Featured Artists from Nutmeg 2022:
Tina Bergmann
HD: Intermediate thru Advanced
9:30 - Adding Variation to Your Melodies
10:45 - Learn to Use Your Peripheral Vision
1:00 - Ragtime Techniques
HD: Advanced Beginner thru Low Intermediate
2:15 - Playing Rounds
Hailed by Pete Seeger as “the best hammered dulcimer player I’ve heard in my life,” Tina Bergmann has been performing concerts, and teaching workshops and private lessons from an early age. A fourth-generation musician, Tina began playing music at age eight, learning the mountain dulcimer from her mother in the aural tradition and learning the hammered dulcimer at the knee of West Virginia-native builder and performer Loy Swiger. Demonstrating gifts for both performance and teaching, she has been a featured performer across the United States, performing solo; as a duo with her husband, bassist Bryan Thomas; with her stringband Hu$hmoney; and as a member of Apollo’s Fire, Cleveland’s world renowned Baroque Orchestra.
By the time she earned a BA in education degree from Kent State University in 1994, Tina had a well- established a thriving studio and had been teaching privately for 11 years.
Tina and her husband, bassist Bryan Thomas, were featured artists at the 2008 Nutmeg Dulcimer Festival, and they have been featured at many other festivals, as well. Her contra dance bands, Strings & Things and Hu$hmoney, have played for dances as far east as Massachusetts and New York. And performing with Cleveland's internationally renowned baroque orchestra Apollo’s Fire since 1995, Tina has become a cornerstone of their folk-baroque crossover program. She has appeared on two Apollo's Fire albums that made the Billboard Top 10 Classical list, including one that earned an Emmy nomination.
Bing Futch
MD: Intermediate thru Advanced
9:30 - Taking It to the Next Level
10:45 - Classical Mountain Dulcimer
1:00 - Hands-On and PLUGGED-IN!
MD: Advanced Beginner thru Low Intermediate
2:15 - Simple Way to Play in D, G and A
Using Appalachian mountain dulcimer, Native American flute, ukulele, and a board full of stomp-boxes, Bing Futch celebrates traditional and modern Americana music with passion, humor and boundless energy. Known for his musical shape-shifting, Bing switches the channels on style and tone with every new song, from his roots-rock and blues originals to The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Disney covers.
As a nationally touring solo performer, he's headlined at such events as the Walnut Valley Festival, Florida Folk Festival, Old Songs Festival, Indiana Fiddlers Gathering, Big Muddy, and Common Ground on the Hill - as well as the 2007 Nutmeg Dulcimer Festival.
Bing competed in the 2015 and 2016 International Blues Challenge; the largest gathering of blues musicians in the world. He made the semi-finals in 2015 and went all the way to the finals in 2016, winning "Best Guitar" in the solo-duo category, despite competing solely on the mountain dulcimer.
His music has been featured in film, video, on stage and in exhibits at the Orlando Museum of Art. He was composer and musical director for "The Jungle Book: A Musical Adaptation" at Stage Left Theater in Orlando, Florida.
Bing has recorded numerous albums and has written over a dozen instructional books, including method books for blues dulcimer and his popular Mountain Dulcimer in the Band series.
Dave Haas
MD: Advanced Beginner thru Low Intermediate
9:30 - A Round and a Round and a Round
10:45 - Dulcimer to Accompany Singing
1:00 - Multi-Part Arrangements
MD: Intermediate thru Advanced
2:15 - Leading Great Jams and Group Sessions
Dave Haas is a popular workshop leader, performer, and jam leader from Charleston, WV. In the Northeast, he has been featured in recent years at August Dulcimer Daze and the Dutchland Dulcimer Gathering, in addition to many other festivals across the country. During the pandemic, he has also taught at many online festivals, including all of the QuaranTUNEs.
He has been playing the mountain dulcimer since 1990, and loves to share the instrument and its history with schools, churches, civic organizations, and even prisons. Dave also plays the guitar, sings, and leads music on Christian retreat experiences such as Kairos Prison Ministry, The Walk To Emmaus, Cursillo, and Teens Encounter Christ.
He has released four dulcimer CDs, seven instruction/CD workbooks, and a popular dulcimer chord chart.
Dave recently retired as a professor at the University of Charleston, where he exposed countless students the joy of Chemistry. One of his favorite teaching activities was to sing chemistry songs (on dulcimer and guitar) with his students.
Timothy Seaman
HD: Advanced Beginner thru Low Intermediate
9:00 - Easy Patterns on Your Dulcimer
10:45 - Playing Well with Others
1:00 - Separated-Hands Technique
HD: Intermediate thru Advanced
2:15 - Filling Spaces with Music
Timothy Seaman has been a full-time musician since 1994 and performs over 200 times a year, both solo and in ensembles. His primary solo instrument is the extended-range hammered dulcimer, which he plays with a blend of Appalachian, classical, Celtic, and contemporary approaches, as well as an element of improvisation.
Timothy has shared concert stages with Pierce Pettis, Robin and Linda Williams, Phil Keaggy, Dean Shostak, Bob Zentz, and Mike Seeger. He has appeared at the Augusta Heritage, Highland Maple, Sawdust, Evart, Buckeye, and QuaranTUNE festivals – plus 24 First Nights in several cities and numerous concerts for Colonial Williamsburg and State and National Parks, and he was invited to play for the elder President Bush.
He has released 15 CDs, with over 130,000 tapes and discs sold (plus many downloads). Most of his recordings have been done in collaboration with Virginia’s National and State Parks or other agencies, representing their natural and historic themes. He also plays mountain dulcimer, psaltery, flute, bamboo flute, whistle, and other instruments. Before going full-time with music, he was an English teacher for 19 years, and he was a four-summer backpacking instructor as a Philmont Ranger. A proud native of West Virginia, he has lived in Williamsburg, Virginia since 1970.
Other Instructors and Vendors
Cliff Cole
Cliff Cole has been playing hammered dulcimer since 1985. His background is in percussion, and he has studied various types of music including rock, blues, jazz and folk. He performs in the duo Tachyonmetry. His folk group, DayBreak, has been performing together for over 30 years and has produced six CDs. He also does recording session work on hammered dulcimer and percussion. Cliff is a founding member of the Quakertown Area Dulcimer and Autoharp Society (QUADAS), serves on the board of Perkasie Patchwork Coffeehouse, and is a member of the Nutmeg Team.
Workshops (HD)
Cliff will teach the Beginner hammered dulcimer players.
Sam Edelston
Sam Edelston is on a quest to bring dulcimers into widespread public awareness. He plays many kinds of popular music on acoustic and electric mountain dulcimer, and if a particular song needs notes that aren't on a "standard" dulcimer, he uses one with more frets. So far in 2022, Sam has taught at Kentucky Music Week, a dulcimer club in Virginia, Albany's Mountain Dulcimer Music Festival, and QuaranTUNE 7.0 ... performed at a Beatles festival in North Carolina and a concert series in New Jersey ... and taught several of his own online dulcimer courses. His music videos have been viewed over 1,000,000 times, and his video of "Sweet Caroline" is included in the dulcimer display at the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix. Sam also plays guitar, banjo, and hammered dulcimer, and is chair of this festival.
Workshops (MD)
Sam will teach the Beginner mountain dulcimer players.
Tom Irving
Tom Irving is a dulcimer player and innovator, always looking for better ways to do things. He is the creator of Possum Pads, as well as ergonomic noters and wrist rests for dulcimer players. Based in Massachusetts, where he is the leader of the New England Dulcimaniacs, Tom is a member of the Nutmeg Team.
Tom will teach Beginner mountain dulcimer players.
He will also be vending this year.
Dwain Wilder
Dwain Wilder, founder of Bear Meadow Folk Instruments, has been building mountain dulcimers since 1991. He regularly gets orders from as far away as Europe, Great Britain, and the Far East. Dwain is also one of the few dulcimer builders who takes on apprentices and teaches them the craft. In addition to his instrument building, Dwain has published poems in various periodicals and collections, and writes occasional essays on Zen practice.
Dwain will be vending this year.