Featured Artists
Kara Barnard
Workshops (MD)
- 17-Complex Harmonics (ADV) … Fri 3:00
- 26-Left Hand Stamina and Efficiency (INT) … Fri 4:15
- 37-Gypsy Swing (ADV) … Sat 10:15
- 65-One Easy Chord Shape (NOV) … Sat 3:00
Kara Barnard has entertained audiences from coast to coast and internationally. She has 7 recordings, played countless studio sessions, appeared on national television programs, and has been featured in articles in publications including Guitar Player Magazine.
Kara has spent the last few years focusing on teaching and creating events that would allow other musicians to grow and shine. She celebrated her successes by entering and becoming the 2022 National Mountain Dulcimer Champion, and is touring, performing and teaching at festivals across the country.
Kara teaches guitar, mandolin, banjo and dulcimer and has a teaching roster of 48 private, in-person students each week plus group lessons at a local YMCA.
Kara Barnard developed the Silver Strings program, teaching residents living in assisted living facilities how to play mountain dulcimer. The Silver Strings program includes curriculum Kara created specifically to serve a demographic often challenged by memory loss, hearing and vision loss, arthritis and paralysis due to strokes. The program currently serves campuses in Indiana and Kentucky and has placed over 220 dulcimers in the hands of their residents.
Kara created the Indiana State Fingerstyle Contest in 2010, bringing contestants from all over the world to compete each July in Nashville, Indiana. Many of those contestants go on to compete in the International Competition during the Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, Kansas each September.
Multi-instrumentalist, singer-songwriter, Kara Barnard is once again making new friends at festivals and events around the country and has a new batch of songs to be released in 2024.
Website: karabarnard.net
Nate Pultorak
Workshops (HD)
- 11-A What-i-mer? (BEG) … Fri 3:00
- 32-Songs of the North Country (MID) … Sat 10:15
- 53-Chordal Horizons: Mastering Horizontal Harmony on the Dulcimer (ADV) … Sat 1:30
- 62-E-levate Your Spirit: Mastering "Praise to the Lord" in E (MID) … Sat 3:00
Nate Pultorak is a dynamic hammered dulcimer artist based in the picturesque northern reaches of New York State. He was introduced to the instrument at a young age, and its unique textures resonated with his drumming background. This fascination led him to explore the instrument's depths and impelled him to explore a rich tapestry of styles, from cinematic compositions and bluegrass to folk, pop, classical, and progressive rock. He breathes new life into timeless classics with inventive interpretations that stay true to their essence, and he sometimes pushes the instrument’s boundaries with modern techniques like looping, tapping, and multi-note hammering.
Nate’s unique style and abilities were recognized in 2019 when he won the National Hammered Dulcimer Championship in Winfield, Kansas. As a solo artist, he has been featured in an episode of PBS Mountain Lake’s TV show, Soundscapes, but he also enjoys busking whenever possible. In addition to his solo work, Nate performs with the bands “The Lowmen” and “Casey and the Locomotives.” He’s also currently producing a new album that promises to further expound on his artistic vision for his instrument.
Whether playing in vibrant city streets, jamming with fellow musicians, or performing amidst nature’s grandeur atop a mountain, Nate is a musical ambassador, inviting everyone to experience the enchanting world of the hammered dulcimer.
Website: www.natepultorak.com
Social media: @NateDulcimer
Plus Special Guest Artists
Daniel Skála
Matěj Číp
Daniel Skála, born in 1981, is a distinguished cimbalom player and composer. He studied at the Liszt Academy in Budapest and completed his doctoral studies at Ostrava University. Daniel has performed at prestigious venues such as Carnegie Hall and the La Biennale festival in Venice. His notable compositions include the Concerto for Cimbalom and Chamber Orchestra and the evening-length spiritual cantata Všechen ten čas. As an educator, he teaches at the Janáček Conservatory and Ostrava University, leading workshops on Creative Improvisation and inspiring the next generation of musicians.
Matěj Číp, a pioneering cimbalom performer from Hodslavice, Czech Republic, has transformed the unique Central and Eastern European instrument into his key to global opportunities. Winning first prizes at the 2017 International Cimbalom Festival and graduating Summa Cum Laude from Northern State University, Matěj broke new ground as the first US university-level cimbalom student. After studying at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing and performing at the 2022 Winter Olympics, he recently graduated with a Master's degree from BerkleeNYC. Now based in New York City, Matěj seeks to share the cimbalom's vast potential with international audiences.
Daniel and Matěj are deeply grateful for the generous support from the National Recovery Plan, Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic, and the European Union, which has made this tour and the opportunity to share the cimbalom with new audiences possible.
Daniel and Matěj will team-teach
Workshops (HD)
- 13-Meet the Cimbalom: An Eastern European Cousin (MID-ADV) … Fri 3:00
- 22-Collaborative Musical Experience: Playing Together Across Instruments (MID-ADV) … Fri 4:15
- 33-Czech Music: A Journey Through Tradition and Innovation (ADV) … Sat 10:15
Other Artists
Sasha Bogdanowitsch
Sasha Bogdanowitsch is a composer, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist, whose work includes music for theater, dance and film, interdisciplinary performance, concert music and original songs. He is a co-founder of World In One, Vital Vox Vocal Festival, Loom Ensemble & SoCorpo. He currently performs solo and as a member of the Moving Star Vocal Ensemble and folk trio, Up at Dawn.
Workshops (MD)
- 27-Odd Meters Through the Globe (ADV) … Fri 4:15
- 56-Music of the Ancient World (INT) … Sat 1:30
Cliff Cole
Cliff Cole fell in love with the hammered dulcimer at the Philadelphia Folk Festival in 1985 and he’s been hammering on ever since. He started off as a drummer playing rock, jazz, and blues, and
then carried that musical experience and sense of rhythm over to the hammered dulcimer and folk music. Rounding out his musical expression, Cliff studies acoustic guitar, plays the blues harp,
and enjoys singing.
He has taught workshops at many dulcimer and folk music festivals, including Nutmeg, the Cranberry Dulcimer Gathering, Pocono Dulcimer Festival, and French Creek Retreat.
Cliff performs as a member of Tachyonmetry, DayBreak, and the Dulcimer Boys. As a recording artist, his music can be found on Spotify and other music streaming platforms. He is a member of the
Nutmeg Team.
Workshops (HD)
- 43-Finding the Found Harmonium (ADV) … Sat 11:30
- 51-Mapping the Hammered Dulcimer with Scales and Chords (BEG) … Sat 1:30
- 61-Drop, Bounce, and Roll (BEG-MID) … Sat 3:00
Sam Edelston
Sam Edelston is on a quest to bring dulcimers into widespread public awareness. Though he's best known for his arrangements of many kinds of popular music on acoustic and electric mountain dulcimer, he has also been playing diverse music on hammered dulcimer for more than 30 years. (He's teaching hammered dulcimer at Nutmeg this year.) He loves his chromatic bass bridge on his hammered dulcimer as much as he loves the "half" frets on his mountain dulcimers.
Sam has performed and taught at festivals as far away as Kentucky, Minnesota, Louisiana, Colorado, and many online festivals, and his YouTube videos have been heard more than 1,000,000 times, in more than 190 countries. He also plays guitar and banjo, and is chair of this festival. Check out Sam's new CD, "Making Waves," which features dulcimers playing classic rock and pop music.
Workshops (MD)
- 47-Approaching Today's Music on the Dulcimer (INT-ADV) … Sat 11:30
- 54-Songs to Strengthen Your Playing Year-Round (BEG) … Sat 1:30
Ron Ewing
Ron Ewing has been playing mountain dulcimer since 1970, and has built over 1,700 during that time. He is especially known for his innovative designs, like the baritone, dulcimette, dulcimer capo, the 1 1/2 fret, and his lively renditions of Irish, Appalachian, and Euro dance tunes. He lives in Columbus, Ohio.
Workshops (MD)
- 64-Q&A for Your Dulcimer (ALL) … Sat 3:00
Gerry Heinrich
Gerry Heinrich has been a woodworker for over 50 years. While working as a cabinetmaker, he was exposed to all kinds of acoustic music. One day he saw a YouTube video featuring a mountain dulcimer, “the easiest stringed instrument in the world to learn to play.” Somebody loaned him a McSpadden dulcimer to teach himself to play, and he was off to the races. Not long after, he designed and built his first dulcimer in his eastern Pennsylvania workshop.
His instruments are characterized by creative designs and soundhole patterns using a variety of species of woods, with a special focus on reclaimed wood.
Marya Katz
Marya Katz is a retired National Board Certified music teacher who still lives and breathes music in her daily life. She has led hammered dulcimer workshops at many festivals, teaches private students, and performs with the folk group Simple Gifts of the Blue Ridge. Yet somehow she still finds time to direct the choir at her church and pull weeds from her gardens in Blacksburg, VA. Marya has had some of her original compositions published in Dulcimer Players News and elsewhere. One of her other ventures is a book of "practical" theory for hammered dulcimer players, titled "Building a House of Basics."
sites.google.com/view/maryakatz-dulcimations
Workshops (HD)
- 21-Learning by Ear (BEG) … Fri 4:15
- 31-Hammered Dulcimer 101 (BEG) … Sat 10:15
- 42-The Music of Paul Van Arsdale (MID) … Sat 11:30
- 63-Space: The Beautiful Frontier (ADV) … Sat 3:00
Don Kawalek
Don Kawalek has been passionately building stringed musical instruments since 1976. He makes banjos, guitars, mountain dulcimers, hammered dulcimers, and a variety of mandolins in his studio (a/k/a his sanctuary) in Bunker Hill WV. In a former life, he was a schoolteacher. This is his second time at Nutmeg.
Workshops (MD)
- 38-The Art of Building Stringed Instruments (ALL) … Sat 10:15
Sandy Lafleur
Sandy Lafleur has been playing the Appalachian dulcimer for over 30 years. While the guitar was her first instrument, the dulcimer, with its haunting drones, captivated her the first time she heard it. Based in southern New Hampshire, where she is also a longtime contra dance caller and organizer, Sandy teaches dulcimer at festivals around the Northeast, as well as privately. She plays and teaches in several tunings, and her repertoire includes dance tunes from numerous cultures.
Workshops (MD)
- 16-Jiggity Jiggity Jig (INT) … Fri 3:00
- 25-The Capo is Your Friend! (NOV-INT) … Fri 4:15
- 44-Mountain Dulcimer 102 (BEG) … Sat 11:30
- 66-Let’s Write a Waltz! (NOV-INT) … Sat 3:00
Mary Grace Lee
Mary-Grace Lee is an award-winning hammered dulcimer player from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, who will be teaching at Nutmeg for her first time. Grace's primary focus and passion on the hammered dulcimer is traditional Irish music, with strong attention to the classic Irish phrasing and ornamentation. She has qualified and competed in the miscellaneous instrument category at the All-Ireland Fleadh in Ireland. In 2023 and 2024, she received an apprenticeship grant from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts to pursue Irish music on the hammered dulcimer. Grace also plays in the Celtic Folk band Seasons, comprising her and her siblings. To learn more about Grace and to check out her solo album, Eyre, you can visit her website:
Workshops (ALL INSTRUMENTS)
- 12-Playing and Listening with Others … Fri 3:00
Workshops (HD)
- 23-Irish Composers Not Named O’Carolan (ADV) … Fri 4:15
- 41-Hammered Dulcimer 102 (BEG) … Sat 11:30
- 52-Irish Music Basics (MID) … Sat 1:30
Tom MacKenzie was originally supposed to teach at Nutmeg this year, but he had to cancel. Marya Katz will teach the workshops he was originally scheduled for.
Ellen Pratt
Ellen Pratt has been playing the dulcimer since 1999 and composing original music for most of that time. She enjoys both the quieter chord melody style using fingerpicking and the hard, fast
strumming of old-time music and jam tunes. Her most recent focus is arranging classical pieces and original tunes for ensembles, and she has published eight books of Ensemble Arrangements for
Mountain Dulcimer with a few more in the works.
Ellen is a member and ensemble book contributor for the First National Dulcimer Orchestra, she teaches at dulcimer festivals across the Northeast, and she co-coordinates the August Dulcimer Daze
in Vermont. When not playing music, Ellen is an elementary school teacher, and she also teaches dulcimer classes to 3rd and 4th graders after school.
Workshops (MD)
- 34-Mountain Dulcimer 101 (BEG) … Sat 10:15
- 46-Deciphering Songs By Ear (INT) … Sat 11:30
- 55-Playing Chords in Jams (NOV) … Sat 1:30
Susan Trump
Susan Trump has been a favorite instructor and performer on the dulcimer scene for the past thirty years. She is known for her clear teaching style and interesting, playable arrangements. She teaches private and class lessons on Zoom. Her “Saturdays with Susan” six-week sessions have allowed students nationwide to bond and continue their dulcimer journey together.
Susan has authored four books, which are available both in print and digitally. Her latest book/CD set is Music from the Muse, a collection of twenty-one original pieces for Intermediate players. She also has written a book of O'Carolan arrangements, a Classical Collection, and Novice-level Chords and Fingering instructional book/CD combo. She has four solo CDs to her credit. Her CD, Songs of Faith and Hope, a collection of inspirational, uplifting songs for everyone is being touted as her best ever! www.susantrump.com
Workshops (MD)
- 14-Strumming, Rhythm and Counting (BEG) … Fri 3:00
- 35-Appalachian Songs and the History of Our Music (NOV) … Sat 10:15
- 45-Dulcimer Styles - It’s All About the Right Hand! (NOV) … Sat 11:30
- 57-Beethoven Sonatina in F (for two dulcimers in D) (ADV) … Sat 1:30
Carol Walker
Carol Walker is a happily retired high school choral teacher (recipient of the NJ Governor's Teacher of the Year Award in 2003), and performs on mountain dulcimer, piano, harp, melodica, and upright bass. In 2022 she formed the New York Dulcimer Orchestra, based in the Lower Hudson River Valley. This 20-member ensemble enjoys presenting performances at libraries and retirement communities in NY and NJ. Carol's folkloric research single-handedly brought traditional music of the Isle of Man to the mountain dulcimer, leading to a CD of Manx tunes, "Alas, the Horse Is Gone," as well as two books of "Tailless Tunes." Carol's instructional works include the three "DNA* Dulcimer Ditties" book/CD sets, as well as DVD on the Homespun label. Carol published her 10th and 11th dulcimer tab books in 2023, and Pooh Songs: Volume Two.
Workshops (MD)
- 15-Smooth Out Those Bumps (NOV-INT) … Fri 3:0034-Mountain Dulcimer 101 – BEG ... Sat 10:00
- 24-Magic Chords (BEG) … Fri 4:15
- 36-Variations on the Tune (INT) … Sat 10:15
- 67-Dulci-Piper (ADV) … Sat 3:00
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