Bios


Hanneke Cassel's fluid and graceful fiddle style has brought her honors as the winner of the 1997 US National Scottish Fiddle Championship, as well as the '92 and '94 National Scottish Junior Championship. She has a degree from the Berklee College of Music in violin performance and has performed across the US, Cape Breton, and Scotland with the likes of Alasdair Fraser, Matt Glaser, and Buddy MacMaster. She is currently performing regularly with the Cathie Ryan Band. In addition to performing, Hanneke teaches at Alasdair Fraser's Valley of the Moon Scottish Fiddle Camp and on the Isle of Skye, Scotland. She is featured on Darol Anger's Diary of a Fiddler album, and her first solo album My Joy was just released in April. Check out Hanneke's web site at hannekecassel.com.


Fiddler Laura Cortese was the 1998 New England regional Scottish Fiddle Campion. She was featured on tour with Alasdair Fraser and the San Francisco Scottish Fiddle Club in California and Alaska. She has studied with Fraser, as well as Martin Hayes, Buddy MacMaster, Catriona MacDonald, Jerry Holland, and Carl MacKenzie. Laura has also gained acclaim as a step-dancer. As an apprentice with Footworks Percussive Dance Ensemble, she recently performed with Footworks' new presentation of Tim O'Brien & The Crossing, staged with dance. Laura has choreographed modern dance at the University of California at Santa Cruz, and studied step-dancing with Mary Janet MacDonald and Eileen Carson. Laura taught step-dance workshops in California and Alaska. She has performed on BBC Scotland with cellist Christine Hanson.


Lissa Schneckenburger made her professional debut recording The Mad Hatter on the Outer Green label in 1997, and her second album, Different Game, was just released this spring. Drawn from her study of Irish, Scottish, French Canadian and contradance fiddle styles, the CD also includes many compositions of her own. The Mad Hatter has been aired on Natioanl Public Radio's international celtic show, Thistle & Shamrock, and has been reviewed in every major folk publication in the United states as well as several in Europe. Lissa has been featured in countless radio and television broadcasts, including a solo on National Public Television's "A Taste of Chanukah", filmed in New England Conservatory's Jordan Hall, a live performance on WBZ Boston, and annual features on Maine Public Radio's Live at 11. Check out Lissa's recordings and other projects on the Lissa Schneckenburger Home Page.


Flynn Cohen is one of the country's premier guitar accompanists. He began playing guitar at the age of eleven, and subsequently studied under such luminaries as John Renbourne (Pentangle), Scott Nygaard and Paul Brinkley (Modern Mandolin Quartet).  Flynn has degrees in music from Dartington College of the Arts in England and Mills College in California. He currently lives in Boston where he plays bluegrass in addition to Irish traditional music. This past year he joined the John Whelan Band, most recently accompanying John on his highly successful and critically acclaimed European tour.

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