I've been fascinated all my life by the oddity, humor, and strange beauty of old songs. I know hundreds of songs from American, British, and French traditions, which I sing unaccompanied, with autoharp or, very occasionally, with fiddle or hurdy-gurdy.
I also make original songs for solo, small group, or choral performance. You can hear my early work in this vein on my somewhat solipsistic home-made CD, Music at Home. A new one is in the works, including the voices of others this time, I hope.
I love many kinds of singing, including shape-note singing, and I organize a regular monthly sing in the Pittsburgh area. Some of my compositions are strongly influenced by styles of the shape note tradition, and I've had a piece published in the thrice-yearly online publication The Trumpet.
My curiosity about the origins of the tradition led me into a lot of reading and listening, and ultimately into teaching a course on the choral music of revolutionary-era New England for the University of Pittsburgh's Osher Lifelong Learning Institute.
We are a small chorus singing music of the 18th-century singing-school movement, a precursor to the great American tradition of shape-note singing. May 19th is the museum's Friendship Day, when it is free for the public from 1:00 to 4:00 PM, with fascinating craft demonstrations, including spinning, weaving, and blacksmithing.
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Augusta Heritage Center, Davis and Elkins College, Elkins WV
I'm excited to be teaching shape-note singing this year, as well as running the morning vocal warm-ups and doing the usual organizing.
