"a wild storm of music!" 2007 Philly Folk Festival |
Groovemama |
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Great Groove Bands at Old Songs & Philadelphia Folk Festivals every year |
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Contradancing at weekends, camps & festivals |
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Old Songs Fiddle & Strings Camp 2007 |
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Jane teaches a fiddle group |
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Donna, Jane and Max in Phoenix Mar 08 |
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Donna on faculty at Mark O'Connor's San Diego Strings Conference - 2006 |
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Max Cohen teaching fingerstyle guitar at 2007 Old Songs Festival |
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Donna with Rushad Eggleston and Darol Anger at Summer Strings 2006 |
site © 2008 Donna Hébert, www.fiddlingdemystified.com POB 2632, Amherst MA 01004
Programs . . .
Concerts | Workshops | Schools | Great Groove Bands | Summer Camps | Contradances
Groovemama plays community concerts as a trio on tour and as a quartet or quintet in the Northeast. The quintet features three fiddles and three banjos along with vocals, guitar and bass. Trio shows feature vocals, two fiddles, banjo and guitar. Credits include Philly and Old Songs Folk Festivals, Old Songs Concerts and venues in the Southwest. Individual group members have played folk festivals and concert series in North America and Europe with other bands since the 1970s, including Chanterelle, The Beaudoin Legacy, Rude Girls, Wild Asparagus, Yankee Ingenuity, Atlantic Bridge, Airdance, Fennig's All Stars and Tidal Wave. Guitarist Max Cohen also plays and records with singer Priscilla Herdman. Contact Donna Hébert about a concert, concert/workshop or festival with Groovemama.
>> Fiddle/Banjo/Guitar workshops
Donna, Jane and Max teach fiddle, banjo and guitar workshops at home and on tour. While touring, they generally play a music workshop and dance, house or community concert in the same weekend. Some workshops are one-hour group lessons with each of the trio, but where space is available, simultaneous three-hour workshops are possible. The band teaches the same tunes to everyone on fiddle, banjo, guitar, mandolin - whoever shows up and wants to play, really - and then we all get together at the end and jam!
Six-times funded as a master Franco-American fiddler by N.E. arts council, Donna is also adjunct fiddle instructor at Amherst College, teaching New England, French Canadian, Scots and Irish fiddling. A member of the first children's Suzuki class at Julliard, multi-instrumentalist Jane teaches novice and Southern Old-Time fiddle and banjo. Studio guitarist and engineer Max teaches fingerstyle and DADGAD guitar lead and backup in a variety of rhythms and styles. All three artists also teach harmony, arranging, theory and composition in fiddling genres. Contact Jane Rothfield for a fiddle/banjo/guitar workshop with Groovemama.
>> Fiddling Demystified for Strings workshops & school residencies
A national ASTA clinician, Donna Hébert was also recently named a Creative Teaching Partner in fiddling by the Mass. Cultural Council. With Groovemama, she leads orchestras in hands-on fiddling demonstrations that leave musical decisions up to the student. In partnership with string teachers in Massachusetts, Donna and Groovemama are creating a pilot program integrating fiddling into the string curriculum. Contact Donna Hébert about a Fiddling Demystified for Strings workshop or residency.
>> Great Groove Bands at Old Songs and Philly Folk Fests
Groovemama is committed to leading the next generation of acoustic and folk musicians into the lifelong joy and skill of group music making. The Great Groove Band welcomes singers, fiddlers, violinists, violists, cellists, guitar, mandolin, banjo, bass, flute, sax, piano and percussion players from ages 6 to 18.
Groovemama coaches them on 2-4 tunes over three rehearsal periods, with one tune learned by ear. We arrange the tunes on the spot for small and large ensembles for a main-stage performance at both festivals. "This is the heart of the festival!" says Andy Spence, director, Old Songs Inc. Contact Donna Hébert about signing up to play in the Great Groove band at either festival or to ask about starting a Great Groove Band at your event.
>> Summer Camps
Groovemama teaches two weeks of Fiddle & Strings Camp at Old Songs in Voorheesville NY. Teachers are Donna Hebert, Jane Rothfield, Max Cohen and George Wilson. Week I is for ages 6-18, Week II for novice to intermediate adults. Both weeks teach fiddle, strings, banjo, mandolin, guitar, bass, and keyboard players and both weeks have starting classes for fiddle, banjo and guitar. Week III, Fiddling Demystified for Strings Camp has Donna and Max teaching with California jazz cellist Renata Bratt. This week is focused for teachers and advanced fiddlers, string players, guitarists and string teachers who want to start learning to fiddle. Contact Donna Hébert about the program at Week I, II or III at Old Songs, or contact Old Songs to register for camp.
Groovemama members have played for thousands of contradances since 1972. Donna founded seminal contradance group Yankee Ingenuity in 1974 with caller Tony Parkes and after 10 years at the Scout House in Concord MA, went on to play dances with Rude Girls, Chanterelle and since 2000, Groovemama.
Jane has played on both sides of the Atlantic for contras and barn dances since the early 80s. She and Donna have played "joined at the hip" in rhythm since they met 20 years ago. George and Donna play the French-Canadian of Louis Beaudoin and are delighted to be in two bands together, Groovemama and the Beaudoin Legacy.
Stuart Kenney started playing bass jamming at Donna's Yankee Ingenuity dances in the 1970s. He has since played with every major dance band in the U.S, including a 13-year tenure with Wild Asparagus and a shorter stint with Rodney Miller's Airdance. George Wilson has been in Fennig's All Stars with Bill Spence for more than 25 years and also toured the U.S. and Europe with Old-Time dance fiddler Allan Block. Guitarist Max Cohen brings a fresh perspective to the dance groove after 20 years of rock and roll lead and rhythm and fingerstyle Celtic DADGAD guitar work, which make for some great dance rhythms!
Groovemama plays dances with a number of callers around the country. Some of our favorites are Ron Buchanan of Pittsburgh, PA (who said we were a "wild storm of music!") after working with the group last summer at Philly Folk Fest. When we are in the southwest, we love to work with Tucson caller Tod Whittemore. Contact Jane Rothfield about dance events
