Emma May - fiddle
Emma May (she/her) grew up playing fiddle on Vancouver Island, Canada. She received her Bachelors and Masters in Arts Education in Halifax, Nova Scotia where she honed her skills in the Cape Breton fiddle traditions. Over the years Emma has studied many genres of music including classical, jazz, klezmer, Irish, Scottish, Appalachian and Canadian fiddle. She has studied under Daniel Lapp, Oliver Schroer, Jerry Holland, Pierre Schryer and Buddy McMaster. Emma now lives and works in Santa Cruz where she plays locally with several bands.
Bill Coulter
William Coulter is an internationally acclaimed, Grammy award winning master of the steel-string guitar. His most recent recording, The Rolling Waves, was released in December 2021 on the Gourd Music label. Coulter has been Music Director for Tomaseen Foley’s A Celtic Christmas since 1998, and has performed with the Santa Cruz Baroque Festival, Apollo’s Fire and many other ensembles. Collaborations have been a mainstay of his career including tours and recordings with Gourd Music artists Neal Hellman and Barry and Shelley Phillips; classical guitar virtuoso Benjamin Verdery, and Irish flute wizard Brian Finnegan. Tours have taken him around the states and to Ireland, Europe, Taiwan, New Zealand, Chile, and most recently Australia. Coulter teaches classical guitar at UC Santa Cruz and at many summer camps and festivals. He earned degrees from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and the university of hard knocks.
Adam Hendey
Adam Hendey is a multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, and composer living in Boston, Massachusetts. Known for his sense and skill as a sought-after accompanist in the city’s vibrant traditional music communities, Hendey has built a reputation as both a collaborator and educator. Adam is a graduate of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, where he studied Traditional Music as a Master’s student, and the Robert D. Clark Honors College at the University of Oregon, where he finished with Bachelor’s degrees in Music and Philosophy.
Rachel Goodman
Rachel Anne Goodman is a singer, songwriter and lover of traditional and contemporary folk music. She plays in two bands, Stone Circle (Celtic) and The Coast Ridge Ramblers (Acoustic folk). Rachel has taught at Lark Camp, The Puget Sound Guitar Workshop and Redwood Music Camp. When not playing around locally, she teaches journalism at UCSC and Cabrillo College. She spent 7 years in Appalachia soaking up traditional ballads and fiddle tunes, an experience that stayed with her. She is the producer of “Southern Songbirds: The Women of Early Country Music”, a 13-part radio series that aired around the world which is currently part of the “Women in Early Country Music” exhibit at the Birthplace of Country Music museum in Johnson City, Tennessee. She loves singing with other people, especially harmony.
SARAH NEWMAN – HARP
Sarah Newman is a multi-instrumentalist with over 10 years music teaching experience with all ages. She started Alto Saxophone at age 8 and currently plays and teaches on all saxophones, Harp, Piano, Vocal’s, Ukulele, and rainbow hand bell choir groups At Be Natural Music and teaches at Spring Hill School and she is a UCSC graduate with a Major in community Studies and a minor in Jazz Music. While her experience with playing harp only started almost 7 years ago she is very passionate about sharing the joys of playing harp and finds it a very natural instrument to play and the most inspiring for song writing with individuals and groups. Sarah has been teaching private lessons on folk harp for 6 years and enjoys inspiring song writing and improvising on harp as well with all ages. She now teaches several harp and singing groups a week.
Fox Pettinotti
Fox pettinotti is a multi-instrumentalist and composer who specializes in guitars, whistles, irish tenor banjo, and mandolin. fox attended community music school’s kid camps and teen camps throughout their youth.
Shelley Phillips
Shelley Phillips has a Masters of Music from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. She plays and tours with The Anjali Quartet and The Coulter/Phillips Ensemble, performs as a duo with her husband, Barry Phillips, sings Shape Note music, and has collaborated with Rumi translator and poet Coleman Barks making two albums of poetry and music. Shelley has appeared on more than 20 albums on the Gourd music label, including her solo albums The Fairie Round, Pavane, The Butterfly, and The Wood Between the Worlds, as well as a duet album with Barry called Wondrous Love. She also has recorded music of the Shakers and produced a benefit album, Verdant Groves, for the Shaker village museums. In addition she teaches at several other summer programs, including founding the Boxwood Flute Festival's children's, teens' and seniors' programs in Nova Scotia and teaching music related crafts at various primitive skills gatherings in the west. Shelley is the founder of Community Music School of Santa Cruz. She lives on the foggy California coast with her husband and her very spoiled cat.
Autumn Rhodes
Autumn Rhodes hails from Amish country in Indiana and has been performing Irish traditional music professionally since age 13. She has toured the US, Canada, Ireland, and Thailand extensively, performing on tin whistle, Irish flute, concertina, uilleann pipes, button accordion, and Irish and English vocals. She has won several fleadh gold medals and is known as an expert on the history of Irish music in California. She plays with several bands in the Midwest and California, including The Jammy Dodgers, The Golden Gate Céilí Band, Gránna, and Soltré. Autumn has 20 years of experience teaching and being an event staff musician, including at Lark Camp and Catskills Irish Arts Week.
Verlene Schermer
Verlene Schermer is a San Francisco Bay Area based singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist with an eclectic style that ranges from Celtic, to blues and jazz. She accompanies her dynamic and versatile singing voice on Celtic harp, piano, and guitar. She is a sought-after performer and clinician for concerts and workshops throughout the country and in Europe, and maintains a schedule of weekly private students. Verlene has recorded 12 CDs, and published well over 50 books, all of which can be purchased on her website. She also teaches harp workshops on Zoom at least 2 Saturdays a month. Check her website calendar for upcoming workshops. More information at www.verlene.com
John Weed - irish fiddle and Cello
John Weed is a classically-trained violinist who switched to playing Irish fiddle about 20 years ago. John lived in Ireland in 2000 and taught fiddle workshops at the Flowing Tide International Music School in Doonbeg, County Clare. He attended the Frankie Kennedy Winter School in Dunlewey, County Donegal where he has studied with Ciaran O'Maonaigh and Dermot Mcloughlin.
Sheri Hammerstrom – voice
Sheri Hammerstrom has a Bachelor of Music from the University of Texas at Arlington with a concentration in vocal performance. Sheri has been teaching private voice lessons for more than twenty-five years. Twenty of those were spent at Concordia Conservatory. As well as private lessons, she taught classes in the college preparatory program and led a vocal arts camp every summer for ten years. Although trained in classical music, Sheri has had a deep love of musical theatre from a young age and has a passion for teaching that genre. Recently Sheri moved to California's Central Coast, where she is on the faculty of the Choral and Vocal Studies Program at Cabrillo College.
BARBARA SNYDER – PIANO ACCORDION
barbara has been playing and teaching accordion for over 25 years. she had a weekly gig at the Buttery for 17 years, was the accordionist for the Peninsula Scottish Fiddlers, and have played too many weddings and parties to count. she also plays piano, harpsichord, and recorder. she is currently learning violin, so she understands the challenges faced by beginners.
neal hellman – mountain dulcimer
Neal Hellman, nationally acclaimed performer and teacher of the mountain dulcimer, has been active in performing, writing, teaching, and recording acoustic music for the past 40 years. Neal's recordings include: Emma’s Waltz, Autumn In the Valley, Dream of the Manatee (with Joe Weed) and Oktober County, all on the Gourd Music label. He is the author of many books on the Appalachian dulcimer, including: Mountain Dulcimer Arrangements from Both Sides of the Atlantic, Celtic Songs & Slow Airs for Mountain Dulcimer, The Dulcimer Chord Book, The Hal Leonard Dulcimer Method, and Music of the World for Mountain Dulcimer. As founder, director and one of the primary artists of the Gourd Music record label, Neal has produced over fifty recordings including Simple Gifts, The Fairie Round, Tender Shepherd, The World Turned Upside Down and Jefferson’s Fiddle, creating a uniquely distinctive sound, featuring a variety of acoustic instrumental ensembles, rich in texture and tonal color.