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Kate Van Winkle Keller's interest in colonial
dance and music began just before the Bicentennial of the American Revolution in 1976. She and her family were living in a ca. 1800 tavern in Coventry, Connecticut that was to be open during the festivities. Fascinated with the question of what kind of dances had been held in this beautiful space, she started a life-long quest to bring early American dances back to life. Supported by grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Connecticut Commission for the Arts, Country Dance and Song Society, and the Connecticut Historical Society, she co-directed several projects including The National Tune Index (published in 1980) and its online edition, Early American Secular Music and Its European Sources, 1589–1839, and The Performing Arts in Colonial American Newspapers, 1690–1783 (published in 1997). Looking for the roots often took her to British archives, and she coauthored The Playford Ball, 103 Early Country Dances 1651–1820 as Interpreted by Cecil Sharp and His Followers. First published by the Society of Dance History Scholars in 1990, this now classic book on English country dance is in its third edition.
Choreographer for the film The Last of the Mohicans (20th Century Fox: 1992), she has served as consultant in early dance and music to many performing organizations and individuals, archivists, collectors, composers and scholars. A specialist in early American music and dance manuscripts, her bibliographic studies were published by the Music Library Association and the Country Dance and Song Society. She was a contributor to the American National Biography, the Cambridge History of American Music and the Encyclopedia of the North American Colonies. Her path-breaking work, "If the Company can do it!" Technique in Eighteenth-Century American Social Dance, was first presented to the International Early Dance Institute in 1989. A graduate of Vassar College (class of 1959), Keller also studied at the Hartford Conservatory of Music. She was an officer and Executive Director of The Society for American Music, formerly The Sonneck Society, from 1977 to 2000, representing the Society at the American Council of Learned Societies and the National Initiative for a Networked Cultural Heritage. A tireless worker on behalf of early American music, she was honored with the Society's Distinguished Service Citation in 1995. She served as Curator of the Library and Archives of the Country Dance and Song Society from 1985 to 1992. In recognition of her scholarly achievements, Kate Van Winkle Keller was elected to membership in the American Antiquarian Society of Worcester, Massachusetts in April 2004 and presently serves on the AAS Council. publications |
David K. Hildebrand graduated Phi Beta
Kappa, Magna Cum Laude from Dickinson College in 1979. In 1987 he
earned an M.A. in musicology from George Washington University, and in
1992 he received a Ph.D. in Musicology from Catholic University, writing
a dissertation on
the musical life of Annapolis, Maryland, 1649–1776. In addition to
performing professionally with Ginger since 1980, David has lectured widely
and published articles and reviews in such journals as The William
and Mary Quarterly and Maryland Historical Magazine.
He has served a music consultant for a variety of projects ranging from
museum exhibits to PBS television documentaries such as Liberty!
-- the American Revolution, Jefferson: A View from
the Mountain, and the forthcoming Rediscovering George
Washington. (c.v.)Ginger Hildebrand graduated Phi Beta Kappa,
Magna Cum Laude from Dickinson College in 1983. In 1988 she earned
an M.M. degree in guitar performance from the Peabody
Conservatory. Ginger is active in developing and presenting educational
programs as outreach for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. She has
written for the Council for Basic Education, and her teaching activities
include running a home studio for guitar students and teaching applied
music at the Anne Arundel Community College. In addition to performing
professionally with David since 1980, Ginger has served a music consultant
for a variety of PBS television documentaries and directed ensembles ranging
from a guitar quartet to a handbell choir.
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Robert M. Keller is a pro-bono consultant with
the Executive Services Corps of New England and directs the
Computer Learning Center at Fox Hill Village in Westwood MA
and has served as an Instructor of Computer
Applications at Montgomery College. In 1988, he developed an unique
system of indexing country dance figures and has compiled
several major indexes of English and American country
dances including the Dance Figures Index,
American Country Dances 1730–1810, and The
Dancing Master CD-ROM and website. He participated in the development
of The National Tune Index and managed the programming for
The
Performing Arts in Colonial American Newspapers. He is principal
author of the Early American Music and its European
Sources. Keller earned a B.S. from the U.S. Naval Academy.
Susan Cifaldi holds a B.S from Southern Connecticut State University and has done post-graduate work in museum collections, image preservation, conservation, and book-binding. She is Librarian and Archivist of the Company of Fifers and Drummers in Ivoryton, Connecticut and an authority on early American field music. Author of a number of specific reports on Connecticut Valley fife and drum traditions, she has presented papers at meetings of the Northeast American Society for Eighteenth Century Studies, the National Flute Society, International Musical Instrument Society, and the Brigade of the American Revolution. She has published articles in the Bulletin of the Sonneck Society for American Music, in Three Centuries of American Music (ed. by Raoul F. Camus) and is co-author of Benjamin Clark's Drum Book (published in 1989). |
Julianne Baird, a musician and scholar, is recognized
internationally for her work in eighteenth-century music. She earned her M.A. in
Musicology from the Eastman School of Music and a Ph.D. in Musicology from
Stanford University. Her book, Introduction to the Art of Singing
(Cambridge University Press), now in its third printing, is used by singers and
professional schools throughout America and Europe. With over 125 recordings to
her credit, she has earned praise for a “virtuosic vocal style firmly rooted in scholarship.”
Dr. Baird regularly conducts master classes and workshops at universities and
conservatories throughout North America. The author of Music in the Life of Benjamin Franklin (2007), she is featured on the CMI recording of the same title. Baird is a distinguished professor at Rutgers University. |
Raoul Camus is professor emeritus of music
at Queensborough Community College of the City University of New York and
director emeritus of the Queens Symphonic Band, a community organization.
He earned his Ph.D. in music administration
from New York University, and spent many years teaching instrumental music
in secondary schools. Prior to teaching, he managed a major music publishing
firm, and performed professionally on the French horn. For many years he
was director of New York’s famed 42d (Rainbow) Division Band, and is a
retired army reserve bandmaster.
A past president of The Sonneck Society for American Music, he is active in many band organizations, including the College Band Directors National Association, the Association of Concert Bands, the International Military Music Society, the World Association for Symphonic Bands and Ensembles, the Internationale Gesellschaft zur Erforschung der Blasmusik, and the Windjammers. He was recently elected an honorary member of the American Bandmasters Association. As a musicologist specializing in American music, he is a member of the American Musicological Society and contributed, along with forty brief entries, the lead article on bands for the New Grove Dictionary of American Music. He is the author of Military Music of the American Revolution (Chapel Hill, 1976, reprinted Westerville, 1993), Military Music in the United States Army Prior to 1834 (Ann Arbor, 1969), and articles on bands and their repertoire. His computer-generated microfiche index of Early American Wind and Ceremonial Music 1636-1836 was published in 1989 as phase two of The National Tune Index His latest work was an anthology of wind and percussion music published as volume 12 in G. K. Hall’s series Three Centuries of American Music. |
George A. Fogg has a long history in the
arts ranging from his interest in antiques and collectibles to all kinds
of traditional dances and is published in both fields. He has a long involvement
in the Boston area dance community, working in leadership roles with CDS-Boston
Centre, NEFFA, Pinewoods Camp, CDSS, Mainewoods Dance Camp & many other
groups & events.
He has taught at camps and workshops across the country and sponsors very popular formal evening assemblies of Colonial and English dancing twice yearly. Co-author of four collections of 18th-century dances, 'No Kissing Allowed in School!', A Virginia Dancing School in 1784 , Country Dances from Colonial New York, James Alexander's Notebook, 1730, A Choice Collection of Country Dances (1726) and The Richmond Assemblies: 1790–1797, he is currently running a series of classes in colonial dance in Brookline. He is an alumnus of the University of New Hampshire.
Charles Cyril Hendrickson (1932–2005) |