Touring Group New England 2025 Tour Recap

We are still glowing from all the joy that was had by the Touring Group on this past April's tour of New England. Each day of the tour offered more opportunities for learning, performing, and giving this group's gift of music and song to the communities of Maine, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire. 

Jamming and singing on the coach between destinations

One of the Youth Artist Leaders this year, Emmett Stowell, brought a song to the group from long time YTV mentor and all around amazing educator, Pete Sutherland. The name of the song is “A Grateful Place” and I cannot think of a better descriptor of how I feel reflecting on this year's tour. We are so grateful for those that came before us like Pete Sutherland and Mark Sustic, who have laid the foundation to the work that we carry on. We are thankful to this year’s artist leaders, Elsie Gawler and Ethan Tischler, for everything they gave to this year’s group. Their leadership and arrangements of both musical and vocal harmonies really brought an incredible assortment of tunes representing the variety of music within the New England trad music repertoire. We’re also thankful to our Youth Artist Leaders, Eleanor Freebern, Emmett Stowell, and Winslow Solomon, who each arranged an engaging set for the group. Thank you and all Touring Group members for the immense amount of work you all put into this year's group. 

The Touring Group before their concert at One Longfellow Square in Portland, ME

The gratitude extends to everyone who helped enrich our tour with their knowledge and talents. We were able to work with some of New England’s premier tradition bearers and we are so appreciative of their time and work that inspired this young group's musical abilities and lives. 

On Wednesday April 23rd, we loaded up on the coach with our dear coach driver, Walter White. Walter was our coach driver when the group toured Cape Breton and we were mutually elated that we could work together again. We knew we were in good hands as we headed off to Lewiston Maine. In Lewiston we were lucky to catch a performance of Palaver Strings and have an opportunity to have a Q & A session with them post performance.  After meeting with Palaver Strings we transitioned into a jam session led by the one and only Greg Boardman. A big thank you to Greg for his time and assistance in arranging the performance space for the group at the Trinity Church of Lewiston. After the jam we worked with Ellen and John Gawler, of the Gawler Family Band (and Elsie’s parents), learning a great fiddle tune from Ellen and rousing songs from John. We ended the night with Ellen Gawler's Pineland Fiddlers opening for the Touring Group’s performance for a most welcoming and appreciative audience in Trinity Commons. 

Workshop with Ellen Gawler

Thursday we loaded back on the coach to head to Belfast. Along the way we stopped at a senior living community where the group really gelled to give a rousing performance to the residents. Multiple times over the tour we had remarks from attendees how impressed they were that the group was able to memorize these complex arrangements of markedly different styles of tunes and songs, without a conductor and without sheet music. It is truly an impressive display of dedication and work that the group should feel immensely proud of.

After the morning's performance and a brief picnic lunch by Maranacook Lake, we landed in Belfast at the UU Church where we spent the afternoon working with Bennett Konesni (Work songs), Willy Clemetson (Fiddle tunes and improvisation for contra dance sets), and Alyssa Adkins (upping your contra dance skills!).  

Dance Workshop with Alyssa Adkins

We excitedly ended the evening with a performance from Springtide (Elsie and Ethan and their band mate Willy Clemetson) sharing the bill with the Touring Group. To end the night the Touring Group welcomed Springtide back on the stage to play the encore, where at the end the band led everyone out of the building singing L’Air Mignonne as Walter drove up with the coach to cart us away for the night.

Friday led us to Portland Maine. We intentionally include moments along the tour to enjoy the natural beauty of wherever we are traveling and to provide, weather permitting, and time to move outside and explore. We lucked out with beautiful spring weather that allowed us to explore the Portland Head Light park, enjoying a picnic lunch and the gorgeous views from the trails of the ocean, the Fort, and the Lighthouse. Walter then brought us downtown to work with the Pine Tree Flyers, who we would be performing with that night at One Longfellow Square. The workshop prepared the group to give an incredible encore performance of Coleraine to the OLS full house that was replicated at the Young Tradition Festival this past May 10th in Burlington at the Contois Auditorium. What amazing shows all around!

One Longfellow Square performance in Portland

Saturday we loaded up to head to Massachusetts. Heavy rain shifted the day's plans to allow for a little sleeping in, and a moment to review and refine performance material with Elsie and Ethan. We landed in Melrose MA for a workshop with the Opening Doors Project, called “Race and Song: A musical conversation” with Alastair Moock and Kemp Harris. They provided us with an engaging presentation on race and music in America and opportunities to sing and play with them. We remained in Melrose for our evening performance where the group continued to gel and knock their performance out of the park. 

Portland Headlight 

The last day of our tour we stopped along our way to Lebanon at another senior living home where we ate lunch and performed for the welcoming Harvest Hill community. Some of the residents were really boogying in their seats! From Harvest Hills we popped over to the Upper Valley Music Center where we put on a concert next door at the church where we were delighted to see and play with alumni, Grace Martin and Blanche and Pascal Gemme! After the show we transitioned to a jam with UVMC students and the general public, a joyous end to a tour full of music and song.

Thank you Ethan and Elsie for all you gave the Touring Group this Season

There is a lot of magic that happens on tour. One piece of magic is around two days in, something clicks. Through having an extended time of being in the same place, jamming on the bus, performing together, listening to notes from their artist leaders, all the while connecting with one another… everything comes together. You can feel the harmony of the songs fall into place. The intricate arrangements of the tunes become fully realized. And the relationships between members of the group become stronger. Seeing the growth from our very first rehearsal to the last concert is really incredible to behold and this group should be epically proud of the work they have done to share this body of music with communities around New England.

There is a true sense, at least for myself, of having a second family away from home when on tour with this group. I am honored to be welcomed into this family and cannot express how grateful I am to everyone who made this year’s Touring Group possible. 

Further gratitude to all the Touring Group sponsors, to our tour chaperones, Drew Kervick and Amy Henry, with additional assistance from Mike Vincent and Maya. Thank you to our Vermont Folklife Colleagues who behind the scenes work help make this all a possibility. And again a big thank you to all the work our Artist Leaders put into this group this year, your energy, talent, and commitment to this work is a gift and true joy. A HUGE thank you to Christina Kennedy who I am eternally grateful to have as a partner in making this group possible for these incredibly talented youth musicians. Thank you everyone for being a part of carrying these traditions into the future. 

Merci encore tout le monde!

With a full heart,

Ian Drury

Director of Young Tradition Vermont Programing