Teen Camp Faculty 2026
John Weed - irish fiddle
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. John has been a long-time instructor at Community Music School’s summer camps for teens and adults, and also leads the school-year Teen Band program.
Ben Roberts
Ben Roberts is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, and educator based in New York City. As a guitarist, fiddler, and bouzouki player, he can be found most nights of the week playing shows or leading sessions across the Trad Irish and Old Time scenes of New York and Boston.
He performs regularly with Brendan Hearn (The Good Folk), Jake James (The Consequences), and Aidan Scrimgeour (Pumpkin Bread), among others, and plays in Colúr with Autumn Rhodes and Malden Meehan.
Ben studied Contemporary Improvisation at the New England Conservatory (2022) and Cello Performance at the Cleveland Institute of Music (2020). He can be found every Tuesday night playing tunes and singing songs at Putnam’s Pub in Brooklyn.
Autumn Rhodes
Autumn Rhodes hails from Amish country in Indiana and has been performing Irish traditional music professionally since age 13. She has toured the US, Canada, Ireland, and Thailand extensively, performing on tin whistle, Irish flute, concertina, uilleann pipes, button accordion, and Irish and English vocals. She has won several fleadh gold medals and is known as an expert on the history of Irish music in California. She plays with several bands in the Midwest and California, including The Jammy Dodgers, The Golden Gate Céilí Band, Gránna, and Soltré. Autumn has 20 years of experience teaching and being an event staff musician, including at Lark Camp and Catskills Irish Arts Week.
Shelley Phillips
Shelley Phillips has a Masters of Music from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. She plays and tours with The Anjali Quartet and The Coulter/Phillips Ensemble, performs as a duo with her husband, Barry Phillips, sings Shape Note music, and has collaborated with Rumi translator and poet Coleman Barks making two albums of poetry and music. Shelley has appeared on more than 20 albums on the Gourd music label, including her solo albums The Fairie Round, Pavane, The Butterfly, and The Wood Between the Worlds, as well as a duet album with Barry called Wondrous Love. She also has recorded music of the Shakers and produced a benefit album, Verdant Groves, for the Shaker village museums. In addition she teaches at several other summer programs, including founding the Boxwood Flute Festival's children's, teens' and seniors' programs in Nova Scotia and teaching music related crafts at various primitive skills gatherings in the west. Shelley also works as a music director within the Episcopalian church and is the founder of Community Music School of Santa Cruz. She lives on the foggy California coast with her husband and her very spoiled cat.
Fox Pettinotti
Fox Pettinotti is a multi-instrumentalist and composer who specializes in guitars, whistles, Irish tenor banjo, and mandolin. Fox attended Community Music School’s Kid Camp and Teen Camp throughout their youth, and now leads the singing portion of Teen Camp (both shape note and sea shanties).
Tyler Weed
Tyler Weed was raised in a musical family. Being immersed in music
since birth while accompanying his father’s band Molly’s Revenge
across the Western US, Tyler has since become accomplished on guitar, mandolin, and tenor banjo, and has developed a distinct composition style. Heavily influenced by Bay Area mandolin great Marla Fibish, Tyler’s sense of tone, rhythm, and phrasing is deeply rooted in the Irish tradition. His style can be characterized by percussive triplet ornamentations with a driving, yet hypnotic groove. While he is rooted in the Irish tradition, Tyler has developed a passion for a multitude of diverse genres including Scottish, American Old Time, Jazz, Funk, Rock, and more. In 2022, Tyler was awarded a first-place Maestro Award for jazz guitar at the Anaheim World Strides Heritage Festival. He was elected as the feature ‘Next Generation’ performer at the 2023 San Francisco International Festival of Mandolins.
Tyler tours and performs with The Weeds, a band consisting of his
brother Evan Weed on piano, Celtic lever harp, and melodica, and
father John Weed on fiddle. Many of his compositions are featured on their debut album, “Supernatural.” Tyler was recently on faculty
teaching Celtic mandolin at Wallowa Fiddle Tunes Camp in Eastern
Oregon.
Renata Bratt
Cellist and clinician Renata Bratt is a member of the American String Teachers Association Alternative String Styles Advisory Committee. Based in California, she teaches cello at the Santa Cruz Waldorf Elementary School, the Pacific Elementary School in Davenport, and beginning orchestra through the Cabrillo Youth Strings program.
She has taught classical styles, jazz improvisation and fiddling at national string workshops for children and adults, including the Mark O'Connor String Conference, Alasdair Fraser's Sierra Fiddle Camp, Valley of the Moon Scottish Fiddling School, New Directions Cello Festival, the National Cello Institute, IAJE, ASTA, MENC and Suzuki institutes and conferences. She is a past president of the Suzuki Music Association of California and the International Association for Jazz Education String Caucus. Ms. Bratt received her Ph.D. in Music from the University of California at San Diego.