Artists

BOXWOOD CANADA 2008

The Boxwood Festival and Workshop, July 19-25, 2008 in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, brings together an exciting line-up of artists from across the spectrum of traditional folk, baroque, renaissance and dance for a week of classes, performances, sessions and dances. Social dancing and step dancing will be at the heart of our program this summer as musicians and dancers alike rekindle the fire that connects their traditions.

The following artists will be presenting classes for all levels and will be featured in concert during the week.

Robert BIGIO - flute maker, scholar, author

Robert Bigio is a highly regarded maker of Boehm-System wooden flutes based in London, England. He is also renowned world wide as a leading scholar on the flute and flute manufacture, and is presently the editor of Pan, the journal of British Flute Society. He is author of Readings in the History of the Flute, a selection of monographs, essays, reviews, letters and advertisements from nineteenth–century London. Robert's long awaited book on the history of the Rudall, Rose & Carte will be published in the Spring of 2008.

Edmund BROWNLESS - voice

Edmund was born in Norwich, England and sang as chorister in the choir of Hereford Cathedral. After emigrating to Nova Scotia he studied music at McGill University in Montréal, where he received B. Mus. and M. Mus. degrees in voice. Later, he studied at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Switzerland and had lessons with Cornelius L. Reid in New York. As a soloist he has performed throughout Europe and North America and sings on many recordings, notably with the Bach Ensemble (Joshua Rifkin), Sequentia Köln, Ensemble Gilles Binchois (Dominique Vellard), and the Clemencic Consort (René Clemencic). He teaches voice (Early Music) at Dr. Hoch's Konservatorium in Frankfurt am Main and is the director of Das Consort Franckfort.

Pierre CHARTRAND - social & step dance, bones, bohdran

Anne-Marie GARDETTE - baroque & renaissance dance

Pierre is well known at home and abroad as a dancer, percussionist, caller, teacher and choreographer and has been one of Quebec’s leaders in traditional dance for more than 25 years. Recipient of a Traditional Dancing Medal at the «Jeux de la Francophonie» (Madagascar, 1997), and the prize of the Best Choreography by the Independent Reviewers Of New England (IRNE) in 2005, he pursues his career in an all-out effort to update our tradition and its repertoire.

Anne-Marie has been working as a baroque dancer for 20 years. She was a principal dancer with the Cie Ris et Danceries (Paris, France). She has lived in Québec for the past ten years, and is a central part of the music and dance scene in Montreal and across Canada.

William COULTER - guitar

William Coulter's love of traditional melody is framed by a classical sense of composition and realized with an impeccable and sensitive guitar technique. William's well exercised craftsmanship and his unusual ability to direct the voices of the guitar as if they were a steel-string choir make the music come to life in his hands. With his extensive discography and history of acclaimed performances, William Coulter continues to approach the music he makes on the guitar with an essential humility. William has recorded three solo albums on the Gourd Music label and has appeared on the Narada, Windham Hill, Hearts of Space, Columbia Record Club. As well as performing and recording, William works as a producer and recording engineer, and teaches guitar at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He has previously taught summer courses at the National Guitar Summer Workshop, Alasdair Fraser's Valley of the Moon Scottish Fiddling School and the Puget Sound Guitar Workshop.

Rod GARNETT - improvisation, song, accompaniment, Peruvian and Balinese flute ensembles, tone development

Rod is an award winning flute and world music professor at the University of Wyoming, and performs as a part of the "Komodore and Garnett" flute & guitar duo, the Irish ensemble Colcannon, and is a regular member of the Boulder Bach Festival Orchestra. He initiated the Wyoming Gamelan after studying gamelan in Bali, Indonesia, and was instrumental in launching Boxwood in 1996 and ‘97. His eclectic career spans classical, jazz, folk, and world music.

Adrianne GREENBAUM - Klezmer flute

is a nationally acclaimed klezmer and classical flutist. As a klezmer she is the founder and leader of "FleytMuzik," an ensemble with flute, violin, cimbalom and bass, and of "The Klezical Tradition" klezmer band where she performs on both flute and keyboard and leads Yiddish dance. She has been on the faculties of Living Traditions’ KlezKamp, KlezKanada, Klezmerquerque and Boxwood. For their European debut, FleytMuzik was a premier participating ensemble at the KlezMore Festival in Vienna, Austria. Greenbaum has also performed with The Lori Cahan-Simon Ensemble, Kapelye, with Adrienne Cooper in performances at the International Jewish Festival in Amsterdam and NYC‘s Jewish Museum and as accompanying artist with numerous cantors in concert as both pianist and flutist. Ms. Greenbaum presents workshops in the art of klezmer performance to classical flutists, in recent years at UConn, Wesleyan University, South Alabama State, Ohio State, Akron, and Miami Universities, University of Southern California, The Flute Society of Portland, Oregon, and at the Cleveland Institute of Music.

Adrianne has composed since childhood and was commissioned to write a complete klezmer Friday night service, presented last in Bethesda, Maryland. As a clinician interested in sharing klezmer music with young people of all ages and backgrounds Adrianne presents school workshops and directs three student klezmer ensembles in Connecticut and Massachusetts."The Klezical Tradition" has won many awards for its recording Family Portrait, including Top 10 CD’s from both Moment Magazine and the NY Jewish Week. The band was also chosen to be included as a feature in the ABC-TV documentary A Sacred Noise: The New Jewish Music. Through Greenbaum's recordings and concertizing she has returned the flute to its rightful place in klezmer. She has been called a National Treasure for these efforts. Adrianne's playing can be heard on the Koch International, CBS Masterworks, Nonesuch, and EMC labels

David GREENBERG - Cape Breton fiddle, Baroque violin

David Greenberg's double career as both a baroque violinist and traditional fiddler began at an early age. David studied baroque violin with Stanley Ritchie at Indiana University's Early Music Institute, and moved to Canada in 1988 to join the Toronto-based baroque orchestra Tafelmusik. With Tafelmusik for 10 years, David performed orchestral, chamber, and solo roles in North America, Europe, and the Far East, and on more than forty recordings. David also plays the vielle (medieval fiddle). He won first prize at the Erwin Bodky International Early Music Competition in 1988 with the Medieval Quintet, and he recorded vielle soundtracks for Atom Egoyan's film The Sweet Hereafter. David has gained the reputation in Cape Breton music circles as being one of the few people from outside the Nova Scotia island to have achieved a fluent command of the Cape Breton music idiom. With his wife, Kate Dunlay, he published Traditional Celtic Violin Music of Cape Breton, The DunGreen Collection.

Brian FINNEGAN - Irish whistle & flute

Brian Finnegan, from Armagh, started playing the Tin Whistle when he was eight years old. Inspired by two great teachers, Brian and Eithne Vallely (of the Armagh Pipers Club), he took up the flute at the age of ten and won his first All-Ireland Fleadh Cheoil a year later. He formed his first band, Upstairs In A Tent, in 1992, and for the next four years toured Ireland, Britain and Europe with the group. In 1993 he released his first solo album, ‘When The Party’s Over’ (Acoustic Radio). In recent years Brian has been touring the world with the innovative Anglo-Irish band, Flook, whose albums and tours have been met with great critical acclaim. Flook are a flute-and-whistle based band with the twin flutes and whistles of Brian Finnegan and Sarah Allen swapping melody with harmony and bouncing off each other in improvised, percussive runs. Brian is a much sought after teacher of both whistle and flute. He has been a regular tutor at Folkworks Summer Schools in Durham, and at Burwell House in Cambridgeshire. He has also tutored on the Post-Graduate Masters Degree course in Traditional Music at the University of Limerick.

The Scotland on Sunday said of Brian: "...a thrilling talent, marvelous technical dexterity, bold musical imagination and urgent tone combining in playing of breathtaking suppleness and delicacy"

Betsy MacMILLAN - viola da gamba, ensembles

After receiving a Master’s degree in performance on the viola da gamba from McGill University, Betsy MacMillan furthered her studies on the viola da gamba at the Royal Conservatory in the Hague, Holland, with Wieland Kuijken. Betsy MacMillan is a founding member of Ensemble Arion, formed in 1981, with whom she has performed numerous concerts in Europe, Mexico, Ireland, England, Brazil, the United States, as well as throughout Canada. She has played with the La Nef, The Toronto Consort, Studio de Musique ancienne de Montréal, Les Boréades, Les Voix humaines, Ensemble Caprice and the Skye Consort. She is presently coordinator of the Early Music Ensembles at McGill University and is invited regularly to teach at many different early music and viola da gamba workshops.

David McGUINNESS - harpsichord, piano, listening

David McGuinness is one of the UK’s most versatile keyboard players, working in early music, traditional music, rock and classical. He was the youngest ever graduate of the University of York, and was awarded a PhD at the University of Glasgow for his studies in 16th century English music. He is the director of eclectic early music group Concerto Caledonia, collaborating with artists as diverse as Mark Padmore, the Tiger Lillies, Karen Matheson and Daniel Johnston.

David’s regular recital partners include the violinist/fiddler David Greenberg, sopranos Lisa Milne and Katharine Fuge, and the cellist Alison McGillivray. He has recorded two albums of Acadian folk songs with Suzie LeBlanc’s ensemble in Montréal, and is a guest artist with the Chris Norman Ensemble in the USA. He has appeared as a harpsichord soloist with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.

His reconstruction of Allan Ramsay’s ballad opera The Gentle Shepherd was performed at the Edinburgh International Festival, and he provided the string arrangements for the album I Trawl the Megahertz by Paddy McAloon, voted by Mojo Magazine one of the 50 most 'out there' albums of all time. He was the featured piano soloist on the soundtrack of Mira Nair’s Vanity Fair, playing the fortepiano apparently played in the movie by Reese Witherspoon.

David is a contributor to Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, a guest lecturer at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, and has given masterclasses at many universities including Case Western Reserve, McGill University in Montréal, and the University of South Alabama. In 2007 he produced John Purser’s 50-part history of Scottish music for BBC Radio Scotland.

Chris NORMAN - director, traditional & baroque flutes, pipes

Born in Halifax, NS into a music loving family, Chris' influential work as a performer, composer, recording artist and teacher has done much to bring the simple wooden flute to the forefront as an alternative voice to the modern orchestral instrument and redefined the flute in traditional Canadian & Scottish traditional music. His busy performing schedule includes solo engagements and concerts with a variety of ensembles, appearing frequently as soloist with orchestra and touring with his own Chris Norman Ensemble. In years past Chris has also appeared worldwide as a member of the international folk trio, Helicon, the all-star Celtic fusion group, Skyedance, the acclaimed early music group, The Baltimore Consort and across Europe with Concerto Caledonia.

Norman's flute playing can be heard featured on the Oscar winning soundtrack of Titanic, the Hollywood films, Soldier, and the forthcoming Stone of Destiny. His solo CD releases have received unanimous praise from critics and audiences alike and appeared on Billboard's crossover charts. He's presently producing and hosting a program on connections between food & music for Inside the Music broadcast nationally on CBC Radio One in Canada and worldwide on Sirius. Through his work as founder and artistic director of the Boxwood Festivals and Workshops taking place in Canada, New Zealand & Europe, Chris has inspired thousands of musicians of all ages abilities.

Gilles PLANTE - recorder, baroque & renaissance flutes, bagpipes

After having obtained a Bachelor's Degree in literature and a Master's Degree in Medieval Studies, Gilles Plante was destined for a career in literature. However, the founding of the early music group Ensemble Claude-Gervaise, which he has led from the beginning, changed all that. He became a musician, specializing in early music and period instruments. He enjoys a double career as teacher-lecturer and as a performer with the Claude-Gervaise, Bretons & Cie and Danse Cadence ensembles.

Pauline HINGSTON - Irish Step Dance

Pauline has done many forms of dance including Highland Dance, Polish Dance, Irish Set Dance and Traditional Irish Step Dance as a performer, participant, teacher and choreographer. She has travelled to Ireland several times to take classes and workshops with some of the most noted teachers in Set dancing and traditional step dance. On highlight in Ireland was dancing in the Big Concert at Willie Clancy Week accompanied by a musician playing Willie Clancey’s pipes. Currently she teaches Irish set dancing for the group Scaip na Cleiti dancers and coordinates the dancing at The Old Triangle on Sunday afternoons.