Fall Weekend 2023

Elizabeth LaPrelle has been performing Appalachian ballads and old-time songs since she was eleven. Her magnificent voice, her respect for the songs, and her authentic mountain sound and style brought her to the attention of first Ginny Hawker and then Sheila Kay Adams. Raised in Rural Retreat, Virginia, Elizabeth attended old time fiddlers’ conventions and sang harmonies with her family, who taught her traditional singing styles and encouraged her to sing their own favorite American folk music. She received her undergraduate degree from the College of William and Mary with a major in Southern Appalachian Traditional Performance, and now tours the US regularly both performing and teaching.

Brian Dolphin is a Thomas J. Watson Fellow, Fulbright recipient, and doctoral student of Ethnomusicology at the CUNY Graduate Center. He has studied folk music, lived with indigenous musicians, and performed all over the world. In addition to being a scholar, he leads an active life as a songwriter, performer, and songleader of both Ukrainian and American folk musics, uniting diverse communities through both the Ukrainian Village Voices choir and the Dolphin & You Community Sing. Since 2019, Brian has been channeling his musical energies through the Dolphin & You Patreon, where every month, he releases his own music and that of other up-and-coming singer-songwriters who would otherwise go unrecorded and unheard.

John Roberts is a superb English singer who plays banjo, guitar, concertina, and hurdy-gurdy, as well as being a fine musicologist and music editor. He sings ballads and songs of the sea, of rural pursuits, of social and sociable situations, of industrial toil and strife, and much more. John is also noted for his renditions of Music Hall songs.

Chris Koldewey has been singing folk music since his teens, comes from a family rich in maritime traditions, and his lullabies as a child were traditional songs of the sea. He has performed in many states along the eastern seaboard of the US, the Maritime Provinces of Canada, and in the UK. A multi-instrumentalist, Chris might be heard playing guitar, concertinas, banjo, or mandolin. He spent twenty years working in the Chantey Department at Mystic Seaport Museum in Connecticut, where museum visitors could hear the songs and see the work for which they were used. Chris was privileged to sail and chantey on two historic vessels: the barque Picton Castle out of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, and the only wooden whaler left, the Charles W. Morgan out of Mystic, CT. Chris uses his experience, learned during a 32 year career as a public school music teacher, to engage and inspire audiences and workshop students as they expand their participation and enjoyment of traditional music.