Carol Crocker’s first introduction to mountain dulcimer was at a school Heritage Day program. As a folk musician Carol enjoys sharing her love of the dulcimer with children, schools, churches and senior homes. She has been a private instructor and has taught at various dulcimer festivals including Dulcimer U, Winston-Salem Dulcimer festival, Stephen Foster, North Georgia Foothills Festival, QuaranTUNE, Mt Dora, Kentucky Music Week and various other events. She is a regular song leader on the Send in the Music Virtual Jam and has a Send in the Music songbook “Tunes from Zoom”. Other books include “Songs of the Spirit” Books 1 and 2, African American spirituals arranged for the mountain dulcimer with a CD and digital download; “Beginner’s Guide to Mountain Dulcimer”, and “Dulcimer in The Schools”. Carol has a BS degree in Music Education from Western Carolina University and a MM degree in Music Education from UNC-Greensboro. She lives in Winston-Salem, NC, with her husband Joe.

Hailed by Pete Seeger as “The best hammered dulcimer player I’ve heard in my life,” Tina Bergmann has been performing concerts, and teaching workshops and private lessons from an early age. A fourth-generation musician, Bergmann began playing music at age eight, learning the mountain dulcimer from her mother in the aural tradition and learning the hammered dulcimer at the knee of West Virginia-native builder and performer Loy Swiger. Demonstrating gifts for both performance and teaching, she has been a featured performer across the United States, performing solo; as a duo with her husband, bassist Bryan Thomas; with her stringband Hu$hmoney; and both nationally and internationally as a member of Apollo’s Fire, Cleveland’s world renowned Baroque Orchestra.

Sarah Miner became the Texas State Mountain Dulcimer Champion in 2023 after only 6 months of playing the Mountain Dulcimer. She went on to become a National Finalist the same year. Sarah enjoys teaching music to those eager to learn and enjoys putting her own spin on traditional music to produce a sound she describes as alternative folkgrass. Sarah also began singing and songwriting at a young age.

Sarah received her first dulcimer in 2022. About 6 months into playing, she won the title of Texas State Champion. She went on to make the top 5 in the national competition in 2023, third place in Nationals in 2024, and recently received 2nd place at the Arkansas State competition this year. Sarah has experience teaching Mountain Dulcimer workshops for festivals in Texas, New Mexico, and Oklahoma. She taught elementary music in Post Texas, and is a vocal coach at the Lubbock School of Rock. Sarah loves to work with people of all ages in helping them express themselves through the art of music.

Neal Hellman, nationally acclaimed performer and teacher of the mountain dulcimer, has been active in performing, writing, teaching, and recording acoustic music for the past 40 years. Neal's recordings include: Emma’s Waltz, Autumn In the Valley, Dream of the Manatee (with Joe Weed) and Oktober County, all on the Gourd Music label. He is the author of many books on the Appalachian dulcimer, including: Mountain Dulcimer Arrangements from Both Sides of the Atlantic, Celtic Songs & Slow Airs for Mountain Dulcimer, The Dulcimer Chord Book, The Hal Leonard Dulcimer Method, and Music of the World for Mountain Dulcimer. As founder, director and one of the primary artists of the Gourd Music record label, Neal has produced over fifty recordings including Simple Gifts, The Fairie Round, Tender Shepherd, The World Turned Upside Down and Jefferson’s Fiddle, creating a uniquely distinctive sound, featuring a variety of acoustic instrumental ensembles, rich in texture and tonal color.

Dusty Thorburn grew up strumming guitar and singing “Kum Ba Ya” and “Blowin’ in the Wind” before it was a cliché. A professional historian, he sees traditional music as a way to connect with people from the past, especially those who left few written records of their lives. A guitarist and occasional mandolin player, Dusty discovered the dulcimer several years ago and has been obsessed ever since, entranced by the simple beauty of the instrument’s design and sound. He founded River City Dulcimers, a group of musical friends that meets monthly online and in Sacramento and is also a Moderator at the popular website Friends of the Mountain Dulcimer. Dusty has been a regular at music events around Northern California, having taught workshops at the Redwood Dulcimer Day in Santa Cruz and the Berkeley Dulcimer Gathering and performed at events such as Petaluma’s Art in the Park festival and Old Sacramento’s Gold Rush Days. He has published two books of mountain dulcimer tablature:  Lullabies from Around the World, arranged for the beginner player, and Songs of Old Albion & Erin, containing over thirty intermediate-level arrangements of tunes from early modern England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. Dusty currently offers private lessons online and at The Strum Shop in Roseville, CA. His lessons, arrangements, and compositions combine a respect for traditional sounds with a modern, blues-influenced sensibility.

A long-time affiliate of Community Music School of Santa Cruz, Janet Herman co-founded Redwood Dulcimer Day in 2001 and served as RDD’s director for its first 10 years, bringing in top national players and building local community. She is one of the performers in the documentary film, Hearts of the Dulcimer and she co-edited Music of the World for Mountain Dulcimer with Neal Hellman. A video interview with her by DJ Hamouris can be seen on the Dulcimoon website.

Janet started playing dulcimer as a teenager before studying early music at UC Riverside and earning a Ph.D. in Folklore/Ethnomusicology from UCLA with an emphasis in American folk music and shape note singing. As a singer and folklorist she loves to dive deep into trad music for dulcimer repertoire, but she also enjoys arranging pop music. Her other musical passions include playing Irish tenor banjo and mandolin, singing with the global vocal group Zambra, and working to document and preserve the traditional music of Bhutan.

"Smile-inducing, toe-tapping, thought-provoking folkgrass" is how reviewers describe award-winning instrumentalist and songwriter Steve Eulberg's music. 

"I live for the aha! experiences that people have and am dedicated to helping people enjoy their musical explorations on their instruments and share them with others," Eulberg says. Students respond enthusiastically to his engaging style and warm sense of humor, making him in demand at festivals across the USA.

Awarded 5 times in the national mountain dulcimer contest at Winfield, he is also a multiple finalist in the national hammered dulcimer contest. His music has been included in the Masters of the Mountain Dulcimer Compilations, Great Players of the Mountain Dulcimer, and has been featured on PBS' RoadTrip Nation, United Airlines Inflight Audio and NPR. With over 20 recordings to his credit, he is active in the San Francisco Chapter of NARAS (Grammys), Local 1000 AFM (Traveling Musicians), Eulberg owns Owl Mountain Music, Inc., and is co-owner and teacher at dulcimercrossing.com