Labor Day Weekend at Pinewoods 2025

Lisa Greenleaf - American

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  Lisa Greenleaf has been treating dancers across the country to her high spirited, witty calling for many years, and is known for precise walk-throughs of zesty and flowing dances. Whether she is presenting cool contras, hot squares, or focused callers’ workshops, Lisa engages the crowd with her humor and community spirit.

Marcie Van Cleave - International

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  By day Marcie Van Cleave is the Executive Director of the Folk Arts Center of New England, and by night she loves nothing more than to don her dance shoes and lead traditional folk dancing from many different countries to all who are willing to give it a try. Whether for an evening, a weekend, or a week, for Marcie it is all about creating community by imbuing learning with laughter and movement with merriment, and culture with collaboration. She has been happily involved in both behind-the-scenes coordination and front-of-the-house teaching at the Pinewoods Labor Day Weekend for many delightful years.

Melissa Running - English

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  Melissa Running discovered folk dance as a PE credit at her liberal-arts college in the Philadelphia suburbs (yes, she’s a Swattie), where she tried to major in everything. She has lived in the Philly and DC areas as an adult; she calls, writes tunes and dances, plays (piano and some nyckelharpa), and dances wherever she can. Interests outside of dance and her government tech-writing day job include fiber arts, native plants and ecosystems, food, 18th-century material culture, and cats. She is still trying to major in everything.

Audrey Jaber - American (fiddle)

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  You know Audrey Jaber is performing if the room is buzzing at a higher level. Her fiddling, featured in bands including The Free Raisins, The Gaslight Tinkers, Audacious, and Wake Up Robin, has electrified dance and concert halls across the US and Europe. Hailing from Honolulu and now living in California, she cut her folk teeth in the Boston area, attending Berklee College of Music and spending years exploring the thriving New England folk scene. Audrey’s fiddle playing is rhythmically lively and spontaneous; she's guaranteed to get you up and dancing

Patrick Yacono - International (clarinet, piano, vocals)

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  Patrick Yacono has been playing for international folk dances since the early 90's, mostly on clarinet, piano, and assorted Bulgarian wind instruments. He is a member of several bands, including Zdravets, the Pinewoods Band, Shining Moon, and the Flying Squirrel Orchestra, and has been playing international folkdance music at Labor Day camp since 2009.

Vince O’Donnell - English (fiddle)

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  Vince O’Donnell plays fiddle for English, Contra and Scottish dancing. He discovered country dance music in 1965, through Dudley Laufman and the Canterbury Country Orchestra, with whom he still plays. A former jazz guitar player, Vince loves ensemble interaction, harmonizing and improvising, along with the challenge of keeping all of that reasonably within traditional bounds and making it fun for the dancers. Every once in a while, he manages to compose a tune, and he supports outreach to new musicians, both adults and children. He serves on the NEFFA Board, and was a founding director of the Dance Musicians Development Fund of the Folk Arts Center of New England.

Anna Patton (clarinet)

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  Anna's current projects include playing with and writing arrangements for Zara Bode’s Little Big Band, playing dance music with bands such as Elixir, Anna and the Alphabet, The Figments, Daybreak Trio, and various collaborations with pianist Karen Axelrod, and directing the Soubrette Choir. Her solo album, Isadore’s Breakfast – featuring her work on clarinet and vocals along with many of Vermont’s finest musicians – is a mix of French-influenced swing and fiddle tunes.

Brian Wilson (fiddle, clarinet)

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  Brian Wilson has been playing for international folk dances in the Boston area for more than thirty years, as a member of Flying Tomatoes, Pinewoods Band, Shining Moon, and the Flying Squirrel Orchestra. He is equally versatile on fiddle and clarinet, but also enjoys singing and playing a variety of other instruments. He particularly loves to play Hardanger fiddle or nyckelharpa for Scandinavian dancing when the opportunity arises.

Julia Poirier (guitar, vocals)

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  Julia Poirier has been providing live music for dancing for nearly 3 decades. She sings and plays things with strings and frets, and is a member of several Boston-area dance bands, among them The All-Girl Band, the Goat Bands, The Pinewoods Band, The Flying Squirrel Orchestra, and the Pixton-Poirier Trio. Her current fixations (aside from music) include turning her back yard into a pollinator haven, losing the Covid Forty Pounds (which somehow began accumulating long before the pandemic actually hit), and finding the time to write her job description so that she can retire.

Karen Axelrod (piano, accordion)

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  Karen Axelrod’s piano playing combines expressiveness, energy, lyricism, and power. She is equally at home with styles ranging from traditional folk melodies to passionate tangos to old world French musette waltzes to 17th century English Country dance tunes and much more. She left behind classical music over 35 years ago and has happily settled into her musical home...somewhere between folk, classical and improvisation. Her playing is soulful yet touched with humor and whimsy. Her piano and accordion playing are elegant and rich, and both are enlivened by her off-beat humor.

Kate Barnes (piano, guitar, whistles)

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  Kate Barnes has been playing piano, flute, whistles and guitar (along with a vast array of other assorted instruments) for traditional dancing since 1971. She’s been invited to most major contra, square, British Isles, and vintage dance events throughout the US, performing for dances and concerts, leading ensemble workshops, and generally acting in a crazy and often undignified manner.
   
  She has been a member of at least a score of bands, including: The Latter-Day Lizards, Bare Necessities, Yankee Ingenuity, Les Z Boys, Big Bandemonium, Cilantrio, Childsplay, BLT, The Dactyls, Tulluchgorum, Airplang, Third String Trio, Foregone Conclusions, The Fitzwilliam Dance Band, The Old Found Country Stay At Homes (not the New Lost Country City Ramblers), and Richard Powers' Vintage Orchestra. She has played with countless musicians in pick up bands, as well, including such greats as: Seamus Connolly, Joe Derrane, Alasdair Fraser, Rodney Miller, Joe Cormier and yes, Joey McIntyre of New Kids on the Block.

Miranda Weinberg (fiddle)

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  When Miranda Weinberg started contra dancing as a teenager, she never thought she'd get to be one of the musicians uniting a whole hall of people in joyful movement. Fast forward to today, and you'll frequently find her providing musical inspiration for English, contra, Scottish, and couple dancing in the Philadelphia area and beyond. She delights in the freedom and interaction of playing for dancing while drawing on her training as a classical violinist. When not playing for dances, you'll find her dancing, working as an applied linguist, and adoring her two tiny dogs and only-slightly-less-tiny daughter in Philadelphia.

Robert Penny (cello, vocals)

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  Robert Penny enjoys playing cello for English dances, porchfests, the Boston Scottish Fiddle Club Orchestra, and international folk dances in the Boston area. After earning his Masters in performance from Indiana University in 1986, he played with Boston Baroque and numerous other freelance gigs. He is also a Software Architect at Rocket Software based in Waltham.