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Dietrich Strause
Dietrich Strause is a songwriter and multi-instrumentalist from Cambridge, Massachusetts. He has worked extensively as a studio musician, engineer, and producer. Dietrich writes and records under his own name and released his latest album You And I Must Be Out Of My Mind on Blueblade Records in 2022. He lives part time in London, UK and works as an apprentice luthier at Outlier Workshop.
Joey Thieman
Joey Thieman is a pianist, multi-instrumentalist, teacher, singer and songwriter who moved to the Boston area in 2022 after living and performing in Kentucky for nearly 20 years. After earning both undergraduate and masters degrees in music, with a specialty in jazz, he has played in a wide variety of settings and styles. When not performing or teaching he spends his time learning from histories masters; Chopin and Oscar Peterson on the piano, Django Reinhardt on guitar, Charles Mingus on the bass, Miles Davis on the trumpet, Jimmy Smith on Hammond Organ, Tom Waits when it comes to songwriting, and Weird AL on the accordion. He has played with many well regarded musicians including Mark Charles, Houndmouth, Relaay, Wax Fang, Ben Sollee, Bonnie Prince Billy, Carly Johnson, Drew Miller, and Dawn Landes, and since moving to Boston has enjoyed meeting and playing with many great folk and jazz musicians. He has two studio alternative albums and one jazz album to his credit, the most recently “Letters, Words, Sentences, Songs”.
Timothy Tucker
Chef Timothy Tucker was born in Springfield, IL, and graduated from Sullivan University in Louisville, KY with a degree in Culinary Arts. He began his career working at restaurants such as The Mansion on Turtle Creek in Dallas and The Painted Table in Seattle. Since then he has established 4 culinary training programs for low-income populations in Louisville, Miami, Boston, and in San Francisco where he currently resides. Timothy has also been the chef for Three Mile Island (summer) and Miles of Music since 2011. The author of Food to Make Music To, a collection of recipes from Three Mile Island, was inspired by his time working with Miles of Music. He also has a food radio blog WGGF radio (World Gathering Good Food) and they now have their own publishing company called Good Food Gathering. In 2020, they released a book called Destination Chef which is a textbook Timothy uses to teach people to cook!
Abigail Washburn
Abigail Washburn is a singing, songwriting, Illinois-born, Nashville-based clawhammer banjo player. She is every bit as interested in the present and the future as she is in the past, and every bit as attuned to the global as she is to the local. Abigail pairs venerable folk elements with far-flung sounds, and the results feel both strangely familiar and unlike anything anybody’s ever heard before. She performs and records as a soloist, as well as with the old-time bands Uncle Earl and Sparrow Quartet, experimental group The Wu Force, and as a duo with her husband Béla Fleck.
Having toured the world, Washburn is also armed with Chinese language ability and profound connections to culture and people on the other side of the Pacific. Washburn is one of the few foreign artists currently touring China independently and regularly.
Tray Wellington
2024 Steve Martin Banjo Prize Winner Tray Wellington’s approach to the quintessential American instrument is all about looking forward. An International Bluegrass Music Association Award winner, Wellington is critically acclaimed not only for his technical prowess, but also for leveraging his unique point of view to craft a one-of-a-kind voice on the instrument. It’s a feat that’s all too rare in these roots genres that seem to value emulation and regurgitation over all else. Instead, Wellington has time and time again reasserted that his playing style, and all of the many varied and disparate parts that combine within it, is wholly his own – and it’s unconcerned with tradition.
Nelson Williams
Hailing from the musically diverse and rich culture of South Louisiana, Nelson’s bass playing takes inspiration from his home and beyond; blending bluegrass, jazz, classical and old-time influences into a style of playing that’s been called “Pleasing Virtuosity”. He is a founding member of the latest Black string-band, New Dangerfield, a member of Chris Jones and the Night-Drivers and has served as a core member of awarding-winning Black banjo and fiddler, Jake Blount, band for years. His expertise and steadfast bass playing has made him a sought after bass player in his home of New Orleans and around the country. He has performed at Newport Folk Festival, The Grand Ole Opry, Kennedy Center and many other illustrious festivals and halls across the world.
Maddie Witler
Maddie Witler is a musician currently living in Baltimore, MD. Known mostly for her mandolin playing with groups like Della Mae and the Lonely Heartstring band, she can make meaningful and impressive music on a variety of string instruments. While she has been celebrated as a “shredder” at times, it is her ability to find the gaps in music, and leave space when needed, that gives her a subtle yet deliberate presence in any musical situation. With a deep knowledge and respect for bluegrass, and an awareness of the world and music she grew up around, she synthesizes a sound true to herself, at once traditional and contemporary. Maddie's 2022 debut solo album "Astronaut" showcases her songwriting, singing, and individual style of instrumental arranging.
Maddie also loves coffee and has worked as a barista, as well as competed in the 2023 and 2024 US Brewers Cup Competitions. In 2023, she was a member of the Glittercat Barista program where she received training and education from leaders in the coffee industry, focused on the brewer's cup (pour over) competition.
Paola Vera
Paola Vera is a singer songwriter from London, based in France. Paola’s music blends her passion for jazz with a modern edge; a fresh take, which she infuses into her own song writing and a new slant on old songs. She first started singing and playing the piano at the age of 13, later going on to continue her musical education at Trinity Laban Conservatoire and The Royal Academy of Music after receiving the Elton John Scholarship in London. In 2007 Paola was awarded a Yamaha Jazz Award for outstanding young Jazz musicians. She has since gone on to receive several awards as a singer and pianist, including recieving an ARAM for her contributions to music from the Royal Academy of Music, London. She has performed with many greats of the jazz scene all over the world.
Paola is also a highly sought after educator and vocal coach, currently working with several higher-education institutions across Europe and the UK. She is a vocal and songwriting tutor for Trinity Laban Conservatoire in London on the BAMPI degree program and Assistant professor of Jazz Voice at the Royal Conservatoire of Brussels. Paola is a certified Estill Master Trainer (EMT) and is among few bilingual French speaking coaches delivering Estill courses in French and English across Europe. She is also a vocal coach for Disney in Paris, France.
JONATHAN VOCKE
Jonathan Vocke is a passionate and adventure loving oldtime musician, educator, and multi-instrumentalist from Baltimore, Maryland. He loves traveling, building, dancing, riding his bike and finding music in the world around us. In recent years he has become increasingly enthralled with some of the older sounds of banjo and is in an unending pursuit of the infinity loop that the banjo can weave. He has released a solo record and two records as a part of the Baltimore based group, Geraldine, as well as performing regularly in the Johns Hopkins Hospital system as a part of the Peabody Sound Rounds program. Jonathan came to the island for the first time back in 2018 and ever since has been in love with the island and the creativity it empowers.
Elizabeth Ziman
Elizabeth Ziman, who performs as Elizabeth and the Catapult, is a singer-songwriter from Brooklyn. She's toured with the likes of Sara Bareilles and Kishi Bashi; collaborated with Esperanza Spalding, Gillian Welch, Blake Mills and Ben Folds; scored, with Paul Brill, a variety of international award-winning documentaries including "Trapped," a Peabody winner; and won an Independent Music Award for Songwriting. Her songs have been featured in national television campaigns for Google and Amazon. She composed music for Sara Bareille’s new apple tv show, “Little Voice”. Always writing, Elizabeth narrowed her vast collection of previously unrecorded material down to her fifth full-length studio album "Sincerely, e”, which she self-produced at home and released on Compass Records in March 2021. One of the singles off that album, "Together Alone", made it onto NPR's All Songs Considered 10 best songs of 2021 list.