The festival offers group lessons and workshops on a variety of topics, jam sessions, and an evening concert. As in past years, the festival will present a Friday night concert at the Stone Church in nearby Newmarket, one of the seacoast's premier venues for live roots music.
Register for the festival at the link at the bottom of this article or you can send a check for $150 made out to:
Concord Community Music School
23 Wall St.
Concord, NH 03301
Please include your address, phone number and email address with any form of payment.
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.
Performer and Instructors
Andrew Collins has long been a pioneer of Canada's acoustic music scene, whether as a solo artist or founding member of some of the country's most recognized string bands. Composer, performer, educator, vocalist and accomplished multi-instrumentalist, he's redefined the mandolin while also focusing on the mandola, mandocello, guitar and fiddle across a tapestry of genres. Bluegrass, old-time, jazz, blues, swing, Celtic and classical music is all the better for his approach at blurring the lines. From the Foggy Hogtown Boys, Creaking Tree String Quartet, to his eponymous Trio, it's his instrumental prowess and overall creativity which has distinguished this 7-time Canadian Folk Music award-winner and Central Canada Bluegrass Association's Mandolin Player of the Year. From his solo efforts: Little Widgets and Cats and Dogs to his co-release with Celtic mandolinist Brian Taheny, Collins continues to break fresh musical ground, fueled by an unflagging desire to defy expectations.
Alan Epstein started playing mandolin in college in the early 1970s when his father bought him his first mandolin. Since that time, he has studied with some of the world's top mandolin players and has played in bluegrass bands in Colorado, Pennsylvania, Michigan and New York. Alan was a contributing writer for the now defunct Mandolin Magazine. In 2002, while living in his hometown of Pittsburgh, he founded and was the first director of the Pittsburgh Mandolin Orchestra. In 2017 Alan released two recordings highlighting his diverse style of mandolin playing: Sunset on Meriden Hill, a mandolin and guitar instrumental recording with Jim Prendergast on guitar and That Lonesome Bluegrass Sound featuring Alan singing and playing mandolin on bluegrass standards backed by Bob Amos on guitar and harmony vocals. Alan now spends his time teaching mandolin and Wernick Method Bluegrass Jamming at home in Upstate New York and at camps nationwide.
Flynn Cohen is a professional mandolin and acoustic guitar player with a long resume as both performer and teacher. He is a founding member of the nationally-touring American folk band Low Lily and was a visiting lecturer in Music at both Keene State College and Bridgewater State University. Flynn has degrees in Music from Dartington College of Arts in Devon, England where he was a guitar student of John Renbourn, and Mills College in Oakland, California where he was a classical mandolin student of Paul Binkley of the Modern Mandolin Quartet. He specializes in Irish traditional music and bluegrass mandolin styles as well as new classical music for mandolin and guitar. He has performed at the Library of Congress and the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. and at Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall in New York.
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 "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 30 years in 2018 recording several albums and building a reputation as one of New England's top folk duos. Surette was a founding member of the band Airdance 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 release, Waiting For The Sun, is a duo recording with Susie. He is also an experienced teacher, and coordinates folk music programming and teaches regularly at the Concord Community Music School as well as at numerous summer music camps and festivals.
Schedule of Events
Friday, March 1 - Concert
Andrew Collins, Flynn Cohen, Alan Epstein, and David Surette, with special guest Susie Burke.
Stone Church Music Club
Zion's Hill
Newmarket, NH
7:00 p.m. - (603) 659-7700 or for more information
This is a separate ticket from Saturday and Sunday events at the Concord Community Music School
Saturday, March 2 - Workshops
Saturday and Sunday events are held at the Concord Community Music School, Concord NH.
Saturday, March 2 - March Mandolin Festival concert
Featuring Andrew Collins, Flynn Cohen, Alan Epstein, and David Surette, with special guest Susie Burke. Admission included for Festival participants; general admission tickets for others available through the Music School or cal (603) 228-1196.
Sunday, March 3 - Workshops
Additional Information
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