"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 March 2008 |
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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
Tours with Donna, Jane & Max . . .
2008-09 Tour dates booking now | Concerts & festivals | Workshops & house concerts | Schools | Summer camps | Contradances
Groovemama is booking two tours for 2008-2009 and planning a third. The first two have solid dates, while the third, a return to the Southwest is in the planning stages.
All three tours are interested in booking festivals, community and house concerts, school and college fiddling workshops and residencies, fiddle/banjo/guitar workshops, contradances and dance weekends.
I. Northern-Central Florida, Oct 18-Nov 12. Tentative itinerary includes Tampa, Gainesville, Ocala, Spring Hill, Jacksonville, Daytona and Orlando.
2. Atlanta to Philly, Feb 24-Mar 11 or 12. Jane and Donna are attending the ASTA Conference Feb 25-28.The band already has bookings in Chapel Hill and the DC area. We hope to touch down in Atlanta, Chattanooga, Knoxville, Asheville, Chapel Hill, Whitetop VA, Wash. DC, Glen Echo MD, Baltimore and Philly.
CONTACTS for booking any of our tour dates are Jane Rothfield and Donna Hébert.
Groovemama plays community concerts and festivals as a trio on tour. 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 major folk festivals and concert venues in North America and Europe with other bands since the 1970s, including Chanterelle, The Beaudoin Legacy, Rude Girls, Yankee Ingenuity, Atlantic Bridge and Jane's Gang. 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 with a house concert
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 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.
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.
>> Great Groove Bands at Old Songs and Philly Folk Fests and other festivals
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.
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. 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 called us a "wild, unstoppable 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.
