TRAVIS STUART - Clawhammer Banjo, Guitar

TREVOR STUART - Oldtime fiddle, mandolin

Brothers Travis and Trevor Stuart are among the best of Western North Carolina’s new generation of Oldtime music performers. Having grown up in the shadows of Cold Mountain, they learned to play some of the oldest and most beloved tunes of the region from masters like Byard Ray, the Smathers Family and Red Wilson. Trevor plays fiddle, mandolin and guitar and Travis plays banjo, bass and guitar. Together they are teaching the next generation of players how to keep the art of traditional music alive through the Junior Appalachian Music Program.

Brian has been playing fiddle since age eight. In 1997 he was named Minnesota’s Top Country Instrumentalist and has won several fiddle contests across the state. Brian moved to Nashville and began working at The Violin Shop. His work as a luthier has earned him a special backseat pass to many great jams when they break out in the shop with a mirage of great fiddlers including Aubrey Haynie, Stuart Duncan, Buddy Spicher and Alison Krauss. Being surrounded by these great musicians, Brian’s fiddling began taking flight incorporating many styles such as Bluegrass, swing, Irish, and old time. He currently plays with Grand Ole Opry star Mike Snider and his string band; PlaidGrass, a group of talented musicians that incorporates Irish and bluegrass styles into a hybrid sound.

Rose Flanagan is an traditional Irish fiddle teacher from Rockland County in New York who originally began music lessons as a child with Martin Mulvilhill while was growing up in the Bronx. She further developed her Sligo style of playing with the help of Martin Wynne and her older brother Brian. She was an original member of the all women Irish Group “Cherish the Ladies”. She currently has a large fiddle school in her hometown of Pearl River where she is hard at work preparing the next generation of great fiddle players which include several All Ireland winners and medalists. In her spare time she has been a regular instructor at the Catskills Irish Arts Weeks, runs various seisuns, and plays with her group the Green Gates Ceili band in the tri-state area.

Wendy Windsor-Hashiguchi has been dancing nearly all her life in styles ranging from ballet and tap to Bulgarian and Turkish. Wendy competed in Scottish Highland dancing for nearly eight years achieving championship level. She has taught Irish step, ceili and set dancing for 12 years and has learned with former world champion dancers such as Colin Dunne, Michael Smith, Bill Maple, Eileen Martin, Deirdre Goulding, Donny Golden (Riverdance star Jean Butler’s Instructor), Eimear Ni Mhaoileadigh, and Kevin Broesler as well as excellent traditional dancers of the sean nos or “old style” step dancing such as Patrick O’Dea.

She is a fully certified TCRG (Teasgicoir Choimisiuin Le Rinci Gaelacha-which is Irish for Gaelic Commission Dancing Teacher). Wendy encourages all students of Scott-Ellis School to play instruments as a way to complement dance education. Wendy herself plays with a local Irish band called the Jump Gypsies contributing hammered dulcimer, button accordion, bowed psaltery, and bones. Her own music and dance experience has included performances at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center with the Nashville Symphony, Ryman Auditorium with the Chieftains, Disneyworld, Summer Lights, and venues in Canada and Wales.

Wendy is a charter member and current vice-chair of the Frankie Kennedy Branch of Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann, the Irish music and dance organization with over 400 branches worldwide.  She is also a member of the Folk Alliance of Music and Dance and the Tennessee Association of Dance.

With two Grammy awards, two Entertainer of the Year honors from the International Bluegrass Music Association, and four wins as IBMA’s Vocal Group of the Year, Nashville Bluegrass Band is no stranger to acclaim from both critics and fans alike.

One of the four original members of the Nashville Bluegrass Band -- banjoist Alan O’Bryant was a talented songwriter who had been picking bluegrass banjo since his teen years in North Carolina. He hooked up with guitarist Pat Enright and together, Enright and O’Bryant performed at local Music City clubs that included the Station Inn, a famous bluegrass mecca. Enright moved up to Boston four years later to play with then-teenage banjo artist Bela Fleck while O’Bryant continued performing and recording bluegrass with artists like Bill and James Monroe, Peter Rowan, and Doc Watson. Enright returned to Music City ayear later and resumed the association that would lead to the formation of the Nashville Bluegrass Band in 1984


In 2002, Alan O’Bryant, Mike Compton and Stuart Duncan also appeared on the movie “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” soundtrack, and NBB began performing as a core element of the “Down From the Mountain” tour. The band celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2004, with the release of their Grammy nominated album Twenty Year Blues, and in 2006, NBB was invited to the White House by President George W. Bush to entertain in honor of visiting president of China, Hu Jintao.
   
   

Suzi Perri has been an accomplished percussionist for many years. She was the drummer for her 1970’s band Suzi and the Dreamboats, past bass, tenor, and snare drum player for the Anchorage Scottish Pipe Band, and has been playing bodhran for over 20 years. Suzi is an active promoter of Irish festivals and concerts in the Anchorage area. She regularly hosts Irish music sessions, where she also plays buttonbox Irish accordion, at her Scottish/Irish import shop in downtown Anchorage.