Touring Group
The Touring Group is an auditioned ensemble of teenage musicians, singers, and dancers who rehearse from October to June, ahead of a cultural tour to another country or region. This Vermont Folklife program nurtures youth involvement in traditional music and dance, providing opportunities to learn from tradition bearers and each other, to build connections with artists and communities from Vermont and beyond, and to perform traditional repertoire in a variety of locations and settings. Music connects people and brings joy, enriching communities as it strengthens ties between generations and offers opportunities to share memories and be inspired.
The 2024-2025 Touring Group will focus on New England tunes & songs and will be going on a New England Tour in April 2025. This year’s Artist Leaders are Elsie Gawler and Ethan Tischler.
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To receive more information about this year’s group email Christina Kennedy
Touring Group originated as a program of Young Tradition Vermont. Learn more about YTV here
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Touring Group members are teenage musicians, singers, and dancers who are proficient in performing traditional* music and dance repertoire. Members are mostly from Vermont, but has also included members from Quebec, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, New York, and Maine. Information about the online audition process, which takes place in July and August, will be available in early summer. To receive more information about this year’s group contact Christina Kennedy: touringgroup@vtfolklife.org
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Group members meet for once a month rehearsals on Saturdays starting in the fall (no December rehearsal) and continuing through June. Performances are in Vermont with a cultural tour, which is often international, this year in June.
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Group members learn from and are supported by artist leaders, guest/master musicians and dancers/dance leaders, in addition to musical exchanges with master artists, young musicians and dancers while on cultural/performance tours.
The Touring Group’s repertoire is ‘traditional’* and is coordinated by artist leaders.
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Touring Group 2023/2024 will be traveling to Quebec. Previous groups have traveled to Scotland, Japan, Cape Breton, Northumberland in England, the West Coast of Ireland, and metropolitan New York and New Jersey, and several online tours since March 2020.
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In this context, traditional means songs, dances and other material that has most often evolved through a process of unwritten, oral transmission and is most often performed by in a particular cultural group in a particular place over a long period of time. The emphasis tends to be on participation rather than performance. Most often what is produced, whether a song, a tune, a dance, or a quilt has a functional purpose. It is something that can be used, that has and tells a story, that carries the tradition forward in the absence of or as a supplement to a written narrative or system. Instrumentally, traditional music is often associated with social dance. At its core, it is an attempt to reproduce what came from a previous generation, and the generation before that, and the generation before that, but each attempt at reproduction inevitably, intentionally or unintentionally, adds to or takes away elements so that it fits an individual’s current experience and circumstances.
2024-25 Artist Leaders
Ethan Tischler and Elsie Gawler are both excellent musicians and singers. They perform together as Elsie & Ethan, and are artists in the trio Spring Tide and in the Gawler Family Band. They bring skill, enthusiasm, and so much joy to everything they do and we feel very lucky to have them on board with us for this coming year.
Elsie Gawler
Elsie Gawler is a multi-instrumentalist and songster rooted in Maine's traditional folk music and culture. With her family, the Gawler Family Band, she has played throughout the state and beyond, sharing traditional fiddle tunes, songs, and original works since she was 6 years old. From this foundation she has branched out and launched her debut solo album, Sweet As Honey. The album is a collection of 9 original songs inspired by sacred connection to earth and community. In addition to her duo with Ethan, Elsie also plays regularly with The Gawler Family Band, and with her sisters as The Gawler Sisters. She has also been a long-time member of the group Childsplay.
Ethan Tischler
Ethan says: “I am a Maine-based musician/educator with roots in the Champlain Valley of Vermont. For the last many years, I've been teaching, performing, and recording music, mainly in Burlington Vermont and Mid-Coast Maine. Alongside my own solo projects, I delight in playing with Elsie Gawler as Elsie & Ethan, and with the Gawler Sisters and Gawler Family as a whole.
As a teacher, I've worked in groups and one-on-one with students in Vermont and Maine, in the Music for Sprouts and Village School programs at Bread & Butter Farm, and the Belfast Adventure Education Program and Sweetland School here in Mid-Coast. I appreciate working with music learners of all ages, and strive to pass along key foundations and theoretical concepts in music alongside a genuine joy and lightness in music-making as a whole.”
2024-25 Youth Artist Leaders
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Winslow Solomon
Winslow Solomon is a 16-year-old fiddler/banjoist who lives in Richmond, VT. He started learning classical violin at 5 years old and was introduced to traditional music and playing the banjo a few years later at Young Tradition Vermont’s Trad Camp. He started with Sarah Hotchkiss as his first teacher for banjo and traditional music and later started having lessons with his teacher and mentor Pete Sutherland. His first year in the Touring Group was the year of the NYC and New Jersey tour, and since then he has participated in a virtual tour with the group and the tours to Cape Breton and Quebec. Winslow loves the community that comes with traditional music in Vermont. He has been a part of the retired YTV Commission and enjoys busking with friends and playing gigs at local restaurants. In addition to traditional music, Winslow plays classical music and has been part of the Vermont Youth Orchestra for many years. Over the past summers, he has started exploring and enjoying chamber music as well. Winslow is looking forward to being a Youth Artist Leader and bringing some banjo tunes to this year’s Touring Group.
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Eleanor Freebern
Eleanor Freebern is an 18 year old harper and composer from Richmond, Vermont. She first joined the Touring Group in 2022, travelling to Cape Breton with her long-time mentor, Dominique Dodge. An independently schooled musician, Eleanor has spent the past half decade untangling the idea of arrangement, exploring textures and contemporary language on the celtic harp. She discovered her love of the stage when she was very young, learning piano and violin, and now performs alongside Touring Group alum Fern Tamagini O’Donnell in the duo In Given Time. Featured in such performances as the Youth Artist’s Showcase Recital at the Cathedral of St. Paul in Burlington, VT, she garnered acclaim for her authenticity and consistency as a performer. Passionate about all kinds of music, Eleanor has served as Concertmaster for the Green Mountain Youth Orchestra, and currently serves as the Principal Harpist for the Vermont Youth Orchestra. She is looking forward to bringing the spirit and soul of the traditional harp to the Touring Group this year.
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Emmett Stowell
Emmett Stowell is a fifteen year-old musician from Montpelier, Vermont. He plays a variety of instruments including banjo, piano, guitar, and voice. Emmett has been playing music since he was five years old when he told his mom he wanted to play the “rockstar banjo”. He loves all types of traditional music, but his heart will always be with New England and Appalachian Old Time music as taught to him by his mentor, Pete Sutherland. Emmett was lucky enough to spend 10 years learning banjo from Pete and 4 years participating in the Vermont Traditional Arts Apprenticeship program at Vermont Folklife studying New England Contradance Piano. He can be found performing with his sister as Fiona and Emmett, as well as with his new band, Sap Line. Emmett is super excited to be starting his fifth year with the Young Tradition Vermont Touring Group as a member of the Youth Artist Leadership team.
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Quotes from group members