(Stittville, NY – Nov. 2011) The Mohawk Valley Bluegrass Association (MVBGA) is presenting a Bluegrass Coffeehouse concert featuring Emily Shaad and Erica Weiss on Saturday Nov. 5 at 7 p.m. at the Stittville Volunteer Fire Department Hall, located at 9069 Main Street in the village of Stittville. The opening will be Springhouse, a new band composed of several well known area musicians.

Admission will be $8 for adults. Children under age 16 accompanied by an adult are admitted free. Refreshments will be available. Information can also be found on the MVBGA website – www.mvbga.com.

Emily and Erica have been a duet for several years and have performed in many different venues in the Northeast.  They play a variety of rousing traditional old time and Bluegrass fiddle tunes and vocal numbers featuring Emily on fiddle, banjo, and vocals and Erica on Guitar and vocals.

Emily Shaad, on fiddle and banjo, grew up in the Hudson Valley of New York State. She began classical Suzuki violin studies at the age of five. She majored in viola performance at Juilliard School and Curtis Institute of Music.  In 1998, Emily first attended Ashokan Fiddle and Dance Camp’s Southern Week and began playing traditional mountain fiddling and clawhammer banjo.  She continued her formal education at the Appalachian studies graduate program at Appalachian State University in Boone, NC. This gave Emily the opportunity to learn fiddle tunes and styles from master fiddlers such as Clyde Davenport, Benton Flippen, Joe Thompson, and Chester MacMillian.

Emily regularly fiddles for contra and square dances around the Hudson Valley and in western North Carolina. She performs as a soloist, in her duo with Erica as well as with several stringbands, including The Bailers, first-place winners at the Appalachian Stringband Music Festival in Clifftop, WV.  She also has performed and taught old-time fiddle at The Swannanoa Gathering in Asheville, NC. She is executive director of Stringendo, Inc., a non-profit dedicated to teaching traditional and classical music to young people and also teaches  orchestra and fiddle classes.  She is working toward a doctorate in music education at Boston University.

Erica Weiss, a native New Yorker, fell head over heels in love with old-time Southern Appalachian music in the ‘90s. Erica has played for dances up and down the East Coast, with bands including Rhythm Method String Band and the Corndogs. With the old-time country band, Killer Bees, she sings and plays fiddle as well as guitar.

She has also performed numerous times with Lightning in the East, featuring such fine contemporary fiddlers as Emily Schaad, John Hoffmann and Stephanie Coleman. Currently she is most frequently heard raising a ruckus with Cajun band Jesse Lege & Bayou Brew at dances and festivals up north and in Louisiana, including the Black Pot Festival in Lafayette.

Erica has placed numerous times in the band competition at the Old Fiddlers’ Convention in Galax, VA (most frequently with the Virginia Creepers), backed up winners in fiddle and banjo contests, and placed in folk song at Fries, VA. Erica has taught and performed at camps and festivals including Summer Acoustic Music Week, Stephen Foster Old-Time Weekend, Pinewoods Folk Music Week, Clearwater Great Hudson River Revival, Old-Time Music Camps North, Ashokan New Years,’ The Dance Flurry, Lincoln Center NYC, and others.   She also teaches private music lessons around her current hometown of Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she is popular with students ranging from very young children to adults.

Springhouse is a collaboration of local musicians Dan Sargent, or Rattlin Bog; Mike Carroll, of Craobh Dugan; and Bill Fahy, of Craobh Dugan and the Fahy Family Band.   Playing Mandolin, Guitar, Banjo, and Flute they perform a wide variety of traditional music – Celtic, bluegrass, blues, and folk – with a jam band attitude.

For More info visit the Mohawk Valley Bluegrass Association website www.mvbga.com or contact Dick Satterly President, MVBGA at rsatteryly@twcny.rr.com.