CONTACT: Donna or Jane

Great Groove Bands at Old Songs  & Philadelphia Folk Festivals every year

Contradancing at weekends, camps & festivals

Old Songs Fiddle & Strings Camp 2007

Jane teaches a fiddle group

Donna, Jane and Max in Phoenix Mar 08

Donna on faculty at Mark O'Connor's San Diego Strings Conference - 2006

Max Cohen teaching fingerstyle guitar at 2007 Old Songs Festival

Donna with Rushad Eggleston and Darol Anger at Summer Strings 2006

site © 2008 Donna Hébert, www.fiddlingdemystified.com POB 2632, Amherst MA 01004

Band bios . . .

Donna | Jane | Max | George | Stuart

Donna Hébert A 2008 Massachusetts Artists' Fellow in the Folk Arts for her Franco-American fiddling, Groovemama's fiddler and singer Donna Hébert learned her French fiddling in person from greats like Louis Beaudoin and Gerry Robichaud in the 1970s. Adjunct fiddle instructor at Amherst College since 2001, Donna is also a 2008 national ASTA fiddling clinician, teaching "Fiddling with a French Accent" at the national ASTA conference in Albuquerque and releasing her teaching DVD of the same name this summer. In 2007, Donna was named a Creative Teaching Partner in fiddling by the Massachusetts Cultural Council. She is working on a regional pilot program with string teachers to incorporate fiddling into their classrooms. In school residencies, she specializes in hands-on fiddling demonstrations that empower students to learn how to make their own musical decisions in the context of an ensemble. In partnership with Massachusetts string teachers, Donna and Groovemama are creating a pilot program designed to integrate fiddling into established string curriculum. Touring several times a year with Groovemama, Donna takes her Fiddling Demsytified for Strings program to schools and colleges around the country. Last winter in the Southwest, they taught workshops for dance musicians and for Arizona State University's music education department. In collaboration with Old Songs Festival, Donna created the Great Groove Bands for young musicians age 6-18 at the festival, and in 2006, expanded the program to include the Philadelphia Folk Festival as well. Donna also directs three summer camp weeks at Old Songs Community Center for children, adults and string teachers. Donna has received six state Master-Apprenticeship Awards as an authentic Franco-American master fiddler since 2001. Four of those apprentices are now involved in the Beaudoin Legacy group (one is Louis Beaudoin's grandson!) and a fifth student plays both fiddle and bass with them. In addition to playing with Franco-American heritage group Chanterelle since it's founding in 1993, in 2005 Donna and Beaudoin family members began another Franco group, the Beaudoin Legacy band, named in 2007 to the NEA's American Masterpiece Roster by the Vermont Arts Council. An important fiddling pioneer in the national contradance renaissance, Donna played in the 1970s with callers Dudley Laufman, Ralph Page Duke Miller and Ted Sanella. She started the Concord MA Scout House contradance series with caller Tony Parkes and Yankee Ingenuity in 1975. Donna has played since then for countless dances with Rude Girls, Chanterelle and Groovemama.	AWARDS: 2008 Massachusetts Artists' Fellow (Massachusetts Cultural Council), six NEA-funded Master-Apprenticeship Awards since 2001 in Franco-American fiddling from NH, VT, CT, RI arts councils; Mass Cultural Council's 2007 Creative Teaching Partner Roster, Artists' Fellowship Finalist - 2006;. NEA American Masterpiece Roster with the Beaudoin Legacy - 2007, VT Arts Council. RESIDENCIES: 2008 Creative Teaching Partner in Fiddling in Yarmouth MA; Amherst College - adjunct fiddle instructor since 2001; Director of: yearly Fiddling Demystified for Strings Camp, Old Songs Fiddle & Strings Camp. Great Groove Band at Old Songs and Philadelphia Folk Festivals. 2008 ASTA National Fiddling Clinician; 2001-02 Wesleyan Univeristy fiddle instructor; 2006 Mark O'Connor's San Diego Strings Conference; 2007 John C. Campbell Folk School; 2002 Hartt College Summerterm; 2003-4 Groove Camp.. FESTIVALS: Philadelphia Folk Festival - every year; Old Songs Festival - every year, 2007 Lowell Folk Festival, 2008 American Folk Festival, 2002 & 2007 Mystic Sea Music Festival, 2006-2009 Champlain Valley Folk Festivals and major festivals and concert series in the U.S., Canada and Europe since 1975 with Chanterelle, The Beaudoin Legacy, Groovemama, Rude Girls and Yankee Ingenuity,
"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." String wizard Darol Anger in his foreword to Fiddling Demystified "Donna Hébert is an outstanding performer and world class teacher. I consider her at the forefront of the developing field of fiddle pedagogy." Dr. Alan Jabbour, Dir. (ret)., American Folklife Center, Library of Congress
Jane Rothfield	RESIDENCIES: Old Songs Fiddle & Strings Camp 07-08, Groove Camp 03-04, FESTIVALS: Philadelphia Folk Festival - every year; Old Songs Festival - every year
Max Cohen	RESIDENCIES: Old Songs Fiddle & Strings Camp 08, Fiddling Demystified Camp for Strings 08, FESTIVALS: Philadelphia Folk Festival - every year; Old Songs Festival - every year
George Wilson	RESIDENCIES: Old Songs Fiddle & Strings Camp 08, Fiddling Demystified Camp for Strings 07, FESTIVALS: Philadelphia Folk Festival - every year; Old Songs Festival - every year
Stuart Kenney	RESIDENCIES: Ashokan Fiddle and Dance Camp yearly, 2003-4 Groove Camp, FESTIVALS: Philadelphia Folk Festival - every year; Old Songs Festival - every year, Falconridge Folk Festival, Champlain Valley Folk Festival,