String Camp

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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Jake is a very tall guy who grew up to play a very tiny instrument. A two-time Acoustic Music Seminar participant and a graduate of the Berklee College of Music, mandolinist Jake Howard plays and writes music that is galvanized by roots music from around the globe. Music has taken him all over the country, yet he was introduced to acoustic music in his hometown, the greatest bluegrass city of all time: Akron, Ohio. Jake joined his uncle’s bluegrass band (The Blue Ribbon Bluegrass Band) playing mandolin and spent the next two years refining his craft. In his years with Blue Ribbon Bluegrass Band, Jake recorded two CDs and played countless gigs all over the northeastern United States. After being urged by his friends and family, Jake applied to the Berklee College of Music, where he now studies Mandolin performance and American Roots Music, mentored by greats such as Joe Walsh, Maeve Gilchrist, David Wallace, and Matt Glaser. You can find Jake playing regularly at festivals such as Grey Fox, Freshgrass and the Three Sisters Festival, with groups such as The Page Turners and Wrong is Right. Being a Bostonian and a senior in college, Jake plans to graduate college and make a splash in the acoustic scene with his polished songwriting and his gritty, soulful playing.

Today, Bruce Molsky is one of the most revered “multi-hyphenated career” ambassadors for America’s old-time mountain music. For decades, he’s been a globetrotting performer and educator, a recording artist with an expansive discography including seven solo albums, well over a dozen collaborations and two Grammy-nominations. He’s also the classic “musician’s musician” – a man who’s received high praise from diverse fans and collaborators like Linda Ronstadt, Mark Knopfler, Celtic giants Donal Lunny and Andy Irvine, jazzer Bill Frisell and dobro master Jerry Douglas, a true country gentleman by way of the Big Apple aptly dubbed “the Rembrandt of Appalachian fiddlers” by virtuoso violinist and sometimes bandmate Darol Anger.

Molsky digs deep to transport audiences to another time and place, with his authentic feel for and the unearthing of almost-forgotten rarities from the Southern Appalachian songbook. His foils are not only his well-regarded fiddle work, but banjo, guitar and his distinctly resonant vocals.   From tiny folk taverns in the British Isles to huge festival stages to his ongoing workshops at the renowned Berklee College of Music, Molsky seduces audiences with a combination of rhythmic and melodic virtuosity and relaxed conversational wit – a uniquely humanistic, downhome approach that can make Carnegie Hall feel like a front porch or parlor jam session.

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, 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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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!

llison de Groot combines love for old-time music, technical skill and a creative approach to the banjo forming her own sound – unique and full of personality.  Although firmly rooted in old-time and music, she loves to collaborate and create outside this genre, pushing the boundaries of the clawhammer banjo.

     Allison has toured all over the world with various groups, performing at venues such as Newport Folk Festival, Rockygrass, Hardly Strictly, Winnipeg Folk Festival and Tønder Festival.  The music scene in her hometown of Winnipeg, Canada, immersion in Appalachian old-time communities, a performance degree at Berklee College of Music in Boston, and touring extensively throughout North America and Europe have all had a great impact on her playing.  She is currently performing with Bruce Molsky’s new project Molsky’s Mountain Drifters and The Goodbye Girls and Allison de Groot & Tatiana Hargreaves.​

Scott Nygaard is one of the most inventive and original guitarists in the bluegrass/acoustic music scene. His solos, a seamless amalgam of bluegrass, folk, and jazz influences, shift easily from breathtaking virtuosity to soulful melodic musings and his accompaniment is always intriguing, supportive, and propulsive. Initially influenced by Doc Watson, Clarence White, and Django Reinhardt and Riley Puckett, Scott spentmany years wandering the sea of American music that includes bluegrass, jazz, Cajun, old-time, western swing and rock and roll, and has since expanded his musical world to include traditional Swedish and Irish music.

“Nygaard’s flatpicking is so fluid and clever the crowd keeps squinting at his hands, checking to make sure there are only two.”–Oakland Tribune

Scott was the guitarist with Tim O’Brien’s band, the O’Boys, from 1992 to 1997, and has performed and/or recorded with such acoustic music stars as Joan Baez, Chris Thile, Darol Anger, Jerry Douglas, Laurie Lewis, Anonymous 4,  Matt Flinner, Bill Evans, Sharon Gilchrist, and many others, receiving numerous Grammy nominations for his stellar sidemanship. He was the guitarist on three recordings that have proven to be extremely influential on the contemporary acoustic music scene: Chris Thile’s Leading Off, Tim O’Brien’s Red on Blonde, and Jerry Douglas’s Slide Rule.

Boston-based Stash Wyslouch (Pronounced Stash Why-Slouch) is one of bluegrass’ great young genre-bending pioneers. He got his start as a guitarist in metal bands before immersing himself in the structures of roots music as a member of progressive bluegrass act, The Deadly Gentlemen. Stash is currently a member of Old Time music trio Molsky’s Mountain Drifters (alongside Bruce Molsky and Allison DeGroot) and leads his own group of original music, The Stash! Band, which features Sean Trischka on Drums, and Duncan Wickel on Fiddle.

Isa Burke is a fiddler, singer, guitarist, and songwriter raised in Maine and based in Boston’s thriving roots music scene. As the daughter of folk musicians Susie Burke and David Surette, Isa has spent her life grounded in songs. In 2016 she graduates from Berklee College of Music, where she received the Fletcher Bright Scholarship Award, given each year to an outstanding fiddle player. These days, she performs primarily as co-frontwoman of the acoustic trio Lula Wiles, but has also been seen onstage with artists such as Darol Anger, Rose Cousins, Laura Cortese, Caitlin Canty, and Della Mae. Isa’s fiddle playing draws upon Appalachian old-time, bluegrass, Celtic, and country influences to forge a deep-rooted style that’s undeniably powerful and new. She is also increasingly in demand as a vocalist and guitarist. Proficient in a variety of styles that combine tradition with a distinctly modern sensibility, Isa’s devotion to good songs above all else is what drives her musicianship. Isa has taught workshops in old-time and bluegrass music, fiddle, singing, and songwriting at Maine Fiddle Camp, Miles of Music House Camp, and the Passim School of Music, and has performed at festivals and venues such as Club Passim, Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival, Freshgrass Festival, Ossipee Valley Music Festival, and the Sinclair.

Zoe Guigueno is a bassist, singer and songwriter headquartered in New York City. A graduate of the music program at Humber College in Toronto, Zoe is originally from the Southern Gulf Islands in British Columbia. After college she toured for years with folk-rock group Fish & Bird, before putting her things in storage and moving to Boston to play with string band Joy Kills Sorrow (though not at the same time as one of your other Ossipee instructors). Lured to New York to study with Punch Brother’s bassist Paul Kowert, she found herself in a Lahori/Brooklyn klezmer-fusion ensemble, Sandaraa, as well busking ragtime in a pink gorilla costume in the NYC subway. Thus convinced to stay in NYC, she wormed her way into the bluegrass scene, and in 2015 joined Grammy-nominated Americana band Della Mae, with whom she has toured all over the world. Zoe has recorded a solo EP that will be released this summer Find it here: www.zoeguigueno.com

Ellie Buckland is a songwriter, singer, and guitar player, and fiddler, but not always in that order. As a 4th generation performing musician, Ellie has been singing melodies since before she could talk. So it seems only natural that she would eventually fall in love with writing songs. Growing up in Maine in a musical family, her passion for songwriting and performing grew out of an influence of traditional fiddle, country & bluegrass music. Now residing in Boston, MA, she has immersed herself in the thriving folk/roots music community as she brings light and joy to stages such as Club Passim, Lizard Lounge & The Sinclair. She’s had the honor of performing with Matt Glaser, Bruce Molsky, Rose Cousins, Laura Cortese & Dietrich Strause. Her most exciting and recent musical endeavor is Lula Wiles, her band with fellow Mainers, Isa Burke and Mali Obomsawin. What started as jamming at parties and around campfires has become a project of electric musical chemistry from their shared affinity for grooving and the craft of both songwriting and performing.

ali Obomsawin is originally from Farmington, Maine, and grew up attending Maine Fiddle Camp for bass and mandolin. A Franklin County Fiddlers alumna, she went on to study jazz performance at Berklee College of Music for four semesters before transferring to Dartmouth College where she will graduate in 2018. Mali sings and plays bass in her nationally touring band Lula Wiles (who met at MFC!), and has performed at premier festivals and venues along the east coast. She has shared the stage with Laura Cortese & the Dance Cards, Matt Glaser, Greg Liszt, Caitlin Canty, Stash Wyslouch, and Jason Annick, among others.
Specializing in folk, jazz, and traditional styles, and a songwriter, herself, Mali’s versatility as a musician grounds her in a deep understanding of the differences in stylistic approach. Her instrumental virtuosity landed her at the the highly selective Acoustic Music Seminar in Savannah, GA, in 2017, where she studied and performed with Bryan Sutton, Mike Marshall, Aoife O’Donovan, and Julian Lage. She has also studied privately with John Clayton, Gregg August, Susan Hagen, Zachariah Hickman, and Michael Formaneck. A young and promising musician, Mali enjoys teaching at camps, leading workshops, and exploring the finer points of ensemble playing. She is part of the three part vocal ensemble of the Lula Wiles.