This course is currently sold out. We do sometimes get cancellations – if you would like to be added to the waiting list, please contact us.
We are delighted to welcome back Nonsuch Dulcimer Club to host another packed workshop week offering practical guidance on playing the dulcimer. Featuring superb tutors from the USA and UK. There will also be times to socialise and play informally, plus informal evening concerts from the tutors – and from participants!
You can choose from four courses. Please let us know your choice when booking:
- Mountain Dulcimer: Introductory Course
- Mountain Dulcimer: Exploring Course
- Hammered Dulcimer: Introductory Course
- Hammered Dulcimer: Exploring Course
Introductory courses are designed for beginners / improver dulcimer players. Loan instruments will be available subject to demand.
Exploring courses are more in-depth, designed with the intermediate / advanced level player in mind. The Mountain Dulcimer Exploring Course is also open to players of other fretted instruments.
Please Click here for further guidance about playing levels.
Who is it for?
All skill levels will be catered for on this course. There will be two broad strands of workshops for both Mountain and Hammered Dulcimer: one for Beginner/Improvers and one for Intermediate/Advanced players. Please Click here for playing level guidelines. We hope that once again there will be instruments available – both mountain and hammered dulcimers – for beginners to borrow – please request early when you book.
The Team
Ken Kolodner (Hammered Dulcimer)
Baltimore-based Ken Kolodner is widely recognized as one of one of today’s most accomplished, musical hammered dulcimer artists and a fine old-time fiddler. For nearly 40 years, Kolodner toured as a soloist and in ensembles with world music trio Helicon (with Robin Bullock and Chris Norman), Greenfire (with Bullock and Laura Risk), Scottish National Fiddle Champion Elke Baker. In the last decade he performs with his son Brad along with Alex Lacquement and Rachel Eddy as The Ken and Brad Kolodner Quartet. Kolodner is thrilled to have teamed up with Mary Lynn Michal to focus on hammered dulcimer duets.
Mary Lynn Michal (Hammered Dulcimer)
Mary Lynn Michal is a hammered dulcimer Teacher & Performer based in Middletown, MD. A professional French horn player by training with a master’s degree from The Eastman School of Music, Mary Lynn Michal (MLM) discovered a passion for playing the hammered dulcimer in 2012. In 2020, Mary Lynn co-authored with Kolodner The Complete Guide to Theory & Mapping for the Hammered Dulcimer. She teaches a year-long (40 session) online class covering the book for more than 325 hammered dulcimer players from around the globe. Her first CD “Out from the Shadows”, in collaboration with Ken, was just released.
Rob Brereton (Mountain Dulcimer)
Rob Brereton is considered one of the pioneers in contemporary mountain dulcimer playing. He has been playing dulcimer for over 30 years and has been an internationally recognized performer and tutor. Also a classical guitar player with a degree in music theory and composition he brings a fresh approach to arranging. He was one of the first dulcimer players to arrange extensively in chromatic and other alternate tunings. He specializes in the standards and early jazz tunes of Duke Ellington, George Gershwin, and the like, and is equally adept at playing the more traditional Celtic, Appalachian, old time, and other dulcimer repertoire. His first CD was released in 1992. David Schnaufer called Rob’s playing “…strong and innovative.” He has won several awards for his playing including a coveted Winfield National flatpicking award. Rob has taught dulcimer at most major music festivals and folk schools across the USA as well as internationally.
Jeff Furman (Mountain Dulcimer)
Jeff Furman (USA) is a multi-instrumentalist and an award winning mountain dulcimer player. He has been playing old time music since the 1980s and has an extensive repertoire which crosses into his interest in music from the Celtic tradition. Aside from an exposure to music from all over the world and all time periods, Jeff provides an intimate understanding of the mechanics of music and instruments, and a spirit of stretching oneself musically. His collaborative albums include ‘Spirit of the Mountains’ with wife Janet and Anne and Rob Lough; and ‘Heartfelt’, ‘Adam’s Delight’ and ‘Celtic Jewels’ with his wife Janet Furman. Jeff’s playing has been described as ‘fluid and expressive – in his hands the mountain dulcimer becomes an instrument capable of creative a wide array of moods, emotions and feelings’. His teaching style is gentle, entertaining and effective and he is much in demand as a tutor from beginner to advanced level.
Janet Furman (Mountain Dulcimer, Fiddle)
Accompanying husband Jeff Furman is Janet a fiddle player, tutor and instrumentalist who has joined Jeff on recordings including their album ‘Celtic Jewels’ featuring haunting melodies, and lush harmonies arranged for the mountain dulcimer and fiddle, with the musical sensitivity and expression for which Jeff and Janet are widely known.
The tutors will be performing in a concert on Tuesday evening. Entry is included for course participants, but external tickets are also available: Dulcimer Tutors’ Concert