The Mendocino Folklore Camp - International "Camp Band"

PictureLAST YEARS- 2015 MFC Camp Band: Bill Cope (director), Paul Brown, Alex Miller, Amberly Rosen, Michele Simon and Corrine Sykes & guest musicians Douglass Mandell, Craig Kurumada
From the early years, Mendocino Folklore Camp has had a unique history with International music and dance, and many wonderful musicians, dancers, singers and teachers have graced our dance hall, lounge, trails, grove, fire pit and meadow with their considerable talents over our 54 year history.  There is literally no part of camp that has not known the sound of voices singing, feet dancing, musicians playing and teachers instructing.

Many of those talented people have also been part of our Folklore Camp Band.  Talented musicians who play nightly for our evening dance program.  They also play for some of our themed "happy-hour folklore celebration" parties, and in our late night Kafana.   We have been lucky  to have a wide variety of talented, dedicated musicians, many of whom come back year after year and become part of our Folklore Family.  music directors for our camp band over our 50 year history, each bringing their own brand of expertise and interest;  Barbara McOwen, Jananette Duncan, Becky Ashenden, and more recently Miamon Miller, Bill Cope and Linnea Mandell.  PLUS our extend family of long standing musicians that have graced our dance hall with their beautiful music; Paul Brown, Chuck Corman, Paul Morrissett, Michele Simon, Erik Hoffman, Jeff O'Connor, Mark Levy, Lorretta Kelley,  with guest teacher/musicians Ruth Hunter & Christos Govetas, Tzvetanka & Ivan Varimezova, Michael Alpert, Polly Tapia Ferber, Michael Ginsburg, Souhail Kasper,  Ross Campbell, Mary Sherhart, Michael Lawson, John Morovich, Mark Forry, Alan Keith, Brenna MacCrimmon, Ivanka Paunova, Eva Salina,  and band singers; Bev Mann, Wendy Zukas, Nancy Lawson, Susie Burke, Janice O'Connor, Sean Burke, Daniel Tuutau, Suzannah Parks, .  And on rare occasion, whole bands that have played for us; Chubritza from Arcata, CA and Harmonia from Cleveland, OH, and Beata Bermuda from Sweden!  All three bringing a wide array of International dance music.  on world music, and the very specific skills of being able to play a wide variety of International folk dance music each night for dancing. 

*- Our MFC 2016 CAMP BAND -*
CO-MUSICAL DIRECTORS
BILL COPE (multi-instrumentalist, vocals)
LINNEA MANDELL (accordion, tambura, bugaria, recorder, vocals)
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Bill is an amazing multi-instrumentalist (as seen in the pictures below!) and a gifted, experienced teacher who began playing Balkan music in 1975 and teaching at the E.E.F.C. Balkan Music & Dance Workshops in 1982. He's made many trips to the Balkans and studied with  players, including Lyubomir Vladimirov, first chair in the Philip Kutev Ensemble. He has also performed with Vassil Bebelekov, Donka and Nikolay Kolevi, Yuri Yunakov, Mile Kolarov and Pece Atanasovski.

Current musical endeavors are the Cope Family Band, Zabava! with Dan Auvil, Rich Schultz and Brian Fox; Trio Zulum, with Vassil Bebelekov, Dan Auvil, and singers Maria Bebelekova and Kimberly, Lacey and Joelle Cope;The Mehanatones with Pat MacSwyney, Dan Auvil and Brian Fox (to accompany Dragi Spasovski on his California tour spring 2009); Zlatno Selo (on the right coast) with Alan and Miriam Zemel, Jeff Fine, Jerry Kisslinger, Marjorie Selden and Kristina Vaskys; and Music Director for the San Francisco Kolo Festival.  As you can see, Bill's a hard working musician who loves Balkan music, playing it every chance he gets, and sharing his passion with others.

Bill is a long standing member of our Folklore Camp teaching staff, band member and part of our beloved Folklore family.  He is a master at teaching Beg./Int. Tambura, and many in the Balkan community have learned their first chords on this instrument from him.  At Folklore camp this summer, Bill will be teaching a daily BEG/INT. TAMBURA (Macedonian & Bulgarian) class.  All levels are welcome.. but building on the last few years worth of learning, this class in 2016 will be geared more toward an intermediate level.  If you want to take his class and do not have an instrument, please indicate on your 2nd flier form that you'd like to borrow one and we'll do what we can to make that happen.  Also any 5 string instrument will work as well; he's had Mandolins & Ukuleles in this class as well.  Contact Bill at: http://balkantunes.org/ for any questions in regard to  instruments that might be acceptable. 
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Linnea's grew up listening to international folk dance music as the child of folk dancing parents, and has many happy memories of attending folk dance camps every summer from the time she was an infant carried in the dance line. As part of her lifelong love of dance, she spent many years performing in international dance and music ensembles including the Northcountry Folk Ensemble, the Humboldt Ballet Folkórico, and Arcata Salsa Rueda.
     Linnea’s musical education began in her parents’ station wagon as a result of her family’s tradition of part-singing in the car, rather than turning on the radio. She studied classical music growing up, and began playing folk music in college. In the folk dance world, Linnea plays bugarija, tambura, guitar, baglama, tupan, dumbek, accordion, recorders, flutes, and any new instrument that looks like an adventure. Linnea regularly combines her dance knowledge and expertise with playing music. Whenever possible, she learns the dances along with the music, so when playing or singing folk dances, she is always dancing along inside her shoes, helping create the best possible dance feel.

Linnea directs Chubritza International Folk Band (www.chubritza.com) which has a long history of playing for the folk dance community including Stockton Folk Dance Camp, Mendocino Folklore Camp, Kolo Festival, the San Francisco Tamburitza Festival, the California Folk Dance Federation Statewide Festivals, Veselo Festival, a 10-day tour in Israel sponsored by 2 folk dance clubs, and numerous parties, weddings, and cultural events in Humboldt County.
     Linnea has also collaborated for many years with John Morovich, Mark Forry, and Bill Cope as a member of the Kolo Festival Band, MFC Camp Band and other tamburitza and international bands at festivals and camps. Linnea has promoted folk music and dance for many years as a regular music and dance teacher in the Humboldt area, Music Director for the Arcata Folk Dance Festival, previous board member of the East European Folklife Center (EEFC), and most recently, Kolo Festival board member.
PLUS MUSICIANS
DOUGLAS MANDELL (bass, keyboards, vocals)
     Like his sister Linnea, Douglas grew up listening and dancing to international folk dance music.  His musical education also began early, including the same five-part car singing, plus piano lessons in Kindergarten.  He then went on to teach himself guitar by watching Educational Television, and took up the trumpet a few years later.  It was probably the time he spent sitting behind the speaker while his parents taught folk dancing that infused in him a love of the bass, which he then taught himself to play during high school when the bass player stopped showing up for jazz band rehearsals.
 
Since then, Douglas has continued to be active in a wide variety of musical endeavors ranging from singing opera to playing and singing in a rock band.  Recently he has played bass for the Tamburitza and Kolo Festival bands in San Francisco, and last year had the pleasure of joining the Folklore Camp Band for the final activities.
PAUL MORRISSETT (violin, guitar, brać, bass, vocals)
Paul, was a folk dancer as a kid, then as a youth he learned the piano and played for international folk dancing events. He attended graduate school for a couple of years and then moved to New York, where he started dabbling in different kinds of music, mostly Balkan, then Scandinavian.  While living in Colorado in the late 1970s, before he joined the world renowned band the Klezmatics.  When he’s not busy with the world famous band the "Klezmatics", Paul Morrissett—who has been with the group since their first album—spends much of his time fiddling for dances. “I love dance fiddle,” he says. “When people are dancing in front of the Klezmatics, that’s always a high for me.”
     Morrissett is an avid collector and player of the instruments of Eastern Europe and Scandinavia and has studied with many masters of these traditions. In addition to the tsimbl, which is similar to the hammered dulcimer, he has recorded and performed on Hardanger fiddle, violin, nyckelharpa, gadulka, baritone horn, accordion and tamburitza. He has been on the staff of numerous music camps as an instructor, including Fiddles and Feet, Lark in the Morning, Buffalo on the Roof, Ashokan Northern Week and Balkan Music & Dance. Paul enjoys playing for Contra and English country dances.
STEVE RAMSEY (guitar, tambura, tzouras, vocals )
Steve was born and raised in Washington State. He currently plays the tenor and six string guitar. He has focused on studying and performing Balkan music since 1975. Steve served as Music Director for
Seattle’s Radost Folk Ensemble, on their 1981 Eastern European tour. He moved to California in 1984 and performed with Mozarab and the Evergreen Middle Eastern Ensemble, producing their recordings. It was
in California where Steve began studying the Greek family of bouzoukia; he plays the old-style trichordo, along with the tzouras and baglama.
     Steve is a past President of the East European Folklife Center and has taught the four course lute, Bulgarian tambura at the annual Balkan Music and Dance Workshops in Mendocino CA. Upon his return to Seattle in 2000, he performed with Orkestar RTW, and in 2002, joined the acclaimed group, Balkan Cabaret. Steve played tenor guitar with Kafana Republik, and also performs with the revival group, Pasatempo Rebetika, along with the world’s only Panos Gavalas tribute band, The Fetatones. Steve
currently plays guitar in Seattle with 2 groups. Viennese Blend, a lovely trio performing music one might hear in a cafe in Vienna. He also formed a duo that performs country and eastern music with renowned Northwest musician, Stanley Greenthal.
MICHELE SIMON (percussion, vocals /plus *vocals coordinator for the band)
Michele is a gifted and generous teacher, and a talented collaborator.  She has been involved with Balkan folk music for most of her lifetime as a dancer, singer, drummer and teacher and has performed with many groups over the years, including KITKA Women's Vocal Ensemble, and the Balkan bands Anoush, Orkestar Sali and Zabava! Izvorno.
     She is also a founding and current member of the popular Brass Menažeri Balkan Brass Band in which she drums and sings. She is also the singer and drummer with the Helladelics, a four-piece Greek roots band. She has studied with numerous native-born musicians, and has appeared on recordings and stages across America and in Bulgaria, as well as on Bulgarian National TV. Michele teaches private students and workshops throughout the West, including the popular "Balkan Vocal Technique" class at our Mendocino workshop. As a singing teacher, Michele's specialty is integrating Balkan vocal styles with American voices, focusing on placement, ornaments, and pronunciation using innovative imagery and exercises. 
     As a drummer, Michele plays the big drum known variously as tupan/daouli/davul, as well as doumbek and frame drum. She has played her way through a multitude of Balkan dance rhythms, including odd-metered time signatures (5/8, 7/8, 9/8, 11/8), as well as rhythms that stretch out of time. Her background as a dancer gives her a special understanding of the rhythms; her teaching of percussion includes both technique and the "feel" of the rhythm.

Michele is a long standing member of our Folklore Camp teaching staff, band member and part of our beloved Folklore family. 
..along with guest musicians; Michael Alpert, Erik Hoffman, Craig Kurumada, John Morovich.. & friends!