BRATTLEBORO — The annual Northern Roots Traditional Music Festival (NRF) will return - virtually - for its 14th year on Saturday and Sunday, Jan. 30 and 31.
The event once again will showcase northern musical traditions, including Irish, Scottish, French Canadian, New England and, this year, Swedish and Shetland. A series of Saturday daytime workshops will be followed by an evening concert while Sunday's schedule wraps up the weekend with three popular sessions.
The festival will feature both returning and new performers, including Dylan Foley (fiddle), Pascal Gemme (fiddle), Nicholas Williams (flute, piano, accordion), Kevin Henderson (fiddle), and members of the Gawler Family Band.
Making his NRF debut, performer Dylan Foley is a four-time All-Ireland Fiddle Champion and is considered one of the finest Irish fiddlers of his generation and will be sharing his knowledge of music from Sligo.
Pascal Gemme is a leading light in Québec's traditional music scene, known as much for his original compositions as his fine interpretation of traditional tunes. A member of the group Genticorum, Gemme shares his passion for this music with fellow bandmate Nicholas Williams.
Williams has a reputation as a versatile and sought-after musician in the traditional music scenes of both Québec and New England. He studied world music, composition, and improvisation at York University in Toronto and has immersed himself in the traditional dance music of the northern climes, as well as studying classical North Indian music.
Another first-time performer, Kevin Henderson, will be joining the festival from his native Shetland. He draws on its rich fiddle music tradition and his experience with leading bands, including the Boys of the Lough, Fiddlers' Bid, Session A9, and the Nordic Fiddlers Bloc to create an expressive and adventurously individual musical style.
Returning to the festival are members of the Gawler Family Band, a fun-loving, folk-singing, fiddle-playing family band from Maine. They will be hosting the Sunday singalong “pub session” as well as performing in the Saturday evening concert.
Saturday workshops, offered via Zoom, will include Shetland tunes with Kevin Henderson, work songs with Bennett Konesni, French Canadian tunes with Pascal Gemme, Swedish tunes with Nicholas Williams, and Sligo Tunes with Dylan Foley, all of whom will also participate in the traditional Saturday evening concert.
The Sunday sessions, starting at 1 p.m., will include a singalong with the Gawler Family, a French-Canadian session with Gemme and Williams, and an Irish session with Benedict Gagliardi and Armand Aromin. These will also be available on Zoom with pre-registration.
The concert will be available on both Facebook and YouTube. Links for pre-registration will be posted at the Brattleboro Music Center website.