2008 National Folk Festival Masterclasses
The 2008 National Folk Festival Masterclasses run 18th- 20th March with a line-up of brilliant and exciting tutors.
Mike Compton - Bluegrass Mandolin.
Mike, who received his first mandolin at the age of 15, has many awards and CDs to his name and has toured internationally. A renowned Nashville player, he has played with the multi-award winning Nashville Bluegrass Band and worked and recorded with John Hartford, who once said that Mike Compton knows more about Bill Monroe style mandolin than the Father of Bluegrass himself.
Donal Baylor - Bluegrass Fiddle.
Donal Baylor is one of the country’s top fiddlers who, after winning the national championship 3 times, became Slim Dusty’s regular fiddle player.
He has played western swing in The Dancehall Racketeers and the Baylor Brothers Band and recently has been specializing in bluegrass with Bluegrass Parkway.
Jackie Luke - Hammered Dulcimer
A foremost exponent of the hammered dulcimer, Jackie has performed widely in Australia and abroad. She has played in the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, The Millennium Ensemble Olympic Torch Ceremony, international festivals in Munich, Slovakia and China and has toured NZ and the USA. Jackie maintains a keen interest in expanding the repertoire of the dulcimer.
Danny Spooner - Tradition Ballads
Danny Spooner, born into a working-class family in the East End of London, has a passion for the expression of British and Australian culture through folk music. As salvage tug and trawler master he lived a varied, almost nomadic life, which gave him an education in the ways of working people and an understanding of the importance of the social context and proper attribution of the songs. He has performed in folk clubs all over Australia, New Zealand and in Britain and is one of the best singers of British folksongs in Australia.
Chris Duncan - Scottish fiddle
Chris Duncan,one of the world’s foremost exponents of Scottish fiddle playing, has toured Canada with “Coalbrook Ceilidh Band”, attended Alasdair Fraser’s “Valley of the Moon” fiddle school 3 times, travelled to Cape Breton to study and teach, as well as exploring Scottish fiddle music in Australia with anyone who was interested. His second CD, “Fyvies’ Embrace”
(with Catherine Strutt and Julian Thompson ) won the ARIA for the Best World Music Album
Catherine Strutt - Piano Accompaniment
Catherine Strutt has been performing for almost twenty years. including folk festivals, dances and concerts in Australia, Scandinavia, New Zealand, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia and San Francisco, USA. For almost fifteen years she has played piano with her musical partner, master Scottish fiddle player, Chris Duncan. Catherine’s piano accompaniment skills are well known and highly regarded, her intuitive sense of rhythm and colour is incomparable. She is considered to be one of the finest Scottish style piano accompanists in Australia and teaches at the Music Under the Mountains Celtic Music School in Tasmania each January.
To enrol, go to the National Folk Festival website –
