Monday March 15th Show 8:15PM Tickets $15.00
Ladies of the Lake specialize in traditional Celtic instrumental music and ballad singing. They haveperformed for many years as a group and as individuals in their home state of Maine and beyond. The band’s name is inspired by a Maine contra dance that has been enjoyed by dancers and musicians since colonial times. This band adds their own Maine sparkle to the music which immigrated here with the Irish and the Scots when they came to work in the lumber camps and mills of Maine and New Brunswick.
The Ladies are top-notch instrumentalists with an extensive repertoire of traditional dance tunes from Ireland, New England, and Canada, all played from memory. Their shows include music on the fiddle, flute, tin whistle, button accordion, guitar, bodhran and piano. They are accomplished singers whose vocal arrangements feature unique three-part harmonies. You’ll hear ancient ballads, rounds, songs of the sea, and songs with a rousing chorus where audiences can join in.
Ladies of the Lake is available for weddings, concerts, parties, festivals, schools, libraries, sing-alongs and museums. Their sound ranges from stately semi-classical tunes to rollicking jigs and reels. For special concerts the band may be joined by a Celtic harpist, a bagpipes or step dancers. For dancing, the band plays polkas, waltzes fox trots and calls contra dances. A sound system and a master of ceremonies are available upon request. Ladies of the Lake have just completed their first CD called “Follow Me Down” which is available for $15, please contact Sharon Pyne.
Members
Four of Maine’ leading traditional musicians join together for a musical celebration of life. In the Celtic tradition, they will perform lilting dance tunes, heartfelt airs and enchanting ballads.
Ellen Gawler (fiddle) is a veteran fiddler conversant in many styles including Irish, French Canadian, Maritime, and New England. She began fiddling at a young age and traveled to Ireland, British Isles and the Shetland Islands, studying with masters and collecting tunes while there. She has recorded on eight occasions, touring the U. S. and Europe with groups such as The Old Grey Goose, Trillium, Childsplay, The Gawler Family and Village Harmony. Ellen is a Suzuki violin/fiddle teacher of 15 years, founding the Pineland Fiddlers, 20 youngsters playing Maine traditional fiddle tunes who also have a CD to their credit. She teaches at dance camps and folk music workshops, and hails from Belgrade where she and her family host the Buttermilk Hill Festival on their farm.
Sharon Pyne (wooden flute, tin whistle, bodhran) began playing tin whistle and wooden flute while living in Ireland in 1977. She studied for a year from master flute players, and by ear, learned this highly ornamented but beautifully simple genre of dance music. Returning to Boston, she became involved in Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann, a world-wide organization that provides educational support for Irish music, language and dance. After playing on her first recording with this group, Sharon came to Maine with her family, where she helped form the Portland Ceili Band to play for regular Irish American Club dances. She has performed and recorded with Julia Lane of Castlebay and the Ladybugs who specialize in music for children and families. She leads Music Together classes for children and parents in Midcoast Maine and spends weekends and summers performing at wedding, festivals and teaching at Maine Fiddle Camp.
Maggie Ericson (vocals, button accordion, guitar) is an accomplished singer and instrumentalist, performing an eclectic mix of folk and traditional music. Maggie was a founding member of Maine’s Old Grey Goose band, and helped to revive traditional dance in Ithaca (NY) by performing with bands such as the Traveling Rant and Possum Hollow, playing button accordion for dancers. As a soloist, she has performed at the Chocolate Church in Bath, A Company of Women Gallery (Peterborough, NH), and coffeehouses, radio stations and concert venues throughout the Northeast and the Middle-Atlantic since the 1970s. In Boston during the 1990s, she played with musicians from both sides of the Atlantic in this city’s first rate Irish music venues. This year she traveled to Ireland conducting research on the history of women in Irish music. She is head of the Art and Music Library at Colby College.
Surya Mitchell (piano, vocals) has a foot in several musical worlds with her heart and soul in Celtic music. Beginning as a nurse and massage therapist with music a sideline, she graduated into a fulltime musical occupation. She is personnel manager and educational coordinator of the Bangor Symphony Orchestra and has been choir director in several local churches for many years. She has also been accompanist and actress in musical productions from Maine to California and was initiated in to the Celtic traditional folk style with the Oakum Bay String Band of Blue Hill playing regular dances throughout the state. She currently teaches piano and children’s music classes in the Bangor area where she lives with her family.
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