March Mandolin Festival 2012

By Mandolin Cafe
December 4, 2011 - 7:15 pm

Concord, N.H. — The Tenth Annual March Mandolin Festival will be held March 2-4, 2012, at the Concord Community Music School.

The festival features Jesse Brock, Claudine Langille, Skip Gorman, and David Surette, with special guests Susie Burke and Baron Collins-Hill. This two-day event offers group lessons, workshops on a variety of topics, jam sessions, and an evening concert. Additionally, the festival will present a March 2, Friday night concert featuring the same performers at The Elysium Arts Folk Club, Rollinsford, NH (this is a separate ticket from the Concord events).

To register for the festival, send a check for $110 made out to:

Concord Community Music School
23 Wall St.
Concord, NH 03301

Lodging is available at the Courtyard Marriott Hotel and Conference Center in Concord, New Hampshire, with a special festival rate. A limited number of rooms have been set aside, so if you are interested, please contact the hotel directly at (603) 225-0303.

Festival sponsors include Sanborn, Head and Associates, the NH State Council on the Arts Traditional Arts program, and the Concord Courtyard by Marriott, where festival accommodations are available at a special rate. Support is also provided by mandolincafe.com.

Performer bios

Claudine Langille is best known for her mandolin, tenor banjo and vocal work with Touchstone, the highly acclaimed Irish-Appalachian fusion band. Touchstone recorded two award-winning albums on Green Linnet records, The New Land and Jealousy. She currently performs with Gypsy Reel, who have recorded six CDs in Claudine's Mount Hollywood Studio in Vermont and have been recipients of a National Endowment for the Arts award for touring artists. Claudine maintains a musical connection with the traditional music of the maritime provinces of Canada, especially her father's native Nova Scotia, and has been a guest singer at the Celtic Colours Festival in Cape Breton. Claudine has led workshops at folk festivals in the US, Canada, and England, including the Swannanoa Gathering's Celtic Week. She founded the Mount Holly Folk Club, a weekly gathering of singers and players in her Vermont community.

Winner of the 2009 International Bluegrass Music Awards Mandolin Performer of the Year, Jesse Brock has spent a lifetime in bluegrass, starting with his family band at the age of nine, and later with national acts such as Chris Jones and the Night Drivers, The Lynn Morris Band, and The Dale Ann Bradley Band. Jesse was an integral part of Michael Cleveland and Flamekeeper, who won numerous awards as instrumental group of the year. Jesse is also a solo artist in his own right, with an IBMA award-nominated CD Kickin' Grass on Pinecastle Records that includes A-list pickers such as Jason Moore, Ron Stewart, Tom Adams, Jason Carter, Rob Ickes, Marshall Wilborn, Alan O'Bryant and many others. When Jesse is not touring he makes his home in Maine.

Skip Gorman is one of the leading teachers and players of Bill Monroe-style mandolin in the country, as well as being a masterful cowboy singer and fine fiddler. An encounter with Monroe at age twelve was a pivotal moment in the young musician's life, and he was lucky to have the opportunity to see musicians like Monroe, legendary Texas fiddler Eck Robertson, and Mother Maybelle Carter at the historic Newport Folk Festival. He has taught bluegrass mandolin at top festivals such as IBMA World of Bluegrass, European World of Bluegrass and Grass Valley Bluegrass Festival. He has released a number of fine recordings, including three acclaimed Rounder releases focusing on cowboy music, and two focused on "old-style" bluegrass mandolin. His most recent release is a two-CD set of mandolin tunes titled Mandolin in the Cowcamp.

David Surette is highly regarded throughout New England and beyond for his work on the mandolin, guitar (both flatpick and fingerstyle), and bouzouki; Sing Out Magazine wrote that "Surette's playing is always inventive, and sets a new standard for traditional instrumentalists." As part of a duo with his wife, singer Susie Burke, they have performed regularly together for 20 years, recording several albums and building a reputation as one of New England's top folk duos. Surette was a founding member of the Airdance band with fiddler Rodney Miller, with whom he recorded four albums and toured nationally. He has also released five critically-acclaimed solo CDs; his most recent solo release, Sun Dog, is a collection of original guitar solos. He is also an experienced teacher, and coordinates folk music programming and teaches regularly at the Concord Community Music School.

Bring mandolins, other instruments for jams, tape/disc recorders, batteries, spare strings, notebooks and pencils, money to buy CDs, and anything else that will make for a fun time.

Lodging is available at the Courtyard Marriott Hotel and Conference Center in Concord, New Hampshire, with a special festival rate for Saturday night, good for single or double occupancy. A limited number of rooms have been set aside, so if you are interested, please contact the hotel directly at (603) 225-0303.

For more information, contact (207) 384-8151, or email soozendave@surfglobal.net. The Concord Community Music School is located at 23 Wall St. in downtown Concord, New Hampshire, just a few blocks off of Main St. Their telephone number is (603) 228-1196.

Directions to the school

From the South:
Route 93 North to Exit 12 North (South Main St.). Take second left on to Broadway. Stay on Broadway to first set of lights and take a right on to South St. Fayette Street is about 7 streets down on the right. There is a red brick church at the corner. Take a right and you'll see the Music School on your left after Fletcher Murphy Park.

From the East:
Route 4, 9 or 202 to Route 393. Take 393 to North Main Street and take a left at the lights. Follow Main Street downtown and take a right on Pleasant Street. Go to second set of lights and take a left. Take second left onto Fayette Street. The Music School is on left after Fletcher Murphy Park.

From the West:
Take 202 to 89 South to Clinton Street Exit (route 13). Go to end of exit and take a right on to Clinton Street (13N). Follow Clinton Street 1.9 miles to lights at McGee Square and take a left on to South Street. Fayette Street is about 7 streets down on the right. There is a red brick church on the corner. Take a right and you'll see the Music School on your left after Fletcher Murphy Park.

From the North:
From Route 93 take Exit 14. Take a right on to Bridge Street to intersection of Main Street (Holiday Inn on left.) Take a right on to Main Street and follow Main Street downtown and take a right on Pleasant Street. Go to second set of lights and take a left. Take second left on to Fayette Street. The Music School is on left after Fletcher Murphy Park.

Additional information:
David Surette
MySpace web site
Concord Marriott

Click red map pin below for driving directions to March Mandolin Festival, Concord Community Music School, 23 Wall Street, Concord, NH 03301.

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