The Celtic Society of Southern Maryland is proud to present this year’s Winter Celtic Music Festival hosted by the students of St. Mary’s Ryken High School, Student Organization for Improving the Arts (SOFIA), Saturday, January 28, 2012. This year marks CSSM’s fifth year of working with SOFIA to offer its seventh annual Winter Celtic Music Festival event. We are excited especially about the unique and wide breadth of themes in the workshop and musical performance that will be offered. Two world-class performing artist groups will join together to offer a mid-winter’s menagerie of music ranging in styles from Scottish, Irish, French Canadian and Old Time. A musical walk through early Celtic styles to the roots of American music influenced by this diverse ancestry. CSSM selectively chose these groups to offer an enchanted evening of beautiful music artfully presented by Fynesound, traditional Celtic music and songs accompanied by harp, fiddle and cello, comprised of Sharon Knowles (harp), John Knowles (fiddle), Linda Rice-Johnson (vocals) and Ralph Gordon (cello, bass), and Mist Covered Mountains Trio, Celtic & French-Canadian fiddle music and songs in French and Gaelic, with finger-style guitar comprised of Donna Hebert (fiddle), Max Cohen (guitar) and Molly Hebert-Wilson (vocals). The musicians will offer afternoon workshop instruction in Celtic & French-Canadian fiddle, Celtic harp, traditional Scottish, Irish, Gaelic and American singing, finger-style guitar and cello, followed by an evening concert that will sweep you away into a new wave of bliss to gently embrace and sustain you through the remaining cold winter months. Workshops will be held from 2-4pm, followed by evening concert at 8pm at St. Mary’s Ryken High School, Romauld Hall Auditorium, 22600 Camp Calvert Road Leonardtown, Maryland. For more information, please email fiddling@cssm.org, or call (301) 375-0534. Seating will be limited for the workshops, so register early.

FYNESOUND takes listeners back to the 18th and 19th centuries, a time when the fiddle and cello were very popular in Scotland, and some of the earliest musical manuscripts were first transcribed.  Fynesound artfully and emotively perform slow airs, marches, jigs, reels, and strathspeys.  Their distinctive upbeat melodies are bowed and plucked with string snapping, foot stomping energy. As Fynesound has performed for many years at our annual Celtic festival, as well as for some of our Winter Celtic Music festival concert fundraisers in 2005 and 2006, the Celtic Society is very happy to present Fynesound at this event. Don’t miss their amazing performance.

MIST COVERED MOUNTAINS TRIO – founder, Donna Hebert, was a 2008 Massachusetts Artists' Fellow in the Folk Arts, and also named a Creative Teaching Partner in Fiddling by the Massachusetts Cultural Council. A state and national American String Teachers' Association clinician and adjunct fiddle instructor at Amherst College, Donna works with school music teachers in the northeast to develop a regional model and curriculum integrating fiddling with school string instruction. Says string pioneer Darol Anger in his foreword to Donna’s recently published Fiddling Demystified, Vol. I: A Practical Guide for String Players: "Donna gets it all right! I suspect that the general level of fiddle knowledge and playing will take a major uptick soon after Fiddling Demystified is published, just as other great music books such as Earl Scruggs’ original banjo book, O’Neill‘s great Irish fiddling reference and the infamous jazz Real Book influenced the course of musicians’ lives and work.” Donna has performed, recorded and taught with many well-known musicians, including fiddler, composer, producer Pascal Gemme (of Genticorum, recipient of many Canadian Folk Music Awards) who has performed and offered fiddle and feet workshops on several occasions for the Celtic Society of Southern Maryland.

AFTERNOON WORKSHOPS. Students of all ages are encouraged to bring a recording device, as tunes will be taught by ear. All workshops will focus on intermediate to advanced skill levels, but beginners are welcome to join in for the valuable experience of listening, watching and learning from this fabulous collection of professional musicians.

Celtic Harp with Sharon Knowles.  Sharon emigrated to the US from Scotland in 1997, and quickly became a sought after performer, teacher, and conductor of harp workshops from North Carolina to Alaska. She serves as adjudicator for Scottish harp competitions at many festivals in the U.S., has worked alongside many well-known musicians, including William Jackson and Grainne Hambly, and taught at many summer schools in the United States, including the Ohio Scottish Arts School and Common Ground on the Hill.  During this workshop, Sharon will teach you a new tune and lead you through the subtle nuances of Celtic harp music.

Scottish/Irish fiddle with John Knowles. John, who plays many stringed instruments (mandolin, guitar, and cittern) as well as concertina and whistles, will teach a tune or two in the Scottish/Irish tradition. Learn to make your tunes speak in a new accent and dance with a renewed and lively rhythm.

Traditional Scottish, Irish and American Songs with Linda Rice-Johnson. Explore the wonderful culture, history and folklore that lives in the traditional songs of Scotland, Ireland and early America. Linda will work with students to learn a few a capella songs to keep you humming and singing joyfully through springtime!

Cello with Ralph Gordon. Ralph, a sought after freelance artist and session musician in the Washington/Baltimore metropolitan area, can be heard on more than 100 recordings and contributed to arranging and producing on many of these. He teaches bass and performance classes at summer camps across the country. During this workshop, Ralph will take you back to the 18th and 19th centuries, when the fiddle and cello were very popular in Scotland and teach you how to apply these concepts to the broader Celtic music experience. Whether your interest lies in learning a new tune or learning to accompany other musicians, this workshop is for you.

Celtic and French-Canadian fiddle with Donna Hebert. With seven Franco-American fiddle apprentices through the NEA's Master/Apprenticeship in the Traditional Arts program, Donna also teaches and performs at schools, festivals, camps, concerts and workshops both solo and with Groovemama, Mist Covered Mountains, Chanterelle and The Beaudoin Legacy. Credits include Mark O'Connor's Strings Symposium, Wesleyan and Arizona Universities and the Philadelphia and Old Songs Folk Festivals, where she leads participatory music programs every year for ages 6-18. Donna will offer instruction in Celtic and French-Canadian styles to send you on your way with a whole new groove.

Finger-style guitar with Max Cohen. Touted by Guitar for the Practicing Musician as, “among the most musically complete players this column has seen. He shows just how beautiful acoustic guitar music can be: harmonically rich without sounding complex, melodic without being sappy or sweet. Max makes the grade as both a composer and a player." Max will teach students a Celtic tune in the finger-style method of guitar playing. Max covers the basics of playing for the novice and will also challenge the experienced player with advanced tunings and chord progressions, theory and arranging, accompaniment styles and rhythm patterns.

Irish Gaelic Singing with Molly Hebert-Wilson. Molly graduated in May 2011 with degrees in Irish studies and musical theater from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. She remains a member of NYU’s Irish Folk Group at Ireland House and teaches Irish to children in Brooklyn. Molly is a vocal coach, preparing children for performance at festivals in the northeast and Canada and sings in French just as easily and has studied Québecois gigue with Pierre Chartrand. Get ready to impress your friends at this year’s St. Patrick’s Day celebration by learning a new song in the ancient Irish Gaelic language.