David Brewer - Winds and Bodhrán
David Brewer is a multi-instrumentalist who has toured with the Scottish super-group The Old Blind Dogs, and with Molly's Revenge across the US, the UK, Canada, China, and Australia. He has been a special guest of the six-time Grammy winning group The Chieftains, and was a key musician for the sound track of the PBS documentary, “Andrew Jackson, Good, Evil, and the Presidency”. David, who is known for being animated and engaging on stage, compliments Rebecca’s award winning fiddling with guitar, Irish penny-whistle, and bodhran frame-drum, but primarily the Scottish bagpipes, on which he is unarguably one of the most energetic and charismatic performers of the instrument in the world today.
To See His site, CLICK HERE
John Weed - irish fiddle and Cello
John Weed is a classically-trained violinist who switched to playing Irish fiddle about 20 years ago. John lived in Ireland in 2000 and taught fiddle workshops at the Flowing Tide International Music School in Doonbeg, County Clare. He attended the Frankie Kennedy Winter School in Dunlewey, County Donegal where he has studied with Ciaran O'Maonaigh and Dermot Mcloughlin.
Éilís Kennedy
Eilís Kennedy was born and raised in the heart of West Kerry, to parents who passed on a lifelong and committed interest in the poetry and songs of that region. She has been fortunate to have had the opportunity to listen to many of the finest exponents of song in her locality. The emotion and stories associated with Gaelic singing thus informed her love of song. Éilís plays whistle and Irish flute and is a fluent Gaelic speaker. Her three solo albums have featured William Coulter on guitar and they have worked together on music projects and tours, most recently with violinist Edwin Huizinga. Her solo album “Westward" was released to critical acclaim in December 2016 and led to Eílís being awarded Live Ireland’s Female Vocalist of the Year 2018. Her latest album “So Ends This Day” was released in 2020.
To See Her site, CLICK HERE
Rebecca Lomnicky - Scottish Fiddle
Originally from Corvallis Oregon, Rebecca began playing classical violin and piano at age five, discovering Scottish fiddle music only few years later. Rebecca has been the recipient of many fiddle awards throughout her career, the most prestigious being in 2009 when she won the invitation-only 20th Annual Glenfiddich International Scottish Fiddle Championship held at Blair Castle, Blair Atholl, Scotland. Rebecca has performed in Scotland, Ireland, Italy, China, and across the USA, and currently tours with her Scottish band, The Fire, which includes fellow CMS faculty David Brewer and Adam Hendey. She has been featured on BBC Radio on multiple occasions, and was recently interviewed by Fiddler Magazine which stated “Rebecca has proved herself to be an accomplished and gifted interpreter, composer, and champion of Scottish fiddling.” In addition to her performance accolades, Rebecca holds two masters degrees, one in Folklore and one in Ethnomusicology specializing in Scottish traditional music, and is currently teaching and pursuing a Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley.
To see her site, CLICK HERE
Jesse Autumn
Jesse is a musician and artist based in New Orleans. She sings and plays concert harp, piano, accordion and harpsichord, and is one of the foremost American performers of the Double Harp, an unusual type of harp with two parallel sets of strings. She's a singer/songwriter in the realm of surrealist chamber folk, composes instrumental minimalist music, and arranges world music for double harp and large harp ensembles. She has released two CD’s of original music, three albums of Celtic and other world music, and an experimental "soundtrack" album of 31 compositions. She's appeared on over twenty additional albums as a guest artist. Her original music has been used in documentary films and shorts, as well as contemporary dance performances in Greece, Finland, Mexico and the United States. She has taught harp privately for two decades, has served as harp, piano and accordion faculty for Community Music School's camp programs since 2001, and has been artistic director for the Santa Cruz Harp Festival since 2003. She lives and works in New Orleans year-round, travels to Santa Cruz often to teach and perform, and teaches harp online to students around the USA.
To see her site, click here
Adam Hendey
Adam Hendey is a multi-instrumentalist and composer who has performed in Ireland, the UK, and across the United States, playing and studying with members of Lúnasa, Flook, and Molly’s Revenge. Since beginning tin-whistle at thirteen years of age, Adam has dedicated himself to the traditional music of Scotland and Ireland, while also becoming well versed in other forms of popular music. On guitar and bouzouki, Adam brings an innovative contemporary approach to traditional music, with a passion informed by intense study of music theory and a diverse wealth of musical experience. In addition to performing, Adam graduated from the Robert D. Clark Honors College at the University of Oregon, with a majors in Music and Philosophy. He has just finished a masters degree at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, studying Traditional Music and specializing in guitar performance. Adam has released his debut solo album, Forward, which features appearances by both Rebecca and David. For more about Adam, please click here
janet herman
A lifelong lover of traditional music, Janet became enthralled with shape note singing in her twenties, traveling throughout the country to “singings” and earning a Ph.D. in Folklore & Ethnomusicology from UCLA with a dissertation on the topic. She also loves singing in Irish, having gotten her start with sean-nós at the Joe Mooney Summer School in Ireland in 1999; she was a soloist for Mary Mc Laughlin’s Cór Ainglí and currently conducts the choir for the annual Irish language mass at St. Joseph’s Parish, Mountain View. Lap dulcimer lovers know her as co-founder, instructor, and former long-time Director of CMS’s Redwood Dulcimer Day and as a featured performer in the indie documentary Hearts of the Dulcimer. Janet is lead writer and advisor for the Music of Bhutan Research Centre, based out of Thimphu, Bhutan. In her free time she plays Irish tenor banjo at sessions and with her family band, Dance Around Molly, and sings with the global vocal group Zambra.