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Folk Music Society of N.Y., Inc.The Eisteddfod AwardPresented at the Eisteddfod, a Festival of Traditional Music
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| Press and Media Information * Eisteddfod main page * Folk Music Society of New York home page | ||
| The Eisteddfod award is given for dedication, inspiration, and service to the practice and dissemination of traditional folk song, music, and dance. This year's award will be presented during the festival to Bill and Andy Spence. Previous recipients (in alphabetical order) are: | ||
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Bill and Andy Spence | ||
Andy Spence
Andy has been an entrepreneur and producer for many years in the field of folk and traditional music. She was a founding member of the Pick'n and Sing'n Gather'n and, most notably, Old Songs, Inc. Under Andy's direction, Old Songs has been presenting folk concerts in the Albany area since 1977, as well as offering contra dances and instrument instruction and is perhaps best known for the annual Old Songs Festival.
Andy is also the founder and proprietor of Andy's Front Hall, a recording company that has produced some classic recordings.
Andy is dedicated to presenting folk, traditional, Celtic, and world music and dance in New York's Capital District.
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Bill Spence
Bill began playing the hammered dulcimer after hearing Howie Mitchell at the 1969 Fox Hollow Festival in Petersburgh, New York.
In 1970, he helped form Fennig's All-Stars, which featured his hammered dulcimer as the lead instrument. The group made its first recording, The Hammered Dulcimer, in 1973, using a two-track recorder in Bill's living room. The album was widely distributed (over 60,000 copies have been sold), and became very influential in the early part of the hammered dulcimer revival. One of the cuts from the record ("Gaspé Reel and Fiddle Head Reel") was used as the theme for the popular PBS series Crockett's Victory Garden.
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More about the Old Songs FestivalUnder Andy's direction, the Old Songs Festival is noted for fusing a bridge between music and dance, between generations and between cultures that finds the perfect balance between the "down home" and the world class . . . never bending to the whims and wills of any fad, but always creating an event that is immediate in its currency and celebratory of our musical and historical cultures. People don't usually come to a festival to "learn," but they always do learn at Old Songs, in a gentle, subtle way, while being uniquely entertained and engaged. In 2012 and again in 2013, the festical (and several other New York venues) presents Andy's current folk theater production "Four Seasons, Four Years, the Civil War, A Musical Journey." |
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rev 9/30/12