Vinland Music Camp
Instructors
Instructors at the Vinland Music Camp are members of Lomond Sound – a folk arts collective that performs and give workshops at various events throughout the province. This year’s instructors include Jean Hewson, Christina Smith, Hugh Scott, Gerry Strong, Graham Wells, Jane Dennison, Eric West, Dave Panting, Maddy Mouland and Gary Green. Camp participants work with these artists to develop performance skills, learn the history of the music and various approaches to interpreting it. Workshops at Camp will be in button accordion, fiddle, guitar, mandolin, tenor banjo, tin whistle, wooden flute and ukulele. There will also be instruction in traditional singing, songwriting, dance and storytelling.
Graham Wells
Graham Wells is an award winning multi-instrumentalist and singer of Newfoundland and Irish traditional songs. Graham is an innovator in the Newfoundland accordion tradition, introducing, adapting and interpreting the Traditional Newfoundland Dance Music canon to the semitone tuned (C#/D) 2-row accordion system. His first professional recording Island to Island was released in 2002, a collaboration with Irish fiddler Séamus Creagh. Wells is also a founding member of A Crowd of Bold Sharemen and has performed with The Irish Descendants.
Graham’s debut solo album, Traditional Music from Newfoundland, won the MIANL Traditional Recording of the Year. In 2010 he founded the Irish Newfoundland Traditional Music Foundation, whose banner event is Féile Séamus Creagh – an annual traditional music festival for which Wells is Artistic Director. In 2013 Graham completed an MA in Traditional Music Performance from the Irish World Music Academy at the University of Limerick, Ireland.
Graham is delighted to be at Vinland Music Camp for his second year to share his love and passion for the button accordion.
Jean Hewson
Jean has been performing and teaching traditional songs and tunes of Newfoundland and Labrador for more than thirty years. Her adventures have taken her to folk festivals, concert halls, and seminar rooms throughout North America and the UK. She is highly regarded for her ability as an accompanist and has worked with many of the province’s leading instrumentalists, including Christina Smith, Gerry Strong, Daniel Payne, Dave Penny, Eric West, and Rufus Guinchard. She has also received recognition for her recorded work, including two ECMA nominations (Roots Traditional Group of the Year, 1999 & 2006) and a Canadian Folk Music Award nomination for Traditional Singer of the Year in 2006.
Christina Smith
Christina is recognised as one of the foremost exponents of traditional Newfoundland fiddling. Since 1982 she has been collecting, researching, performing, teaching, and publishing Newfoundland traditional music. She teaches with the Suzuki Talent Education Program of St. John’s, and instructs a course in Traditional Newfoundland Fiddling at Memorial University. Christina tours internationally and records with the award winning groups ‘Jean Hewson and Christina Smith’ and ‘Frank Maher and the Mahers Bahers’. She is the founder and past director of the STEP Fiddlers, a group of young musicians who have been performing and recording Newfoundland tunes since 1982.
Gerry Strong
Gerry is a whistle- and wooden flute-player who played for many years with Tickle Harbour and A Crowd of Bold Sharemen and now performs with Cotillion. With these groups, he recorded six albums and has toured across Canada, Ireland, England, and Australia. Gerry has appeared as a guest musician on a multitude of recordings including that of Irish uillean piper Paddy Keenan. In 2008 he recorded his own CD entitled Velvet in the Wind, which features many of the top traditional players in Newfoundland and Labrador today.
Hugh Scott
Hugh Scott is an award-winning singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist based in St John’s , NL. He has been a professional musician since 1977, playing in many bands and as a solo performer.
Hugh has opened for many notable musicians such as Liam Clancey and Tommy Makem, and The Yetties (from Dorset, England). His songs have been covered by The Ennis Sisters, Fine Crowd, Brown Ale, Celtic Wind, Chris Murphy, Dicey Reilly and Heather Cameron.
In 1996 , Hugh was honoured with the Music NL SOCAN song of the year for “Theresa Maria”, recorded by Fine Crowd. Since 2001, Hugh has worked with the Soundbone Traditional Arts Foundation as a songwriting instructor at the Vinland Music Camp. He has also accompanied other Lomond Sound members for school tours throughout the province.
Hugh now performs with Gerry Strong and Dave Panting in the traditional band Cotillion; he also performs solo.
Eric West
Eric is a guitarist and music arranger/publisher who has performed with a number of prominent musical groups, including the children’s music duo ‘Heather and Eric.’ He has composed and arranged music for radio, television, and stage. ArtsNL awarded Eric the 2007 Arts Achievement Award for his contribution to the arts in this province. In 2017 he received the Memorial University Arts in Education Award, in recognition of his contribution to arts education. He has been the Director of Vinland Music Camp since its beginning in 2001.
Jane Dennison
Jane has been dancing, calling, and teaching with folk dance groups for over 30 years. She has been a dance instructor at the Vinland Music Camp in Newfoundland since 2005 and has performed at festivals, concerts, and special events in Newfoundland, St. Pierre, Quebec, Ontario, and the USA. Jane has a Master of Arts degree from Memorial University with a research focus on the sustainability of set dancing in the province. She is the co-author of Traditional Dances of Newfoundland and Labrador – A Guide for Teachers (Vinland Music 2007).
Gary Green
Storyteller and author Gary Green has performed provincially, nationally and internationally at a variety of events ranging from youth camps to major festivals. Gary has performed on network television, on radio and in international award winning audio productions. He has been a consultant for the use of storytelling in the interpretation of a provincial and two national historic sites. In addition to teaching storytelling at the annual Vinland Music Camp, he has taught storytelling workshops for other groups in both Newfoundland and Labrador.
Dave Panting
Dave is a multi-instrumentalist, singer /songwriter, composer, and producer. He is a founding member of two influential Atlantic Canadian bands – Figgy Duff and Rawlins Cross. For over four decades he has toured locally and internationally.
Madison Mouland
Madison is a folk musician from Musgrave Harbour, Notre Dame Bay, presently completing her fourth year as a voice major at the Memorial University School of Music. Although she studies and performs classical music at school, Madison is a folk musician at heart and typically performs traditional music from the ages. Madison has been singing and playing guitar for many years, and has been involved with Soundbone’s Cultural Ambassador Program, performing for seniors, doing workshops with children and performing at other various venues. In her spare time, she also loves to paint and make crafts. She hopes to become a school music teacher in the future, sharing her love of music with children.
