BELLOWS FALLS — St. Patrick's Fiddle Frenzy, the annual concert presented by Stone Church Arts in celebration of Celtic music and the Patron Saint of Ireland, has been thawing winter-weary hearts for many years.
This year, it features world-class musicians from Brattleboro and Boston - fiddler and singer Lissa Schneckenburger; fiddler and singer Laura Cortese,;guitarist Bethany Waickman; and a multitude of fiddling friends. They will grace the stone church on the hill, 20 Church St., with their foot-stopping jigs and reels and songs whose moods range from joyous to wistful and heart-rending.
The traditional music of New England and the Celtic countries can be as warm and comforting as a winter fire or as potent and exhilarating as a summer thunderstorm. Fiddler and Brattleboro-based singer Schneckenburger is a master of both moods, a winsome, sweet-voiced singer who brings new life to old ballads and a skillful, dynamic fiddler who captures the driving rhythm and carefree joy of dance tunes old and new.
Both in concert and in the studio, she is regularly accompanied by some of New England's best musicians, including guitarists Keith Murphy and Matt Heaton and double bassist Corey DiMario.
Fiddler and singer Cortese grew up in San Francisco and moved to Boston to study violin at Berklee College of Music. She has since immersed herself in the city's vibrant indie music scene and enjoyed a busy sideman career, which has included appearances with Band of Horses at Carnegie Hall, Pete Seeger at Newport Folk Festival, and Patterson Hood and Michael Franti for Seeger's 90th birthday celebration at Madison Square Garden.
Boston-based guitarist Waickman grew up in a musical family in upstate New York and started playing the piano at an early age. One of her earliest experiences with traditional music was attending Meadowlark music camp with her family. It was there that she was inspired to take up the guitar.
She formed the contra dance trio, Anadama, with Amelia Mason and Emily Troll while working at Pinewoods in 2007, and they have gone on to delight dancers throughout the northeast. She started performing with The Lissa Schneckenburger Band in December 2008, and can be seen with Schneckenburger on tours throughout North America and Europe.