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Between 1951 and 1958, David received many first place honors and awards at various international festivals and in 1958 David joined Baku’s National Ensemble, where he performed as soloist and accompanist for singers until 1981. Performances with the National Ensemble included solo appearances in Azerbaijan, Iran, Georgia, Ukraine, and Russia. David Ayryian received his diploma from the Baku Musical College in 1966 and was certified to teach kemancha and other "national" instruments at the children’s musical school. He also attended the Yerevan Music Conservatory and became concert master for the Yerevan National Orchestra in 1981. Later, the family moved to Moscow before emigrating to Rhode Island in 1991. David Ayryian’s sons Gregory, Levon and Daniel comprise the remainder of the Ayryian Ensemble. Gregory, born in Baku in 1964, is a violinist and has performed with the Baku Symphony, the Armenian Philharmonic and the Moscow Symphony Orchestra. He has performed internationally as soloist and as an orchestra member. Levon and Daniel also studied the violin as youngsters but at the festival, Levon will play the dumbeg and Daniel the piano. In 1997, the Ayryian Ensemble performed in Chicago, New York, Philadelphia and Boston. David is currently serving as a master kemancha player for the Folk/Traditional Arts apprenticeship program at the Rhode Island State Arts Council and is a winner of the 1995 Folk/Traditional Fellowship Grant.
Newly arrived in the United Sates (September 1996), both are former Professors of Folk Instruments at the Mussorsky State Conservatory in Yekaterinburg, Russia and winners of several major competitions. Awarded the distinguished title, "Honored Artists of Russia," they have toured together throughout the former Soviet Union and much of the world (Canada, Finland, Australia, Japan and Spain), concertizing, conducting master classes and recording a repertoire that ranges from classical to jazz to folk, specializing in Russian and Jewish musics. A respected authority in her field, Volskaya has authored several scholarly works on the Domra. She and Trofimov are the subject of a popular book now in its second printing: Tamara Volskaya and Anatoly Trofimov Perform (Yekaterinburg Press). The couple reside in Brooklyn with their two daughters. The Campbell Brothers and Katie Jackson In the House of God, Keith Dominion churches, the electric steel guitar has been the driving musical force for spirit-filled services for over 60 years. Pedal-steel guitarist Chuck Campbell and his lap-steel playing brother Darick are two of the finest in this tradition, which, until recently, was little known outside Keith Dominion churches. Rounding out the band, which has been playing together for nearly two decades, is a high-energy rhythm section featuring brother Phil on electric guitar and his son Carlton on drums. Katie Jackson’s classic, guts gospel vocals bring the ensemble to a level of energy and expression that defies description. Chuck, Phil and Carlton Campbell are the regular band at the Keith Dominion church in Rochester, New York. Chuck and Phil’s father, Bishop Charles Campbell, is pastor there. Every week — unless they are on one of their rather frequent marathon road trips — Chuck, Phil and Carlton can be found making a joyful noise in their father’s church. They belt out pulsating "praise" or "shout" music, provide soulful accompaniment for spontaneous singing from the congregation, add musical emphasis to the preacher’s delivery, and improvise swinging, syncopated marches for offertory processions. It is all functional music with one central purpose: to help the congregation become filled with the Holy Spirit. Over the years, the steel guitar became the dominant instrument in the Keith and Jewel Dominions, two Holiness-Pentecostal churches that share a common origin. The steel guitarists developed their own repertoires, bags of musical devices and tricks, playing techniques, and methods for helping the congregations feel the Spirit. To this day, single note passages that imitate the African-American singing and shouting voices remain the signature sound of the Keith and Jewel steel guitar styles. Joining the Campbells at the festival is Baltimore’s Katie Jackson, the "Mahalia of the Keith Dominion." She and the Campbells cross paths several times a year at special services. A singer with incredible dynamic range, Katie’s classic, gutsy gospel singing never fails to communicate the feeling of a song. The Harold Luce Trio More than seventy years ago, a small child sat on his front porch listening to the fiddle music coming out of his neighbor’s hen house. In the cool darkness of the Vermont evening, the sweet sound of strings, merriment and dancing were like a beacon to the boy. His name was Harold Luce, and he grew up to become one of the premier traditional fiddlers of his generation. Dating back to medieval France and England, contra dancing started as a country entertainment but eventually became the toast of high society. Considered "democratic" because everyone danced with everyone else, contras were a good symbol for the new world. Spreading north throughout New England, certain dances took on the names of prominent places, events, or people. Nationally, contras began to loose popularity by the late 1880s, but in central Vermont they continued to thrive at informal parties known as "kitchen junkets." In the last hundred years, legendary fiddlers like Ed Larkin and Harold Luce have championed this vanishing tradition with a commitment to the time honored steps and their original tunes. Even today, Luce can still be found most Saturday nights bowing the fiddle and prompting an old-fashioned Vermont contra. Harold Luce calls the contra and plays fiddle simultaneously. "I’m accustomed to working with groups with a wide variety of knowledge of the dances," Luce explains. "I adjust my instructions to the level of experience that the people have. It doesn’t make any difference whether they’re kindergartners or college students — they get along the same." Lenny Gomulka & Chicago Push Formed in January of 1980, Lenny Gomulka & Chicago Push are currently celebrating their eighteenth year. Since their inception they have collected hundreds of awards and accolades and have performed in over 3000 towns from California to the east coast. Their 1985 recording Simply Polkamentary was among the first polka recordings to receive a Grammy nomination from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. In 1997 they received their seventh Grammy nomination for their record Irresistible You. Lenny Gomulka has recorded over one hundred albums as session player, side man and band leader. In 1988 he was inducted into the Polka Hall of Fame in Chicago and Chicago Push has been voted "Best Band" by both the United States Polka Association and the International Polka Association. For two years running, the band has captured "Favorite Band," "Favorite Album" and "Favorite Song" at the International Polka Association awards, the first time any artist has swept up all the awards for two consecutive years. Born and raised in Chicago, where he won a WGN-TV talent search at age 12, Lenny Gomulka now lives in Indian Orchard, MA. His recent hit, Say Hello to Someone In Massachusetts, has been proclaimed to be the official state polka of Massachusetts by the legislature. Joao Cerilo (John Monteiro) Joao Cerilo (John Monteiro) was born in Cape Verde and came to the U.S. in 1982. He brought with him the musical traditions which he inherited from his family. Joao is an accomplished musician whose repertoire includes the traditional Cape Verde morna, funana and batuka genres, which he has passed on to his daughters. Joao is a popular performer and has been invited back to his homeland as a participant in several festivals, including this year’s Festival da Gamboa. Joao has several recordings to his name, the latest being Aroma (1996) and his lyrics include messages of hope directed at the young. In New England there are more than 125,000 Cape Verdeans; located mostly in Southeastern Massachusetts and in Rhode Island. Sava is a five-piece fusion band that rocks Lowell with unusual sounds that reflect the musical interests of hundreds of its youthful residents. The fusion is of rhythms from rock and roll and an array of sounds from Cambodian traditional music. The lyrics are usually in Khmer, the instruments are from the West, and the sound is often from the East. The songs are about the tears and the joys that beset youth here, there, everywhere, and since forever. So this is a folk music from a time, a place, and a shared experience. It differs from most other folk music in that the time is now, the place is here, and the shared experience is that of young people reared in two cultures. It is a dance music for couples, a music for holding on. Los Pleneros del Coco Los Pleneros del Coco serves up a lively, percussive brew of authentic dance music from the island of Puerto Rico. More than a dozen master musicians perform a high-spirited, diverse repertoire of spicy Latin rhythms: plena, bomba, salsa, calypso and jazz Latino. The Worcester-based group was founded in 1989 by Miguel Almestica to preserve the traditions of his native Puerto Rico. Miguel learned from his uncle in a culture saturated in plena music. "Birthdays, socials, friends would get together under the palm trees, and people from the barrios would play for endless hours," he recalls. When Miguel moved to the U.S., he brought his music and a mission to carry on the traditions of his homeland. "It’s our responsibility as musicians and as a people to make sure the legacy is not neglected or forgotten." The plena music performed by Los Pleneros del Coco is an urban singing tradition which first became popular with sugar workers in Puerto Rico in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Plena blends African-style drumming and call-and-response singing. The central instrument is the pandero, a frame drum that is held in one hand and played with the other. The size of the various panderetas in the group determines their sound and function within the ensemble. Bomba is a style of drumming and dancing refined by West African descendants in Puerto Rico. It is performed with two-barrel drums and features a lead singer chanting short vocal calls and the group singing fixed responses. Jerry O’Sullivan, Brian Conway & Tony Cuffe The uilleann pipes, notoriously finicky to maintain, well-nigh impossible to play, nevertheless lie at the heart of Irish traditional dance music. Players of others instruments - accordion, fiddle, whistle, flute - look to the pipes as their stylistic model, attempting to imitate the ornamentation of the piper. Jerry O’Sullivan, who began playing the pipes in 1975, won the All-Ireland piping championship in 1979. Like the legendary piper Johnny Doran, there is a controlled wildness to O’Sullivan’s playing, a fluid rolling of melody ornamented at just the right points and punctuated perfectly and sparingly by a well placed blast of the regulators. Born and raised in New York, Jerry has recently returned from a few years of living in County Clare. His piping can be heard on his solo album The Invasion (Green Linnet) as well as on the soundtracks of the documentary films From Shore to Shore and Out of Ireland and on the John Williams soundtrack to the Tom Cruise-Nicole Kidman feature film Far and Away. In 1994, Jerry was selected, along with Donegal superstars Altan, to be part of the series of concerts presented by country singer Dolly Parton at her "Dollywood" entertainment park. Winner of two All-Ireland junior titles in 1973 and 1974, and the All-Ireland senior champion of 1986, Bronx-born Brian Conway is a leading exponent of the famed Sligo fiddling style. After being encouraged by his father, Jim, who also played the fiddle, and taking early instruction from Limerick born fiddler/teacher Martin Mulvihill, Brian honed his emerging technique with Sligo fiddling master Martin Wynne, who took lessons from Philip O’Beirne, Michael Coleman’s instructor. Later, Brian met and befriended fiddler Andy McGann, who further shaped his precision and skill on the instrument. Today, Brian remains faithful to the tradition handed down to him. The distinctness of his tone, the lift of his playing, and the deft ornamentation he brings to it have placed him among the finest Irish fiddlers of any style, Sligo or otherwise. Tony Cuffe is one of Scotland’s most innovative and exciting guitarists and singers. From 1980 to 1990 he was lead singer and guitarist with the noted band Ossian and before that was a founding member of two other outstanding Scottish bands, Alba and Jock Tamson’s Bairns. Tony also plays the harp and whistle. Particularly noteworthy are Tony’s complex arrangements of Scottish and Irish pipe tunes for solo guitar. The Angkor Dance Troupe Based in Lowell, the Angkor Dance Troupe performs Khmer classical and folk dances drawn from the large repertoire of the Cambodian court. In 1996, the Troupe hired Phousita Huy, a recently emigrated and nationally recognized performer from the Phnom Penh-based Classical Dance Company of Cambodia, to serve as Artistic Director. Phousita is one of the most-respected teachers and performers of traditional Khmer dance in the United States today. This summer, the Troupe will play host to three master dancers from Cambodia, including Soy Souer, considered one of the best performers of Monkey Dance in the world. The Monkey is a role in the Reamker, Cambodia’s version of the epic Indian Ramayana, from which many Cambodian dances derive. Because of its difficulty and lively acrobatic style, the Monkey Dance is a hugely popular dance at festivals and other performances. Marva Wright and the BMWs New Orleans’ reigning soul diva, Marva Wright, was born and raised in the Crescent City. Steeped in the musical traditions of the Bayou State, Marva is equally at home Saturday nights in the French Quarter and Sunday mornings in church. She began singing in church as a child, but didn’t discover her talents for rhythm and blues until adulthood. Marva and her band, the BMWs, will perform both for us while in Lowell. Friday night she headlines our opening concert and on Sunday afternoon she’ll take part in our "gospel celebration" alongside the Campbell Brothers and the James King Band. The Original Grecian Keys The Original Grecian Keys have kept dancers on the floor throughout New England for over 25 years. One of the areas favorite Greek bands, they are based in Lynn and perform rebetika and a number of other types of Greek traditional music. Rebetika music, one of the most well-known Greek musics, developed during Ottoman rule and is influenced by both Turkish and Greek traditions. Rebetika, in fact, incorporates modes, rhythms and forms from Greece, Turkey, Egypt, Spain, and the Balkans. In Western music we use two primary melodic modes, major and minor. Rebetika commonly uses 35 or more such modes, and most use notes which don’t exist in the Western tuning system. Bill Kirchen and Too Much Fun Bill Kirchen has coined a phrase for the honky-tonkin’, truck-drivin’, broken- hearted songs he loves to sing - "Dieselbilly." His deep love of the honky- tonk repertoire began early in life, well before his ’70s successes as guitarist for Commander Cody’s Lost Airmen. These days, he’s still on the road - fronting his trio Too Much Fun - and still playing roadhouses and lounges from Bakersfield to Baltimore. Dalton Roberts & Johnny Bellar
Dalton grew up listening to his Uncle Van play the songs of Jimmy Rodgers, " The Father of Country Music." The Delmore Brothers were also friends of the family and often stayed at his Uncle Brown's home while traveling in East Tennessee. These are his earliest memories of music. After he learned to play guitar, his fingerstyle picking cousin, Monk Franklin, lived with the family for a year and Dalton was captured by the Merle Travis fingerstyle/thumbstyle sounds. Later he discovered that blues immortal Bessie Smith grew up near his old homeplace and he immersed himself in studying her music and other blues artists. After decades of heading up his own band and playing commercial country/rock in southeast Tennessee and northwest Georgia honkytonks and nightclubs, he decided to create a solo act fusing his talents as a speaker, humorist, philosopher, songwriter, and musician. In this process of skills blending, he also fused the country roots sounds from his earliest years, fingerstyle with its ragtime feel and basic blues. He says, "I'm just a country blues picker," but reviewers who note his love for writing humorous songs have said "there's too much good-time in Roberts to be full-blown blues" and "he's the Cousin Joe of the country-blues genre, bring up memories of that maverick mischievous bluesman from New Orleans." Here at Lowell, he will team up again with master dobroist Johnny Bellar whom he met at the Appalachian Homecoming where they are crowdpleasers every year. Of Bellar, Roberts says, "He's the best dobro man I've ever heard. No tricks, no gimmicks, no sound effects. Just the hottest, most original and creative licks you will ever hear." The O'Shea-Chaplin Academy of Irish Dance Rita O'Shea-Chaplin was born in Galway, Ireland and was a champion dancer in her time. She has taught Irish dancing both in Ireland and America and has over 40 years experience in the business. Rita is a registered teacher, adjudicator, and examiner with the Dancing Commission in Dublin, Ireland. She has taught thousands of children and adults about Irish dance and culture and several of her students have gone on to become dance teachers themselves. Lisa Chaplin was born in Boston, Massachusetts and has 10 years experience teaching Irish Dancing. She was the State and New England Regional Champion many times, and was the North American Champion in 1981. Lisa is also a registered teacher and adjudicator with the Commission in Dublin, Ireland. Their students have won many local, regional, and national championships and their teams have captured many coveted North American titles. The O'Shea-Chaplin dancers have performed all over the U.S., Canada, Ireland, Germany, and Russia and locally they have done exhibitions at the Fleet Center, the JFK Library, the Wang Center, with Keith Lockhardt and the BSO, at many festivals and on numerous television programs. The champion dancers that will be performing at the Lowell Folk Festival are all from the local area and range in age from 11 to 19 years old. They will be wearing their championship velvet costumes which are beautifully embroidered with celtic designs. The dancers will be performing two of the academy's signature pieces: The Spirit of Boston and The Heartbeat of Ireland, along with several other numbers. Dancers at the festival include Maura Masterson, Courtney Broughton, Erin Burke, Elizabeth Mullen, Sharon Reidy, Aisling Francouer, Brianna Norton, Katie Linehan, and Megan Shaughnessy. Tony Ellis 12/16/98 02:19 PM |
