The Richmond Folk Festival is now one of Virginia’s largest and most anticipated events of the year. The Festival strives to present the very finest traditional artists from across the nation. In making its selections, a local Programming Committee is guided by the following definition, which is the guide for the National Council for Traditional Arts and the National Folk Festival, as well as the National Endowment for the Arts:
FOLK & TRADITIONAL ARTS – a definition
The folk and traditional arts are rooted in and reflective of the cultural life of a community. Community members may share a common ethnic heritage, language, religion, occupation, or geographic region. These vital and constantly reinvigorated artistic traditions are shaped by values and standards of excellence that are passed from generation to generation, most often within family and community, through demonstration, conversation, and practice. Genres of artistic activity include, but are not limited to, music, dance, crafts, and oral expression.
- National Endowment for the Arts
If you're interested in performing in the 2012 festival, check out "How to be a performer at the Richmond Folk Festival"
2011 Performers' Biographies and Samples
Performing in the Richmond Times-Dispatch
Virginia Folklife Area and Stage
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Richmond Folk Festival In The Schools
Through the generous support of its sponsors, the Richmond Folk Festival will fill Richmond city school auditoriums and classrooms with performances and presentations of deeply-rooted cultural expressions.
The week prior to the festival master musicians and artists will visit several public schools. Together, the artists and students share music, song, craft, stories and memories that will last a lifetime.
Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba
Bamako, Mali
Malian ngoni ensemble
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Video: Articles: |
With stage energy that will drive dancers wild, thispowerful group combines Afro-beat with the “African blues” of the Bambara people. A traditional West African lute, the ngoni, takes front and center in the first-ever ngoni quartet led by the masterful Kouyate, who secures the survival of his tradition through innovation and a steadfast dedication to his family’s ancestral heritage as griots, Mali’s traditional oral historians and musicians.
Chatham County Line
Raleigh, NC
contemporary bluegrass & country
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Website of Chatham County Line Video: Article: |
Creating original songs inspired by the rural southern experience, these four young bluegrass musicians are noted for their distinctive vocal harmonies, trenchant lyrics, and visually engaging live performances, where they “work” a single microphone in the classic bluegrass ballet.
Davell Crawford
New Orleans, Louisiana/ New York City, New York
"Piano Prince of New Orleans"
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Video: Interview: Article/Interview: |
Grandson of New Orleans R&B legend James “Sugarboy” Crawford, Davell Crawford is the living, breathing embodiment of everything that makes New Orleans music great. Heir to the New Orleans piano legacy of Jelly Roll Morton, James Booker and Professor Longhair, and with a charisma evocative of Satchmo, his soulful voice taps a deep emotional well that irresistibly draws listeners into his world. Simply one of the most brilliant artists the Crescent City has ever produced, and that’s saying something.
Git-Hoan Dancers
Traditional Tsimshian dance and song
Takoma, Washington
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Website of master artist and leader of the Git Hoan Dancers, David Boxley |
Performing, in striking carved wooden masks, the dances and songs of the seafaring Tsimshian people from the Pacific coastal areas of northern British Columbia and southeastern Alaska, this ensemble shares a commitment to preserving Native American cultural traditions once on the verge of extinction.
Horn’s Punch & Judy
Punch and Judy puppetry
Baltimore, Maryland
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Article: |
Punch and Judy, the hilarious, slapstick hand puppetry brought to England from Italy more than 300 years ago, had arrived in the Chesapeake region at least by the early 1800s. Horn’s Punch & Judy represents an unbroken Baltimore tradition that dates back to 1897. Now under the care of puppeteer Mark Walker, Old Punch, the wisecracking trickster figure who exemplifies the best and worst of human nature, will bring smiles to the faces of both children and adults.
Imamyar Hasanov and Pejman Hadadi
Azerbaijani kamancha & percussion duo
Arlington, Virginia and Los Angeles, California
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Articles: Videos: |
A master of the Azerbaijani kamancha (spiked fiddle), Hasanov began playing at the age of seven, eventually becoming the youngest soloist in Azerbaijan's National Music Instruments Orchestra before immigrating to Virginia. Highly respected both in the U. S. and Azerbaijan, he will explore both the folk and classical roots of this amazing instrument with Iranian percussionist Pejman Hadadi on the tombak (goblet drum) and daf (frame drum).
Larry Chance & The Earls
doo-wop
Bronx, New York
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Video: |
First heard on the street corners of American cities in the 1940’s, doo-wop went on to define an era in American popular music. With roots in South Philadelphia and “Little Italy” in the Bronx, Larry Chance is a true doo-wop original who has produced a string of national hits. Over a 50+ year career, Chance’s singing seems only to have gotten stronger, and his flawless group retains the vitality, excitement and charm that has made doo-wop a beloved American musical style.
Los Tres Reyes
trío romántico
San Antonio, Texas
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Videos: |
With its poetic themes of unrequited love and gorgeous vocal harmonies, layered over dazzling work on guitar and requinto (small classical guitar), the trío romántico style took Mexico by storm in the 1940s. It remains one of the most popular live music ensembles for social/celebratory occasions in Mexican communities. Formed in 1957, with the twin brothers Gilberto and Raul Puente at its core, Los Tres Reyes rose to prominence during the genre’s heyday They prevail as a stunning trio that has honed this beautifulstyle to near perfection.
Magic Slim & The Teardrops with Big Time Sarah
Chicago blues
Chicago, Illinois
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Videos: Article: Black Americans who traveled north from the Mississippi Delta to seek work and opportunity created the gritty, electrified blues of Chicago. Among them was 73-year old blues guitar ace Magic Slim - the real deal – the personification of Chicago blues at its raucous, house-rocking best. Teamed up with fellow Mississippi native and special guest, powerful Chicago blues shouter “Big Time” Sarah Streeter, Slim and company deliver a one-two punch by Chicago’s finest. |
Mary Jane Lamond & Wendy McIssaac
Cape Breton
Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia
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Video: Article: |
Steeped in the Scottish Gaelic heritage of Cape Breton Island, singer Mary Jane Lamond creates timeless music for a modern age, with a powerful trio that includes the masterful fiddler/piano player/step dancer Wendy MacIsaac.
The Mighty Diamonds
reggae
Kingston, Jamaica
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Video: |
Donald "Tabby" Shaw (pictured above), Fitzroy "Bunny" Simpson and Lloyd "Judge" Ferguson are international roots reggae heroes - the original trio whose soulful, pure harmonies and socially conscious songs infused with Rastafarian spirituality are as powerful today as when they first emerged from the ghetto of Trenchtown in 1969.
Old Bay Ceili Band
Irish ceili band
Baltimore, Maryland
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Videos: |
Baltimore is home to a vibrant traditional Irish music scene that boasts some of the finest players in the world. In 2008 and 2009, “Old Bay” represented the United States in the senior ceili band competition at the Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann, the world competition of Irish Traditional music. At home, the band regularly plays at local ceilis where Irish set dances (similar to square or contra dances) are led by a caller. In addition to their performance sets at the Festival, Old Bay will play for called dances.
“Original P” featuring original founding members of Parliament Funkadelic
American soul & funk originators
Stone Mountain, Georgia
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Video: Articles: |
Formed in the 1950s as a New Jersey doo-wop group, P-Funk, as it came to be called, became an African American soul/funk/rock collective that ruled the charts in the 1970s and 80s, and has now attained cult status. Led by original members and children of original members at the core of the Parliament-Funkadelic band, Original P delivers some serious funk.
Pedrito Martinez Group
Afro-Cuban music
New York City, New York
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Videos: Audio: |
“Cuban music is very cosmopolitan,” declares Havana native Pablo “Pedrito” Martinez. Percussionist and vocalist Martinez is an innovator who incorporates sounds from jazz to funk. But what makes his ensemble notable is its grounding in the fundamentals of Afro-Cuban music: Yoruba chanting and the rhythms of the batá drum, both of which came to Cuba with enslaved Africans. By honoring this tradition, Martinez makes even the most modern song into pure Afro-Cuban expression.
Qi Shu Fang Peking Opera
Peking Opera
Woodhaven, New York
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Videos: Articles: |
Blending song, dance, acrobatics and martial arts, this highly popular form of traditional Chinese theater arose in the late 18th century. NEA National Heritage Fellow Qi Shu Fang is a true master of this art form, a living legend who has been at the center of the movement to break down a gender barrier that had existed for centuries and open the tradition up to female performers. Since relocating to New York in 1988, she has led her own company, the foremost Peking Opera company in the U.S.
Steve Riley & The Mamou Playboys
Cajun
Lafayette. Louisiana
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Videos: |
With an uncompromising respect for tradition and a forward-looking vision, this band has set the standard for modern Cajun music, creating a sound that is at once intelligent, sophisticated, soulful and exhilaratingly danceable - inspired music that never fails to both move the spirit and the body.
Redd Volkaert Band with Cindy Cashdollar
Austin, Texas
Masters of American country guitar styles
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Website of Redd Volkaert Video: Review: Articles: |
Telecaster guru Volkaert is no household name, but in the world of “twang” guitar, Merle Haggard’s former lead guitarist is a cult figure. Joining forces with the “First Lady of the steel guitar,” Cindy Cashdollar, these two virtuosos move effortlessly between country, jazz, blues, and Western swing in a way that will leave other players shaking their heads and thinking to themselves, “I should practice more.”
S.H. Thompson Memorial Choir
gospel choir
Glen Allen, Virginia
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St. Peter Baptist Church website |
Fifty singers strong, the S.H. Thompson Memorial Choir is one of the most highly regarded choirs in a region known for the excellence of its gospel music. Founded in 1954 and the largest of the many choirs at St. Peter Baptist Church, this powerful ensemble will “bless” the Richmond Folk Festival with its uplifting music.
Tibetan Monks from the Drepung Loseling Monastery
Tibetan sacred music and dance
Dharamsala, India
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Drepung Loseling Monastery website Video: Article: |
Cultural and spiritual ambassadors from their monastery-in-exile, eleven Tibetan lamas perform compelling ritual music, dance and chant from their occupied homeland. Performances will feature the monks’ unique multiphonic singing, together with traditional temple instruments such as cymbals, bells, drums, long horn trumpets, and high horns and masked dances including the Dance of the Celestial Travelers and the Dance of the Sacred Snow Lion.
Tony Ellis and the Musicians of Braeburn
Banjo tunes and songs
Circleville, Ohio
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Tony Ellis' website |
Touring as one of Bill Monroe’s Bluegrass Boys by age 20, Tony Ellis has over the years moved beyond bluegrass, developing his own deeply introspective and highly melodic style that perfectly complements his beautiful banjo compositions. At the Festival he will be joined by his son William Lee on guitar, wife Louise on pump organ, and friend Larry Nager on bass.
Winograd’s Nue Tanhoyz Kepele
New York, New York; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania;
Berkley, California, and Austin, Texas
klezmer band
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Website of Michael Winograd (clarinet and band leader) Video: Articles: What A Jew Means In This Time…Shifting aesthetics in the contemporary klezmer landscape (html) or (download PDF) Steven Weintraub (bottom left) Article: |
Led by clarinetist Michael Winograd, this klezmer dance supergroup plays the rousing music of Jewish American musical legends David Tarras, Naftule Brandwein, German Goldenshtyn and others, with all of the joy and abandon characteristic of klezmer tradition.