Meet our RMFC Artists for July 2-9, 2023. 

Sheila Falls

Violinist, Fiddler, Composer, Sheila Falls has been performing since the age of 9. Sheila
holds a B.M. degree from the New England Conservatory of Music. She is a three-time
North American Irish Fiddle Champion and won the All-Ireland Fiddle Championship at
the age of 15.

As a Tanglewood Music Center Fellow she worked under Leonard Bernstein, Aaron
Copland and Seiji Ozawa to name a few. She joined the New World Symphony in Miami
under the direction of Michael Tilson Thomas, and toured as Concertmaster. Sheila has
performed for Prince Albert of Monaco, Irish President Mary McAleese and Taoiseach
Jack Lynch. She has performed with The Boston Symphony Orchestra, Rhode Island
Philharmonic, National Lyric Opera and Cape Cod Symphony. She has recorded and
performed with the Boston Symphony–based group “Classical Tangent.” Sheila toured
for ten years with the Boston fiddle supergroup Childsplay, with whom she has recorded
multiple albums featuring a number of her compositions. She released a solo album and
has recordings in the Smithsonian Folk Life Collection and the Library of Congress.
Sheila has recorded for numerous films including PBS, “The Mine Wars” on American
Experience and “Tommy Makem’s Ireland.” Sheila regularly tours the U.S with Irish
folksinger, Karan Casey.

Sheila is Associate Professor of Music at Wheaton College, Norton, MA and director of
the World Music Ensemble. She has taught at fiddle camps across the country. Sheila
directs the Gaelic Roots Series in Irish Studies at Boston College, where she is also on
the music faculty.

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Anna Grace Shideler

Anna Grace grew up in south-west Mississippi playing the fiddle with her family and other local musicians. Having attended and been a huge believer and supporter of RMFC since 2002, she moved to Nashville where she received her undergraduate and masters degrees in Commercial Music Performance on the Violin from Belmont University. She was among the first three students to graduate from the Belmont Commercial Music Graduate program in 2012. She was a founding member of High Road, a female Appalachian gospel group, which she toured with from 2008-2014. She has played Nashville music venues from lower-broadway to the Station Inn to the Grand Ole Opry stage. In her touring, she has opened for many country and gospel artists and been on the sets of several tapings of award shows and even several TBN shows. After being married for a couple years, she came off the road to be a mother. She and her husband, Nathan, now have 5 precious children with whom she spends most of her time. They live in Franklin, TN where Anna Grace continues to do session work, teach violin lessons, lead worship, and play music in the Nashville music scene. She is passionate about the preservation of Mississippi Fiddle music, and loves sacred music and hymns. Her mentors and teachers include: the late Mickey Davis, Joe Spivey, Buddy Spicher, Tracy Silverman, Tammy Rogers-King, and many others. Her instrumental hymns album, Dew on the Roses, (produced by and performed with Gordon Mote) was released in 2019, and is available on all music platforms.

Caroline McCaskey – Scottish Fiddle, Musical Saw

A native daughter of the genre-bending West Coast music scene, Caroline McCaskey is equally at home in the regional traditional, improvising and classical music worlds. In high demand as a teacher and performer throughout North America and author of the AltStrings Fiddle Method, she holds degrees in music composition and performance, as well as Suzuki teaching certification in violin and cello. Caroline is the 2019 U.S. National Scottish Fiddle Champion and a two-time International Musical Saw Champion. She is the President of the San Francisco Scottish Fiddlers, and enjoys singing in the vocal jazz ensemble at American River College.

 

Keith Barnhart – Advanced & Easy Guitar

Keith Barnhart’s musical exposure at an early age was a mixture of mid-century rock, classical
symphonic hits and whatever his brothers bought through the Columbia House CD club in the

early 90’s. He began teaching himself rock guitar at age 13 and fell in love with classical/finger-
style guitar in high school.

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Keith received his Bachelors in Classical Guitar Performance in 2006 from the Lamont School of
Music where he studied with Ricardo Iznaola and Jonathan Leathwood. He received his
Masters of Music from the San Francisco Conservatory in 2015 with an emphasis in Historical
Performance, studying under Richard Savino and Marc Teicholz. Keith graduated in 2018 from
the University of Colorado with a Doctorate of Musical Arts. While at CU, he studied the modern
10-string guitar with Nicolò Spera. His dissertation work culminated in performing and recording
the music of Albert Harris.

Keith is active primarily as a performer on early plucked instruments including the lute, Baroque
guitar and theorbo. He has played with the Boulder Bach Festival, Pro Musica Colorado, CCU
School of Music, Seicento Baroque Ensemble, CU Early Music Ensemble, Smithsonian
Chamber Music Society, Happy Hour Chamber Concerts, UNC’s Ursa Consort and Parish
House Baroque. He has had the pleasure of playing basso continuo for opera productions with
the University of Colorado Boulder, the San Francisco Conservatory, The American Bach
Soloists Academy, the Amherst Early Music Academy and the University of Northern Colorado.
Believing in music’s healing potential, Keith works part time as a Certified Music Practitioner. He
was trained through the Music for Healing and Transition program to provide customized, live
therapeutic music at the bedside to create a healing environment for hospitals, hospice and
nursing care patients.

As an educator, Keith teaches classical guitar in public schools as a Teaching Artist with the
Non-profit organization Lead Guitar. He is the Educational Coordinator for Boulder Bach Festival
and presents educational concerts and discussions in K-12 schools across the front range of
Colorado. He also teaches ukulele courses for El Sistema Colorado and Rocky Ridge Music.
During the Summer you can find him teaching guitar at Rocky Ridge Music’s Jumpstart program
and at Rocky Mountain Fiddle Camp! He currently lives in Westminster, Colorado with his wife Meghan and daughter Sonia.

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Jon Sousa - Irish Guitar

Jon has been refining his skills as a guitarist for over thirty years. Jon delights in continuing to expand his capacities in finger-style guitar and traditional Irish music to follow his own deep motivation to express the human spirit. He has dedicated his life to the study, performance and teaching of music to uncover what is most genuine within himself and others.

Jon fell in love with music at an early age, listening to the 70's folk albums in his mother's record collection. He journeyed on to rock music, passed through the realm of electronic dance music, made his way on to West African percussion, and finally landed in the world of traditional Irish music. Jon’s passion for music has taken him all over the world, from the beautiful countryside of France to study with master fingerstyle guitar player Pierre Bensusan, to Senegal, West Africa, to study Sabar Drumming, and eventually to reside in Ireland in 2008. There he refined his skills in interpreting Irish music while earning his Master of Arts degree in Traditional Irish Music Performance at the University of Limerick.  Visit Jon's website.

 

Daniel Delaney - Cello, Beginning to Advanced

Daniel Delaney is a multi-style cellist, improvisor, educator, and composer. He has performed throughout the world as a concerto soloist, band leader, recording artist, chamber musician, and clinician. He has served as cello and chamber music faculty for Rocky Mountain Fiddle Camp, Montana Fiddle Camp, Arco Session Summer Workshop, Csehy Summer School of Music, and Cairn University. He is also the founder of Groove Cello Academy.

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Celebrated as a versatile arranger and recording artist, Daniel is credited with performances on contemporary popular projects by BeachSlang (Polyvinyl), Elvira Nikolaisen (SONY), mewithoutYou (Tooth and Nail), Twin Sister (Domino), Sun Airway (Dead Oceans), and many others.  The Philadelphia Inquirer called him a “master musician” and Broadway World a “world class cellist.”   Visit Daniel’s website.

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Tina Gugeler - Hammered Dulcimer, Bohran

Tina has performed solo and in small combos with fiddle, guitar or piano, and in several Colorado contra dance bands.   Over the years, Tina has won many local and regional competitions, and in the years 2000 and 2015 she won the U.S. National Hammered Dulcimer Championship.  Visit Tina’s website.

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Ben Cohen – Klezmer Fiddle, Piano

Ben Cohen is a versatile multi-instrumentalist. In addition to leading his own klezmer band, the Klez Dispensers (on accordion or simultaneous tenor banjo and bass), he plays electric bass and tuba for klezmer funk band Hal Aqua and the Lost Tribe; mandolin, banjo and flutes with Connect Four; and archlute, theorbo and harpsichord for baroque ensemble Semplice. He nonetheless keeps his day job as an appellate lawyer in Denver.  Here’s a video of Ben with Andy Stein from RMFC 2016.

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Arlene Patterson – Beginning Fiddle & Guitar

From Glasgow, Scotland, Arlene is particularly interested in shetland fiddle music and story telling. She studied with Tom Anderson and spent time in the Shetland Islands. Arlene teaches violin/fiddle in her Longmont home studio and recently founded the Rocky Mountain Fiddle Club whose mission is to encourage the playing of authentic Scottish fiddle music in Colorado. Visit Arlene’s Website.

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Sharon Guli - Vintage Dance Instructor

Sharon Guli, from Bellvue, Colorado, is a teacher, producer, historian, designer, writer, and founder of Guli Productions, specializing in historically themed, entertaining presentations such as Victorian balls, educational trunk shows, fashion shows, and lectures.  Her programs and designs have been featured in three books and a PBS documentary, and have opened doors of opportunity to perform and study across the United States, Italy, France, England, and Russia.

Among all of her programs, teaching vintage dance is one of Sharon’s favorite ways to spend her time. For over thirty years, she has been researching and teaching historic dances, with a special focus on those from American history. With light banter, an eagerness to encourage the novice, and a clear, easy way of explaining the steps, Sharon is skilled at teaching people of all ages and abilities, leading a combination of historically correct as well as historically inspired dances.  www.guliproductions.com

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Daniel Voeller - Banjo and Improvisation

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Daniel and his three sisters grew up in San Antonio, Texas. They all began playing instruments at a young age. Dan began playing classical violin at the age of 4, and piano at age 6. His parents quickly recognized that Daniel has a special musical gift. At age 9, Daniel’s mom challenged him to learn the banjo. He wasn’t interested until he saw Steve Martin and Kermit the Frog dueling it out. Soon after,Dan started banjo lessons. It didn’t take long for his dad to see an opportunity for all four siblings to form a band, which is called Chords of Grace. Daniel and his sisters had many opportunities to learn from great teachers and musical artists over the years, including attending RM Fiddle Camp in 2019! The band competed twice at the Youth in Bluegrass competition in Branson and have played many gigs, including Luckenbach!

 

In 2022, at age 15, Daniel became the 2022 Texas Banjo Champion, when he placed first in the Bluegrass Heritage Foundation Texas State Championships. The following fall Dan made it to the top five finalists at the National Bluegrass Banjo Championships at the Walnut Valley Festival. Although Daniel loves bluegrass music and anything banjo, he can play pretty much any stringed instrument. Primarily, Daniel is an accomplished classical pianist, and has also been found playing (and singing) a little Great Balls of Fire, in his spare time. Daniel is the pianist at his family’s church, Grace Covenant, in San Antonio. He and his sisters find serving in this way to be a great blessing and also a way to hone their musical skills, especially in the area of improvisation.

 

Emily Voeller - Fiddle and Improvisation

 

Emily began playing classical violin at age 4. Although she also plays piano, mandolin, and cello, she comes alive when she picks up a violin. She has been the fiddle player and mandolinist for Chords of Grace since it’s inception in 2017. Emily graduated from high school in May of 2021 and is currently studying to be a midwife. She is a lover of music, great classical literature and tiny babies! Emily and her siblings love improvisation. They have learned the art of creating music together using only their ears and their musical backgrounds. Emily is excited to teach improvisation to the folks at Rocky Mountain Fiddle Camp because she knows how useful (and fun!) it can be for an instrumentalist in a group setting. 

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Christopher, Whitney, and Cosima Luther – Quartets, Orchestra

Co-founders of RMFC and Brother and Sister team, C & C have been studying various fiddle styles, including Jazz, Swing, Celtic, & Bluegrass, for over 20 years. They have been performing as professionals since age 8. Classically trained, they graduated with their respective Masters degrees in violin performance at the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California in Spring of 2008. Christopher earned his Doctoral degree (DMA) in viola at UT Austin in 2012.  He recently opened Luther Strings  music shop.  Visit Luther Strings.

Cosima is conducting several youth orchestras in Southern California as she continues a career as a conductor and freelance musician in Los Angeles. Overseas appearances include Europe and Asia. In 2007, Christopher produced and released his first CD, “Personality,” which includes Cosima on several tracks.  Here is a great video of Mark Luther talking about Raising Musical Children.

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