Club, 5 Granite Street in Newmarket, N.H. Admission is $10 in advance or $12 on the day of the show. For more information or to purchase a ticket, please call (603) 659-7700 or visit www.stonechurchrocks.com.

Saturday’s Festival concert in Concord, which features Festival faculty and participants and is open to the public, will take place at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 7 in the Concord Community Music School’s Recital Hall. The cost of admission is included for Festival participants. For others, general admission tickets are $15 for adults and $12 for students and seniors. For more information or to purchase tickets, please call 603-228-1196 or visit www.ccmusicschool.org.

“People should expect the unexpected,” says Surette. “There will be a lot of collaborating, some rehearsed, some by the seat of the pants. It’s always a fabulous night of music.”

The Mandolin Festival is sponsored by Sanborn, Head & Associates, with support provided by Courtyard Marriott Hotel and Conference Center in Concord, N.H., where Festival accommodations are available at a special rate. For more information on the Festival, please call (603) 228-1196 or visit www.ccmusicschool.org.

About the Artists

While still in his teens, Don Stiernberg learned to play the mandolin from the innovative and influential virtuoso Jethro Burns. Jethro referred to Don as his “graduate student,” hired him to play in his band, and guided him to a career as a professional musician which has already lasted forty years. A leading exponent of jazz mandolin style, Don has eight recording projects of his own and appears on many others by a variety of artists in all styles. The most recent of these is Mandoboppin’!, a jazz quintet CD featuring his original tunes. In addition to touring, Don stays busy around his native Chicago with performing and recording work. He also contributes a regular column to MandolinMagazine, and has been an instructor at mandolin events such as The Mandolin Symposium, Swannanoa Gathering, Mandolin Camp North, River of the West Mandolin Camp, Cape Cod Mandolin Camp, Steve Kaufman Acoustic Kamp, Ashokan Swing Week, Accademia Internacionale di Mandolino (Italy), European Mandoline Akademy (Germany) and Momento Rio Bandolim (Brazil).

Skip Gorman is one of the leading teachers and players of Bill Monroe-style mandolin in the country, as well as being a masterful cowboy singer and fine fiddler. An encounter with Monroe at age twelve was a pivotal moment in the young musician’s life, and he was lucky to have the opportunity to see musicians like Monroe, legendary Texas fiddler Eck Robertson, and Mother Maybelle Carter at the historic Newport Folk Festival. He has taught bluegrass mandolin at top festivals such as IBMA World of Bluegrass, European World of Bluegrass and Grass Valley Bluegrass Festival. He has released a number of fine recordings, including three acclaimed Rounder releases focusing on cowboy music, and two focused on “old-style” bluegrass mandolin. His most recent release is a two-CD set of mandolin tunes titled Mandolin in the Cowcamp.

Glen Loper is well known throughout the New England contra dance world for his work on both the mandolin and the tenor banjo. He is a member of several popular contra dance bands (Rumblestrip and Frigate), and is also a core teacher at the Maine Fiddle Camp. Glen has a great style geared towards playing fiddle tunes, and has a diverse repertoire of tunes, including many cool and unusual newly-composed tunes. He describes his dance repertoire as a mix of Irish, Scottish, Old-Time, French Canadian, Scandinavian, rock and roll, swing tunes, funk, blues, or anything else that the dancers like. Glen is a patient and experienced teacher, and teaches regularly in Portland, ME, where he lives.

David Surette is highly regarded throughout New England and beyond for his work on the mandolin, guitar (both flatpick and fingerstyle), and bouzouki; Sing Out Magazine wrote that “Surette’s playing is always inventive, and sets a new standard for traditional instrumentalists.” As part of a duo with his wife, singer Susie Burke, they have performed regularly together for 20 years, recording several albums and building a reputation as one of New England’s top folk duos. Surette was a founding member of the Airdance band with fiddler Rodney Miller, with whom he recorded four albums and toured nationally. He has also released five critically-acclaimed solo CDs; his most recent solo release, Return to Kemper, is a collection of original and traditional guitar solos spanning the years 1990-2011. He is also an experienced teacher, and coordinates folk music programming and teaches regularly at the Concord Community Music School.

About the Concord Community Music School

Concord Community Music School is a full member of the National Guild for Community Arts Education and is recognized nationally for program innovation and management excellence. Welcoming adults, teens, and children of all musical abilities, 53 artist teachers reach more than 33,000 people in four states with educational programs, concerts, workshops, and community partnerships. CCMS has received major funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Hearst Foundation, New Hampshire State Council on the Arts, Jane’s Trust, and the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation. The Music School is the 2005 recipient of the NH Governor’s Arts Award for Cultural Access Leadership.