We are very fortunate to have some of our area's best instructors of Irish music on a variety of instruments teaching at this first annual camp. Here is our lineup:
Russ Alvey has played guitar for more than 30 years. He has played rock to folk, ol' timey to Irish, all influencing his accompaniment style. He has played with the New Dallas String Band, Tinker's Dam, Malarky and currently plays with the Trinity Hall Session Players. In addition to his guitar abilities, he is recording and sound engineer specializing in acoustic music.
Clare Adkins Cason began violin studies at the age of 4, having been born into a family of musicians. She attended the University of North Texas, where she was chosen as Outstanding Undergraduate in Music. Presently she holds leadership positions in the Sherman Symphony, East Texas Symphony, and the Dallas Bach Society. Teaching, however, has been her chief enthusiasm, and in addition to maintaining an active private studio for seventeen years, she is the author of the thirteen-volume Mountain Road series for violin and viola students. In the last few years, she has also enjoyed having the opportunity to learn more about Irish music, and to share the fun of it with her students of all ages. She is particularly interested in the music of the Sliabh Luachra region of Southwest Ireland.
Ken has played traditional Irish music for 30 years on a number of instruments including guitar, bouzouki, tenor banjo, mandolin, tinwhistle, button accordion and Anglo concertina. Ken and his wife Peggy are co-founders of the Southwest Celtic Music Association and the North Texas Irish Festival of which Ken was their first president and festival director respectively. He has also been a member of Tinker’s Dam, Waifs & Strays, Loose Change and is a current member of Jigsaw, the Lone Star Ceili Band and the Trinity Hall Session Players. He is the founder and former president of the Traditional Irish Music Education Society (TIMES) and the founder and current director of the O'Flaherty Irish Music Retreat.
Peggy has played traditional music for most of her life. In her earlier years, she played Old Timey American music and in the 80s, she became more focused on Irish music, both as a singer and fiddler. Along with her husband Ken, she is a co-founder of the Southwest Celtic Music Association and North Texas Irish Festival. She has been a member of the New Dallas String Band, Tinker’s Dam, Waifs & Strays, Loose Change and is currently a member of Jigsaw, Lone Star Ceili Band and the Trinity Hall Session Players. Peggy teaches Irish fiddle in the Dallas area.
Allison fell in love with Irish and other traditional music while studying piano at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, TX. Weekly sessions at The Oldtime String Shop and a concert by a Dallas based Irish band, "Tinkers Dam" fueled the fire that has now become a lifelong passion. Allison is known in many musical arenas. As a teacher, she has been a staff member at the annual Winter Acoustic Music Festival in Irving, Texas, the Fiddler's Dream Music and Dance weekend on Lake Texoma and at the Festival of Fiddle Tunes in Port Townsend, Washington. As a performer, she plays currently with the Trinity Hall Session Players, Lone Star Ceili Band and Happensdance, playing for contradances and ceili's throughout Texas. She is also a music teacher in Dallas schools.
Rick Holt started his 40-year drumming career at an early age, having grown up in a household where music and music education were a way of life. Rick received a degree in Music Education with a focus on percussion performance from Troy University in Alabama. Since college he has been playing in bands and as a freelance percussionist in rock, jazz, blues, country and classical performances. He also spent two years in private jazz drum studies with UNT Professor, Henry Okstel. For the past 15 years, Rick has been resident percussionist and percussion coordinator for a large Dallas-area church, arranging scores, performs in the pit for area musical theater productions, and sings in a gospel quartet. Adding Irish music to his repertoire 6 years ago, Rick has also been performing regularly with the Trinity Hall Session Players the past several years. He recently joined forces with a talented line-up of players to form an eclectic Celtic band Five Second Rule, and is excited about the prospect for experimentation and innovation.
Daniel is originally from Dallas, Texas and has been playing Irish music for approximately fifteen years. Beginning on the tinwhistle, he eventually picked up the wooden flute, and soon became heavily involved in the Dallas Irish music scene. In 1999, he went on to play and compete around Ireland and the U.S., leading him to win first place in the senior whistle competition at the 2001 Midwest Fleadh Cheoil. Meanwhile, he joined the traditional Dallas-based band Idle Road, and played with them for several years before moving in 2002 to study philosophy and music in the northeast. Having now graduated from college, Daniel currently lives and works as a professional musician in New York City, where he can regularly be found teaching, recording, sessioning, and performing with a variety of traditional musicians.
Gordon has been playing music since childhood and performing professionally on fiddle and guitar for over 30 years. For the past 12 years he has been concentrating on Irish fiddle, attending workshops in Ireland and America with many well known Irish fiddle masters including Kevin Burke, Martin Hayes, Matt Cranitch, Tommy Peoples, and James Kelly. Gordon founded and performs regularly with the band Beyond The Pale and also with The Aisling String Trio and in a duo with his wife, Christy. He is a regular participant in Irish music sessions in the DFW area and also performs with the Trinity Hall Session Players. In addition to the fiddle, he plays a number of other instruments, including guitar, mandolin, piano and bass and is a vocalist as well. He also enjoys composing music, writing songs and producing recordings.
Melina Shaffer was grew up in Odessa, Texas and has been playing the violin since she was six years old. She found her way to the Celtic music world quite by accident when she ended up sitting next to an exchange student from Scotland in the Texas Tech University Orchestra. After moving to the Metroplex and searching for a group of Celtic musicians to play with, she stumbled in to a coffee house session in Arlington and the next thing she knew, she was the fiddler in the band Threadneedle Street. Melina has performed with Threadneedle St for almost 10 years and has facilitated many different fiddle workshops throughout the state. A third generation music educator, she currently resides in Arlington, TX and is the orchestra director at Juan Seguin High School.
Peggy has a BA in Flute Performance from Alverno College (1974) and Early Childhood Certification from UW-Milwaukee (1979). Since 1979, Peggy and her husband Jim have been professional musicians, touring the country, playing Renaissance and Celtic music. In 1983 they moved to Fort Worth. Desiring to involve children more in their music, they formed Stitch in Time, a performance education program that combines Jim and Peggy's education backgrounds, musical talents, and love of history. Peggy and Jim are co-founders of the Southwest Celtic Music Association and North Texas Irish Festival and played with Sungarten in the 80s. She currently plays with Threadneedle Street.