String Camp

Lauren is the owner of Gypsy Girl String Studio, where students learn a wide variety of styles, in addition to workshops, jams, and musical outings. She is the youngest professional to have been elected president of the Maine chapter of the American String Teacher’s Association. She has also taught at camps and clinics around the country such as the Mark O’Connor Fiddle Camp, the Mike Block String Camp, and has her own teaching website jamwithlauren.com

Lauren grew up studying violin, and expanded into fiddle and roots music when she joined her first band at age 16. Since then she has performed regularly with Darol Anger’s Republic of Strings, Crow Molly, and shared the stage with Bruce Molksy, Tim O’Brien, Mike Marshall, Brittany and Natalie Haas and others at festivals such as Wintergrass, Delfest, Rockygrass, and Celtic Connections. Her debut album “All the Brighter” is now available.

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Carolyn has been fiddling her way across the United States one tune at a time. Carolyn grew up in Northern California in a family of Texan musicians, who knew from the start she’d be a musical trouble maker. From her early days of Suzuki violin, to marching band, and then to bluegrass and Billie Holiday, Carolyn makes herself musically at home wherever there’s a groove. Now a graduate of Berklee College of Music, and an active part of Berklee’s American Roots program, she is a recipient of the Fletcher Bright Scholarship Award, a 2015 Freshgrass Fiddle Competition finalist, and two-time participant in the Acoustic Music Seminar at the Savannah Music Festival. Most recently, her project The Page Turners has been given the 2016 Freshgrass Best Duo Award. She has performed widely at festivals across the United States such as Grey Fox, the Three Sisters Festival, Berkeley Bluegrass Festival and Newport Folk Festival, as well as endeavors abroad with the Nairobi Symphony. Carolyn has performed with many beloved artists, such as Bruce Molsky, Aoife O’Donovan, Joe Walsh, and Darol Anger. Her favorite things are cooking, two-stepping, and hanging out with dogs.

Bronwyn Keith‐Hynes is a Nashville-based bluegrass fiddler originally from Charlottesville, Virginia. Accepted on a scholarship to attend the American Roots Music Program at Berklee College of Music at age 16, she graduated in 2012 with a Professional Diploma in Violin Performance. Bronwyn is fast gaining recognition for her fiddling across bluegrass and acoustic music circles. She has performed with Peter Rowan, Darol Anger, The Milk Carton Kids, Anais Mitchell, The Deadly Gentlemen and Tony Trischka, among others. Bronwyn is a founding member of the IBMA award-winning bluegrass band Mile Twelve, and can be found touring with them all over the planet. In 2014 Bronwyn won first place in the Walnut Valley Old Time Fiddle Championship in Winfield, KS and in 2018 was awarded the Momentum Instrumentalist of the Year Award by the IBMA. Bronwyn has been on staff at Berklee College of Music teaching string lessons at The Five Week Program for several years. She teaches in person in Nashville, and world-wide through Skype.

Joe teaches mandolin at Berklee College of Music, where he graduated (’07) as the first mandolin principal ever from Berklee. He is also part of the new American Roots Program at Berklee. Ask him about string camps he’s taught at, and he runs out of fingers and toes, but they include Mike Block String Camp, Mark O’Connor String Camp, & The Maine Fiddle Camp among many others in the US, Canada and the United Kingdom.

Joe has toured, recorded and played with the absolute best in bluegrass, roots & acoustic based music, showcasing his omnivorous appetite for style. His experience includes, but is not limited to: The IBMA award winning The Gibson Brothers, Joy Kills Sorrow, Jonathan Edwards, Scott Nygaard, Matt Glaser, Emmylou Harris, Bela Fleck, John Scofield, Ricky Scaggs, Alison Brown, Darol Anger, The New England Bluegrass Band, The Stowaways, Brittany Haas & Owen Marshall, and last year’s Ossipee headliner, Marty Stuart!

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Originally from Clemson, South Carolina, mandolinist David Benedict is quickly becoming a notable figure in the bluegrass and acoustic music scene. After graduating with a mandolin music performance degree and spending a 3-year stint in Nashville touring and recording with acclaimed bass player Missy Raines, David made the move to Boston to join Mile Twelve. During this time, David founded the acclaimed and ongoing weekly video series Mandolin Mondays hosted on the Mandolin Cafe. He also received the 2018 IBMA Momentum Award for Instrumentalist of the Year. His recent solo album The Golden Angle demonstrates his ability to integrate seamlessly with the high-caliber company he keeps, including collaborations from Grammy-winning artists Stuart Duncan, David Grier, and others. Jazz guitar sensation Julian Lage notes, “David is one of the most inspiring lights on the creative acoustic music scene today. A talented player and composer who is paving the way for new and exciting music! I can’t wait to see where he takes us!”

Steve currently teaches Bass, mandolin, guitar and fiddle, and uke as an instructor at the 317 Main Community Music Center in Southern Maine. He has also taught at camps across the country including Steve Kaufman’s Flatpik & Acoustic Kamp.

Steve is as versitile as they come, playing in a band called Grassputian as a bluegrass guy, and a band called Jazzputian as a jazz guy simultaneously, while also enjoying folk, rock, funk, classical, country, old time, rockabilly, heavy metal etc. etc. etc! He is a multi-instrumentalist and has toured with Laurie Lewis, Hit and Run Bluegrass with Rebecca Fraiser, Chris Stewart and the Backcountry, among others. He is also well known in the Portland scene, playing with bands such as The Stowaways, and Erica Brown and the Bluegrass Connection.

He is a fantastically fun and energetic teacher and we are thrilled to be introducing a new instrument–ukulele, to the camp this year, and having him teach it!

So says Danny–“i’ve been at this a pretty long time. the main thing i use to get my ideas across has been the banjo. it has an unusual sound and is capable of a wide range of expression, however it isn’t very developed yet, in terms of what is being done with it in a current macro sense. it’s untapped.

a lot of what i do was informed by punk rock and dub music from the 70’s, i bought those records when they were new, thus starting a lifelong obsession of buying records. i received a degree from the university of texas [austin] in audio production, and loved the classes there about the history of audio and recorded music. that’s where i first started hearing experimental music, that’s also where i learned to be very comfortable in a recording studio. later i became the principle songwriter/producer/singer for bad livers, and eventually launched my own private record label [minner bucket records], publishing company, and solo career in about 1998.

i have some good friends in bands of various sizes, some of them are these quite famous people, though i try to learn from anyone that has an “idea.” my whole thing is music, and trying to make my own sound. i have developed a specific technique i call barnyard electronics which is an aesthetic combining various bits of bluegrass, noise, rock, and electronic music. the live aspect involves a computer program i built in max/msp and a banjo. i do about 150 domestic shows a year with that set-up.”

 Native New Zealander, Catherine (BB) Bowness started playing the banjo at the age of 12 after hearing a friend play the beverly hillbillies theme song. A few years later, BB received the Frank Winter memorial award at the Auckland Folk Festival allowing her to travel to the USA, where she studied with banjo players Tony Trischka, Alan Munde and Noam Pikelny. In 2009, she became the first banjo player accepted to the New Zealand School of Music, graduating in 2011 with a Bachelor of Music in Jazz Perfomance. BB was selected to attend the 2013 Savannah Acoustic Music Seminar, studying with world-class artists such as Julian Lage, Mike Marshall and Darol Anger. She won first place at the 2015 Freshgrass Banjo Contest and currently keeps busy recording, teaching and performing throughout New England.

Thomas Bryan Eaton has been honing his skills as a musician since he first fell in love with sound at the ripe old age of 3. That fateful Christmas, he got an old gray walkman with a record button on it that set his imagination running into a wild world of sonic explorations that continue to this day.

Thomas can often be seen coaxing sweet sounds out of a telecaster or pedal steel, working his melodious magic while singing his own songs or chiming in on harmony vocals when called for.

Behind the scenes, there’s even more. An avid songwriter with a lifetime love of the recording process; there’s never a dull moment at Thomas’ home studio. Whether it’s demoing a new honky tonk tune, twisting knobs for an avant-garde synth noise experiment or mixing a freshly cut live band rock ’n’ roll track, there’s always something happening.

Since the 2015 release of his self-produced full length album, “We All Want to Be Love,” Thomas made the move to Nashville, figuring 10 years in Brooklyn was enough. The move has allowed for more time at home, in a space more conducive to writing & recording, meaning there’s a lot happening! Currently he says there are around 25 songs that are in various states of completion that he’s corralling into at least one new album.

For several years Brooklyn-based guitarist Grant Gordy has been a major voice on the American “acoustic music” scene, and one of the most highly regarded young instrumentalists of his generation. Having held the guitar chair in the legendary David Grisman Quintet for six years, he’s also worked alongside such musical luminaries as Edgar Meyer, Steve Martin, Tony Trischka and Darol Anger. Grant has performed all over North America and Europe, everywhere from Carnegie Hall to Montreal Jazz Festival; Jazz at Lincoln Center to Bonnaroo.

His music has been heard on NPR’s Morning Edition, All Things Considered and Tiny Desk Concerts, and he’s received attention from international music periodicals such as The Fretboard Journal, Acoustic Guitar Magazine, Japanese bluegrass publication Moonshiner, Just Jazz Guitar and Flatpicking Guitar Magazine.

Born-and-raised in New York City, Nate Sabat is a bassist, vocalist, songwriter, and arranger currently based in Somerville, Massachusetts. He attended LaGuardia High School as a vocal principal and went on to study upright bass at the Berklee College of Music. He has performed on stages throughout Europe, Japan, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, and the United States. With his ability to pay close attention to detail and quickly internalize musical form and feeling, Nate has become an in-demand sideman both on stage and in the studio. He has worked with artists such as fiddle maestro Darol Anger, banjo legend Tony Trischka, bassist/composer Bruno Raberg, gypsy-jazz musicians Albert Bello and Oriol Saña, Canadian rock band Fish & Bird and singer-songwriter Jenny Ritter. Nate has written vocal music for NPR’s Radio Lab, written string arrangements for the Heifetz International Music Institute, and written songs that are in rotation on Sirius XM’s Bluegrass Junction channel. The debut project under his own name, Walking Away, was released on November 30th, 2018. At the core a rock project, it draws from influences as wide as the Stanley Brothers, Dvořák, Joni Mitchell and XTC.

Evan Murphy was raised in Milton, MA. He received his degree in music from Boston College and spent several years after graduating in New York City where he studied bluegrass guitar with Grammy-Nominated artists Michael Daves and Chris Eldridge. When Evan moved back to Boston in 2014 he cofounded Mile Twelve alongside some of the musicians who inspire him most. He now plays full time with them and teaches privately from his home in South Boston. Evan was featured at the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Songwriter Showcase in 2018 and was nominated for a momentum award as Vocalist of the Year.“

Miss Tess possesses a voice that is, “alternately seductive and sexy, and is a pure joy to listen to” (Pop Matters).With a decade’s worth of US & European tours and multiple full length releases under her belt, Miss Tess has proven to be one of the more interesting acts on the blossoming Americana scene. Her eclectic taste steeped in her deep well of musical knowledge results in her own timeless sound that continues to fascinate music lovers. After a move to Boston, Miss Tess took a few classes at Berklee College of Music and formed a new band with a few fellow jazz students. Miss Tess quickly established herself as a songwriter and performer in the storied Boston music scene, playing regularly at local clubs. Over four years she won a Boston Music Award, and was nominated several other times in the Folk and Jazz categories of the BMAs, as well as the New England Music Awards. Miss Tess later moved to Brooklyn for a 5 year stint in the big city, followed by a move to Nashville, where she is currently based. She has since developed her sound to include more classic country, rockabilly and vintage rock ‘n’ roll, all combining into her ever-developing sense of self and eclectic taste in American roots music.

More instructors including vocal & songwriting, and guitar, will be announced soon!