Festival Staff

The Great Lakes Folk Festival is produced by the Michigan Traditional Arts Program/Michigan State University Museum

Marsha MacDowell: Festival Founding Director

C. Kurt Dewhurst: Festival Founding Director

Jilda Keck: Festival Associate Director, Administrative Services and Development

Lora Helou: Festival Associate Director, Marketing and Communications

Mike Secord: Festival Associate Director, General Operations and Management

Julie Levy-Weston: Festival Associate Director, Technical Operations

Patrick Power: Coordinator, Music Programs and Photographer

Lynne Swanson: Curator for Folklife Programs

 

Mary Worrall: Curator for Folklife Programs

 

Sunny Wang: Coordinator, Computer Technology Services

Pearl Yee Wong: Coordinator, Documentation and Photographer

Sue Schmidtman:  Assistant, Administrative Services

 

John McDaniel: Sound Coordinator

Annika Otto: Volunteer Coordinator

Tim Bugenske: Assistant, Technical Operations

Dan Secord: Coordinator, Food Operations

 

Lori Hagadorn: Coordinator, Marketplace

Stephanie Palagyi: Assistant, Marketing and Communications

Raymond Holt: Volunteer Photographer

Ami VanAntwerp: City of East Lansing Festival Liaison

 

Additional assistance provided by:
Juan Alvarez, John Beck, Beth Donaldson, Annie James

Presenters:
Tom Ball, Bob Blackman, Wanda Degan, Ron Eggleston, LuAnne Kozma, Steve Kwiecinski, John Moe, Doug Neal, Yvette Robinson, Eileen Roraback, Corrina Van Hamlin, and Mary Worrall.

The Michigan Traditional Arts Program at the Michigan State University Museum, a partnership program with the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs, advances cross-cultural understanding and equity in a diverse society through the documentation, preservation, and presentation of folk arts and folklife in Michigan. For more information, call 517-355-2370, email pr@museum.msu.edu or write Michigan Traditional Arts Program, Michigan State University Museum, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824-1045.

GLFF Music Selection Advisors

Selection of performers for the Great Lakes Folk Festival is made by Patrick Power (photographer and former booking coordinator for the Ten Pound Fiddle) but he is advised by a group of music and cultural specialists from Michigan State University, Elderly Instruments, and The Ten Pound Fiddle, as well as other local and national advisors who are well acquainted with a wide array of traditional music forms and have extensive experience with the music forms GLFF audiences enjoy hearing. Local advisors usually meet once a year. Advisors include:

Rootsmon Bird

Bob Blackman, former host of The Folk Tradition on WKAR-FM

Joanna Bosse

Tony "Chayo" Cervantes, Host "Ondas en Espanol," WKAR-AM (http://wkar.org/ondas/)

Wanda Degen, Former East Lansing Arts Festival music programmer, musician and teacher http://www.wandadegen.com/bio.html

Dr C. Kurt Dewhurst, Curator of Folklife and Culutral Heritage, MSU Museum and President, American Folklore Society.

Ronald Eggleston, Capital Area Blues Society (http://cabsblues.com/)

Heather Frarey, Owner, Record Lounge

Irene J. Henry, Michigan Department of Management and Budget/Office of Design and Construction

Meegan Holland, Grand Rapids Press and Creole Gallery

 

Dr. Isaac Kalumbu, SU International Studies, ethnomusicologist (specialist in African music), musician

Dr. Peter Knupfer, MSU MATRIX/H-Net, Wisconsin champion fiddle player

Josh Kohn, Programming Manager, National Council for the Traditional Arts

Steve Kwiecinski, polka music specialist

Dr. Michael Largey, Assoc. Professor, MSU College of Music (specialist in Haitian music and music of the African diaspora in the Caribbean)

Dr. Jim Leary, Director, Upper Midwest Humanities Center/University of Wisconsin-Madison, co-producer, "Down Home Dairyland" radio program

Dr. Timothy Lloyd, Executive Director, American Folklore Society; (http://afsnet.org/aboutAFS/aboutAFS.cfm) former director of CityFolk Festival, Dayton; and board member, National Council for Traditional Arts

Dr. Yvonne Lockwood, Retired Senior Folklife Specialist, MSU Museum (specialist in Eastern European and Middle-Eastern music)

Dr. Lucy Long, folklorist and musician

Dr. Marsha MacDowell, Coordinator, Michigan Traditional Arts Program

Dr. Richard March, Independent scholar and music specialist, co-producer, "Down Home Dairyland" radio program

Doug Miller, Director, Wisconsin Folk Museum

Doug Neal, Host, "Progressive Torch and Twang" WDBM 88.9 FM (http://www.msu.edu/~depolo/index2.html)

Phil Nusbaum,musical performer and educator, folklorist, teacher, radio broadcaster and producer Bluegrass Review (www.bluegrassreview.com/)

Julia Olin, Executive Director, National Council for the Traditional Arts (http://www.ncta.net/)

Chris Rietz, Multi instrumentalist musician, Elderly Instruments (http://www.elderly.com)

Yvette Robinson, a musician and Director of the East Lansing Public Art Gallery (located on the 2nd floor of the Hannah Community Center, East Lansing, Michigan).

Chris Scales, professor in RCAH at MSU

Dr. Dan Sheehy, Director, Folkways, Smithsonian Institution Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage; ethnomusicologist and mariachi musician (http://www.folkways.si.edu/)

Dr. Laurie Sommers, Asst. Professor, Valdosta State University, Georgia; former ethnomusicologist/folklorist for Festival of Michigan Folklife

Dr. Deborah Smith Pollard, Asst. Professor, University of Michigan-Dearborn; Host, "Strong Inspirations," WJLB-FM 98; specialist in African-American gospel music

Dr. Nick Spitzer, Host, "American Routes" (http://www.americanroutes.org/)

Lisa Stafford, Programming Coordinator for Festival International de Louisiane

Dr. Mark Sullivan, Assoc. Professor, MSU College of Music and Residential College of Arts and Humanities

Ami Van Antwerp, City of East Lansing

Stan Werbin, owner, Elderly Instruments  (http://www.elderly.com)

 

Suggestions?

The Great Lakes Folk Festival staff welcome your suggestions of traditional artists you think would be good for the festival. The core selection committee will review suggestions and, if appropriate, adds those suggestions to the list of potential artists. Please feel free to call or send your suggestions to Patrick Power, Booking Coordinator, at or glffbooking [at] gmail dot com