Colman’s Well in Concert
Wednesday July 2
7:30 PM
Nelson Town Hall
$10/$8 (Sr/Jr)

Unique and enthralling, Colman’s Well moves from sweet to strident and from Ireland to Appalachia, touching heart and soul with their vocal blend.

Colman’s Well is Nils Fredland, Rachel Gordon, and Brendan Taaffe. Bringing together their love of harmony, they sing an eclectic blend of (mostly) a cappella songs, ranging from the Stanley Brothers and the Sacred Harp to Fiona Apple and Monkey Puzzle (though, admittedly, they lean more towards the front half of that equation). The three first sang together in Ireland last summer as part of a Turtle Dove Harmony camp, performing a Doc Watson number in front of a sold-out crowd in Westport, Co. Mayo and have since gone from strength to strength, pulling on material from the bluegrass canon, the stark power of shape note music, and contemporary folk to deliver songs with verve and delight. Reveling in tight, unaccompanied harmony, the trio does bring some instrumentation into play, with Brendan on guitar, mbira and ukulele, Nils on trombone, and everybody on various forms of percussion.

MySpace Page for Colman’s Well

Enticing biographical sketches:

Nils has traveled a diverse road to Colman’s Well. Starting off as a boy soprano, he entered college as a low bass. Nils’s deep voice and openness have landed him in a wild range of ensembles: barbershop quartets and early music groups at Indiana University; award-winning a cappella group Monkey Puzzle, at the forefront of the thriving original music scene in Bloomington in the 1990’s; Malcom Dalglish’s olites, which recorded two BMG released CD’s; hot ska band Johnny Socko; and Northern Harmony.

Rachel’s musical pursuits have taken her from musical theater stages in Illinois to choral venues in Ireland. Passionate about singing her whole life, Rachel grew up in Normal (yes, really), Illinois in a home full of music, and has been a member of several a cappella groups, including the all-female Sirens at Macalester College and Treble in New York City. Rachel moved to southern Vermont in 2007 after falling in love with western New England’s wealth of beautiful vistas and musical opportunities, and is currently learning to play the fiddle and upright bass in addition to singing with Colman’s Well and several community groups.

Brendan was raised on a steady diet of Pete Seeger and Irish music and was brought to his first shape note sing by his grandmother. The sounds that burst out in that old New England town hall still ring in his ears, and his high tenor and striking compositions have seen him sing with Northern Harmony roughout Europe, teach with Village Harmony, and perform with a number of smaller groups. Brendan is the founder of Turtle Dove Harmony, an organization that brings adults together to sing, and a co- director of the Franklin County Hospice Singers.

Peterborough First Saturday
Peterborough (NH) Town House
Beginner’s Workshop 7:30
Dance at 8:00 ’til 11:30 PM
Admission $8, $6 seniors and students

Raised in a small town in Maine and now living in Vermont, Lissa Schneckenberger grew up with music. She began playing fiddle at the age of six, inspired by her mother’s interest in folk music and a family friend who was a professional violinist. Soon she was studying with influential Maine fiddler Greg Boardman and sitting in with the Maine Country Dance Orchestra. By the time she was in high school she was playing concerts on her own, specializing in the sprightly New England dance tunes that combine influences from the British Isles and Quebec with homegrown twists that have been evolving since Colonial days. Another of her major influences was the diverse musical community that she found at fiddle camps, where she had a chance to play with and learn from a wide variety of musicians including noted Scottish fiddler Alasdair Fraser. In 2001 she graduated from the New England Conservatory of Music with a degree in contemporary improvisation, and since then has been performing around the US and internationally for a growing audience of enthusiastic listeners. She has recorded seven CDs, (four solo and three with various groups).

Bob McQuillen has been playing for contra dances practically since they were invented. He is a recipient of the NH Council on the Arts Folk Heritage Award and has performed at the National Folklife Festival in Washington, DC.

Lisa Sieverts is the caller for the Peterborough contra dance on Saturday, July 5th. Lisa has been contra dancing since the late 1960s, when she first attended Nelson and Fitzwilliam dances. She has been calling since 1994, and was active in the Idaho and Seattle dance scene before moving to Nelson a few years ago. She enjoys “bridging the gap” between traditional and modern flavors of contra dancing.

Saturday, July 12th
Beginner’s Workshop 7:30
Dance 8:00 – 11:30
Admission: $8 / $6 seniors, students
For information: 603.762.0235 or E-mail: Lisa Sieverts

The Nelson Contra Dance on Saturday, July 12th, features the calling of Adina Gordon and the music of Paradocs.

Adina Gordon lives in Asheville, North Carolina, where she is active in the local contra dance community and also travels extensively around the country to call for dances and festivals.

Paradocs consists of local musicians Carey Bluhm on fiddle and Larry Siegel on piano, and is so named because both musicians have PhD degrees! Carey is a psychologist from Fitzwilliam, NH. Larry is a well-known composer whose new work “Kaddish” recently premiered at Keene State College. In addition, as artistic director and founder of Tricinium, Ltd. and director of The Verbatim Project, he has helped towns and organizations create and perform original works of musical theater for more than twelve years.

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The Nelson dance opens with a beginner’s workshop at 7:30, and dancing starts at 8:00. All dances are taught throughout the evening.

Nelson Town Hall
Sunday, July 27th, 7:00
Admission: $15 at the door, $12 senior/youth/advance

Troy MacGillivray’s musical prowess can be attributed to an especially rare combination of commitment and bloodline. By the age of six, Troy was already impressing audiences with his step dancing skills. By 13 he was teaching piano at the renowned Gaelic College of Celtic Arts and Crafts in St. Anne’s, Cape Breton. He has completed grade seven of the Toronto Conservatory of Music for classical piano, spent four years in a stringed orchestra, earned a Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in music from St. Francis Xavier University and received an Applied Music Technology Diploma for recording engineering.

Troy has a roots-centered approach to his fiddling and piano playing that has the power to inspire any audience. Troy’s 4th CD, Live At The Music Room, is the 2008 ECMA (East Coast Music Association) Instrumental Recording of the Year—it’s a live recording which took place January 2007 at The Music Room in Halifax, NS – one of the finest acoustic spaces in Canada. This unique facility, which houses a New York-built Steinway grand piano, superbly showcases Troy’s musical talents in a live setting and features a wide variety of strathespeys and reels, jigs and polkas, a hornpipe and a piano air .. and even some fantastic step-dancing! His first three recordings – ELEVEN (2005), Boomerang (2003) and Musical Ties (2001) – also received Music Nova Scotia and East Coast Music Award nominations. His latest project, When Here Meets There, is a unique collaboration with Canadian & US National Fiddle Champion Shane Cook that clearly showcases why both fiddlers are at the top of their game!

Troy’s bloodline is equally as impressive. The Lanark MacGillivrays and MacDonalds have been proprietors of the Gaelic tradition in Northeastern Nova Scotia for generations. Troy’s grandfather, Hugh A. MacDonald, is a member of the Nova Scotia Country Hall of Fame – an honour bestowed for his contribution to the Gaelic culture of Nova Scotia. Troy’s immediate family have all displayed their musical talents by joining him on both the stage and in the studio. The award winning tradition continues as Troy has been the recipient of the “Auleen Theriault Young Tradition Award” from the Goderich Celtic Roots Festival in Goderich, Ontario as well as the Danny Kyle Stage Award at the Celtic Connections Festival in Glasgow, Scotland and recently returned from a Canadian Military Troops Entertainment Tour in Afghanistan.

So, whether playing piano or fiddle, or showcasing his step dancing capabilities, Troy MacGillivray certainly displays an intense commitment to the Celtic heritage he inherited from his Highland ancestors.
For more about Troy, please visit his Web site.