October 21-23 2016
Janie's Jumpstart Meet the Instructors
Michelle Kaminsky
Lisa Ornstein
Hilarie Burhans
Janie Rothfield is an award winning clawhammer banjo player and powerhouse fiddler who has been playing Old Time Music “forever”! Janie got her start playing with older generation fiddlers and banjo players from New England, North Carolina and Quebec and since high school has had bands that played music rooted in Traditional American and Celtic music styles. She has She is known for her melodic and rhythmic style on both fiddle and banjo, and original tunes. She just released her 11th recording, OUT OF THIN AIR, that features all of her own compositions and songs.
Janie has taught banjo and fiddle privately and at camps and festivals such as Banjo Camp North, Old Songs Summer Camps, Folk College and the Festival of American Fiddle Tunes. Her teaching method combines her easy to learn technique that combines strategies for learning to play by ear quickly with a focus on musicality and rhythm! Her tunes have won the Best Non-Traditional Tune at Clifftop Appalachian Stringband Festival TWICE! Jane performs with numerous bands, including Coracree, Great Big Taters, Sugar Pie, with Allan Carr, Panache Quartet and with daughter Shona Carr as Little Missy.
Michelle Kaminsky
Michelle has been playing fiddle for over 30 years and teaches both Old Time and Cajun Fiddle at camps, festivals, workshops and at her Providence Rhode Island home studio. She plays with top Northeast Cajun band, Magnolia, The Saints and French Roast. She alsow plays Creole or Zydeco fiddle with Dennis Stroughmatt and Creole Stomp, Plantet Zydeo and LIl' Ann & Hot Cayenne. Michelle is a master fiddle teacher for the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, is the co-director of the Rhode Island Fiddle Project, director of the Cajun Kids Academy at the Rythm and Roots Festival, and she teaches Cajun Fiddling at Fiddle Hell and the Bayou Brooklyn Festival. Her fiddling was influenced by learning directly from such cajun master musicians Dewey Balfa, AL Berard, Canray Tontenot, Ed Poullard, Mitch Reed, Suzy Thompson, Dounnis Stroughmatt and from her annual trips to Louisanna. Michelle is an instructor at Augusta Heritage Center where she has taught for the past 20 years and is equally at home playing Cajun, Old Time, Creole and French Canadian music. She is a well loved music teacher and is known for her flexible and patient teaching style.
Lisa Ornsein
Lisa Ornstein is best known as an outstanding interpreter of the traditional music of Quebec. She’s also a tune hunter, the kind of musician who is passionate about putting back into circulation all-but-forgotten gems she’s learned at the feet of old masters. A Connecticut-born Midwesterner, Lisa was befriended by North Carolina fiddle legend Tommy Jarrell while she was in her teens. She was an accomplished old-time musician when she became friends with Franco-American fiddler Louis Beaudoin and his family. That friendship inspired a twelve-year stay in Quebec, with tunes until dawn in kitchens and dance halls across the province, and a stint in La Bottine Souriante --the powerhouse trad group most responsible for kickstarting Quebec’s folk revival.
Lisa has produced award-winning documentary recordings of elder master musicians, and her own rich and unique repertory of old standards and off-the-beaten track musical treasures reflects a lifetime of being a ‘‘tune catcher.”
Lisa has concertized and recorded with many stellar musicians, including La Bottine Souriante, André Marchand, Grey Larsen, Jules Verret, Denis Pépin, David Greenberg, and Éric Beaudry. She has recordings on Smithsonian Folkways, CBC, and Mille-Pattes. She has taught at many camps and festivals, including Augusta Heritage, Ashokan Fiddle and Dance, Festival of American Fiddle Tunes, Swannanoa Gathering.
YOUTUBE LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBOsTbQEW_g
Hilarie Burhans
Hilarie Burhans has been playing old time music for over 25 years and is a prize winning clawhammer banjo player (Ohio State Champion and finalist at Clifftop)and singer and tune writer. Her distinctive style is powerfully percussive and at the same time uniquely melodic. When you hear Hilarie play, you KNOW it's Hilarie! She has taught at many music festivals and camps around the country including Janie’s Jumpstart, Blue Ridge Old Time Music week at Mars Hill and Augusta Heritage Arts Workshop. She tours nationally with top contradance band, Hot Point Stringband (with Mark Burhans, Mark Hellenberg, Marlene Shostack and Nick Weiland, as well as with Great Big Taters (with Jane Rothfield and Bernie Nau) and Sugar Pie (with Jane Rothfield, Kellie Allen and Lori Lichtenwalner). In 2011, her band Ratchet Mountain Rock Farmers took 1st in Traditional Band at Clifftop. In addition to her 5 CD's with Hotpoint, Hilarie has a highly acclaimed solo cd from which her version of Pretty Polly was featured on the TV series Deadwood. Hilarie also has many videos on YOU TUBE for learning clawhammer banjo and is the Executive Chef and co-owner of Restaurant Salaam (fantastic world cuisine) in Athens, Ohio.
