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Shana Aisenberg

 

  Shana Aisenberg is a prize-winning mandolinist as well as a nationally acclaimed acoustic multi-instrumentalist; composing, playing and teaching diverse styles from traditional Appalachian, Celtic and New England contradance music to eastern European Klezmer, Balkan, Scandinavian, bottleneck blues and jazz. Shana plays a wide array of stringed instruments including mandolin, mandola, bouzouki, mandocello, acoustic guitar, lap steel, fiddle, 5 string banjo and fretted dulcimer.

Shana has performed concerts, coffeehouses and festivals nationwide, and is a popular workshop teacher at some of the nation's best-known acoustic music camps. Shana has recorded 5 solo albums, most recently Metamorphosis and Desert Winds and has produced, engineered and played on over 30 recordings by other acoustic artists, three of which have won Indie Awards from NAIRD. Shana has composed music for PBS documentaries, written guitar and mandolin instruction books for Mel Bay Publications and numerous other musicians have performed and recorded Shana's tunes. In 1981 Shana was a triple winner at The Walnut Valley National Flatpicking Championships, Winfield, KS in fingerstyle guitar, mandolin and fretted dulcimer.

  August Watters

  

As director of CCMC, the New England Mandolin Ensemble and Boston Mandolins, August Watters draws on both improvisational and composed musical forms. August is an Emmy-award winning composer, mandolinist and guitarist with more than 25 years of performance and composition experience in varied styles. He has performed and presented clinics in Germany, Italy, England, the Czech Republic, Canada, and the United States. He maintains a regular schedule of private and public performances spanning classical, jazz and traditional folk styles, and has appeared at local, regional and international festivals and conferences including the Joe Val Bluegrass Festival (Boston), the Classical Mandolin Society of America (Montreal), the International Association of Jazz Educators, the J.D. Crowe Bluegrass Festival (Kentucky), and the European World of Bluegrass (Czech Republic).

August is an Associate Professor of Ear Training at Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he teaches Ear Training and the New Acoustic Music Ensemble. He has previously taught Berklee classes in improvisation, harmony, arranging, sightreading, and private lessons in mandolin. Education: Master of Music, Boston University, major in Music Education. Bachelor of Music, Berklee College of Music, Summa cum Laude, major in Jazz Composition. Masters-level studies in traditional composition completed privately with Harold Shapero.

 
Beverly Woods

Beverly Woods grew up in a musical family, and began studying piano at the age of 5. Beverly has been performing professionally since 1972, with an eclectic and ever-growing collection of acoustic instruments, including mandolin, bouzouki, hammered dulcimer, tsimbl, piano, accordions, 6- and 7-string guitars, autoharp, fretted dulcimer, folk harp, concertina, nyckelharpa, tenor banjo, and hurdy-gurdy. She has studied the traditions of these instruments extensively, and has a natural and accessible way of making them understandable to students.

For many years a well-known street performer in Boston, Beverly now performs mostly in New Hampshire with her partner, Shana Austen, and in various ensembles. Beverly also provides music for film and multimedia presentations, festivals and events of all kinds, New England contradancing, and international folk dance, and is a popular workshop leader. Beverly has released a number of recordings, most recently Balance On Air with hammered dulcimer player David Neiman.