I had heard through the grapevine that friends of mine had plans for a Faerie Festival in central Texas. Next year it will be a full-fledged festival, but for this year, they're starting off smaller with a one day Faerie Bazaar. I volunteered to recruit entertainment and help pass the word around. If you will be in Central Texas June 28, and want to be involved as a performer, please send me a message here, or via email at kaademusic AT yahoo DAWT com, or through my myspace at www.myspace.com/kaade. This year will be for tips and CD sales, because the Bazaar will be free admission, but this will change when it becomes a full-weekend festival. For artists and others interested in vending, contact Chameleon or Alyria at the email addresses listed below.

From the webpage, www.serendipityhaven.com:

Saturday, June 28th

10 AM to 7 PM

To be held at the Rocky Hill Ranch located on FM 153 in

Smithville, Texas, just a few miles North of HWY 71.

Map of Rocky Hill Ranch

• Colorful people from all around
• Faeries on the Wing
• The Beautiful Faerie Queen!
• Unusual Wares fron around the Realm
• Music, Drumming, Dancing and Singing

Don your Fairy Finest and let the child within come out to play!

If you are interested in Performing or Vending, please contact:
Chameleon---chameleondreams@hotmail.com or
Alyria---alyria_stargazer@yahoo.com
Vendor setup will be Friday the 27th begining at Noon.
A valid tax ID number is required for ALL vendors.
Food vendors must present a copy of a current Caterers License.

 

HERE THERE BE MAGIC!!!

Hi all, the schedules for both the worlshops and performances for this year's Fairie Festival are now on the website at http://www.fairiefestival.net My personal schedule is as follows for everyone who can make it:

Saturday:

11 a.m., Chautauqua Tent- Fae-Trad Workshop: The Nature of Faerie Music in World Folklore

2:30, Dark Fairie Realm- Things Going Bump: Tales and Tunes of the Night Court

5:00, Sunshine Stage- Crossroads: When Bards and Faeries Meet

Sunday

11 a.m., Chautauqua Tent- Fae-Trad Workshop 2: Instruments of Faerie Music

2:30, Dark Fairie Realm- Things Going Bump: Tales and Tunes of the Night Court

4:00, Sunshine Stage- Crossroads: When Bards and Faeries Meet

I am so happy to be coming back to the May Day Fairie Festival at Spoutwood Farm. It looks like this year I will be on the Sunshine Stage and in the Dark Faerie Realm, and possibly the Chautauqua tent for a workshop as well.

I'm going to be flying up there from Austin (the day after my best friend's wedding) on Friday May 2, so I will be scheduled for just Saturday and Sunday this year. I will need to find a ride to the festival from the airport, and can show my appreciation with CDs and comp tickets. It looks like Harrisburg is the closest airport, but Baltimore is also a possibility if anyone knows they will be coming from that direction.

And since this kind of took me by surprise, I'm just now in the process of planning a performance schedule in the Mid-Atlantic in the weeks that follow the festival. In particular, I'm looking to present my shows in Baltimore, Frederick, and Columbia, MD in May, and later (end of June, beginning of July) Wahington, DC and surrounding towns like Takoma Park and Alexandria. If you wnat to have a performance of traditional Faerie music and stories in your town this May, and can help suggest venues or host a house concert, and live in the area, let me know what kind of event you have or want to have, and I will help make it happen.

I have spent much of the winter doing research and preparations, and am just now moving into the season when I have regular gigs. So to gather up more needed seed money for the possibility of having a new CD printed before my travels, I have lowered the cost of downloading my first CD in mp3 form to just $8, so here's a link. The physical CD is still $12 (there's only 2 left) but the download link is below that.

http://cdbaby.com/cd/kaade

    Live performance art should be interactive and envelop all the senses. I use techniques of resource mapping to design group performances to showcase the best of each performer, and bring out the best in the audience, as well. If you or your group would like to be involved with any of the following, please contact me. Many skills are useful in producing these, and the dedication of novices is as welcome as experienced performers. Some places I am looking at producing these include the Boston/Salem area of Massachusetts. I will be doing various solo and collaborative shows starting late Spring, and will try to do one or more of these ensemble works starting early in the Fall.

Dancing with the Faeries

    This program is designed to introduce a wide audience, including young children and people with special needs, to various rhythms and dances, using traditional Faerie music of Ireland and Scotland. I am looking for session musicians (many of the tunes are well-known session tunes) and a group of dancers, versed in any Celtic style,  including Irish step dancing, sean nos dancing, or highland dancing, who can choreograph to hornpipes, reels, jigs, slip-jigs, and waltzes, and can teach at least one of these to a diverse group of people- all while wearing wings or other faerie accoutrement. You must be willing to bravely play the fool so that audience members won't be afraid to seem foolish. Anyone interested in designing wings or other costume aspects for this production please contact me as well.

    (If you want to learn the tunes I will use in this production, I will be posting many in my blogs on my myspace page, www.myspace.com/kaade, and here as well if people express interest.)

Following Darkness Like a Dream

    When Richard Corbet, in the days of King James, wrote the song "Farewell to the Fairies" he believed- like many from Chaucer to the present time- that faeries belonged to generations past. But the Age of Reason, rather than burying the elves, revived them in the consciousness of the populace. This program explores how minds of the Renaissance, in words and music, found inspiration looking at the Land of Faerie in new ways. This includes lyrics penned by Shakespeare and Jonson, poetry of Spenser and Herrick, music by Holborne and Ravenscroft, and ballads by that perennial favorite, Anonymous. I am looking for people who play period instruments, and particularly vocalists.

Upon Nine Waves

"Sometimes we forget what we are."

    Thus begins this tale of a sailor, a selkie, and the spirit of a ship, and how remembering our true natures is the only way to preserve what we cherish. This intertwining of three distinct stories occurs along the sea routes from North Scotland to the Baltic and draws from the music and traditional stories of sea-beings in the places along the way. This small ensemble production requires each performer to be both actor, musician, and lead or chorus vocalist, and uses blocking and choreography techniques reminiscent of both Thornton Wilder and Tibetan opera, an always changing environment where all performers are present throughout the performance using minimal props to evoke the sea, the shore and the ships.

    I plan to premiere this piece this Fall in New England, possibly as a solo act at first.

The Brugh

    With this piece still in development, I intend to challenge and make demands of both performers and participants. This is a tale of the dark and difficult, but ultimately empowering, aspects of the fey, in the vein of such writers as Holly Black, Charles DeLint and Guillermo del Toro. As the participants (as this is not to be a passive "audience") enter the space of the Brugh- a Faerie hill- they are presented, as a group, with a challenge: find the changeling, free the abductee, restore a balance. Every performer has his or her own repertoire of tools to offer, be it faerie-lore or music, symbolic objects, or means of encouragement, that gives the participants clues and strength to accomplish the tasks at hand. Through a series of challenges including riddles, games of wit and skill. and interactions with the characters within the Brugh, participants reach their larger goal through smaller ones. Live action roleplaying and divination mean that no two performance will be the same. The participants will leave the Brugh with tools and insight from the Faerie realm to empower them in their own lives.

Inn of the Dancing Cranes

    I first produced this piece with the help of visual artist/film-maker Jeanne Stearn and members of the House of Commons Co-op. Based on a chinese tale of a wizard, a kind inn-keeper, and three dancing cranes, this ambient production is set entirely within an inn along the silk road. Performers and audience members sit amongst each other, and as different servings of a vegan feast are served, different stories, music and performances come from unexpeced places. Types of skills which are useful for this include storytellers and actors, musicians on instruments and vocal styles that could be found along the Silk Road, belly-dancers, jugglers, and of course cooks (I can provide all recipes, or work with cooks to provide suggestions.)

These are descriptions of some of the solo programs I produce. Some I have performed many times, and can perform with little notice. Others take more preparation. When performing at festivals and other themed events, I always try to customize these to the themes and locations:


According to legend, after the arrival of the tribes of man to the shores of Ireland, the beings who preceeded them- known as the Gentry, the Sidhe, the Tuatha De Danann- went quite literally underground, dividing the hills and their ancient stone fortresses among their kings and queens. This program explores the stories and music of some of these hills, bringing the tales of the Daghda and Wandering Aengus, Fionn MacCumhaill, and the harper Turlough O'Carolan together with the music of these hills.


These are tales- inspiring, amusing, and tragic- of interactions between faeries and human musicians, and the traditional melodies that resulted from these encounters: Bards hired to play for faerie dances, the Good People who gave tunes to fiddlers they favored, and how the Sidhe Queen Boand gave birth to the three strains of bardic music. Hear tales of Faerie musicians like Sennbec and Cascorach, legendary bards like Thomas of Ercildoune and the Black Rogue, and historical figures like the lilter Biddy of Muckross and members of the Doherty family of fiddlers who learned music from the Good People.


Although many of the popular conceptions of Faerie Lore derive from Western Europe, rich oral and musical traditions of the Otherkin can be found throughout the world. In fact, according to many traditional accounts, the Faeries themselves have been in contact with those of other cultures for ages. This program is an exploration of mystic creatures in tales and tunes from seven different cultures around the world. Creatures we might visit in a given program might include the Yunwi Tsunsdi of the Cherokees or elves of the Picuris Pueblo, the Mmoetia of Ghana, the Mu and Menehune of Hawaii or the Luve-ni-Wai of Fiji, Duendes and Pomberos of Latin America, the dancing faeries of India, Djinn of Turkey or Morocco, the Patu-Paiarehe of New Zealand, Huldre of Norway, the Lamiak of the Basque people, East European Vilas, or to whatever Otherkin my current research takes me.


Who are the Celts, anyway? This show explores Faerie music from each of the modern Celtic nations: Brittany, Cornwall, Galicia, Ireland, the Isle of Man, Scotland, and Wales, and outlying areas of Celtic influence such as the Shetland Islands, Nova Scotia and Appalachia. Through the sounds of Celtic languages and diverse musical genres from these cultures, I travel through tales of a spiritual world closely interwoven with our own, showing the distinctiveness and interrelatedness of these unique cultures.


In Ireland and the Scottish Highlands, the Banshee (from Bean Sidhe, Faerie Woman) is much more than a messenger of coming death. The Banshees were muses for the ancient bards, lovers to heroes of the epic cycles, and the first matriarchs and constant guardians of many highland clans. In this presentation, I present music and tales of Banshees, including several melodies notated by various witnesses who heard her keening cries.


This show focuses on music and stories of trickster spirits and the Unseelie Court. Hear about first hand accounts, and traditional music inspired by creatures such as Pookas, Buccas, Trows and Trolls, Sylphs, Pixies, and Changelings.





I first produced these programs for book release parties of the Harry Potter series. I have enjoyed the way J. K. Rowling has melded so many of the creatures and concepts from folklore and mythology into a cohesive storyline. These stories have brought together people form different cultures, young and old alike, who appreciate the possibilities of the imagination and well told stories.

This series of programs immerses the audience in the world of Hogwarts by presenting lessons, drawn from actual historical sources, about the relation of music to magical arts. Neither "Wizard Rock" nor "Filk" music, these tales and tunes drawn from early music and world music sources present material that can be appreciated by anyone with a love for mythology, or hearing instruments they never knew existed. I present these in full costume as a guest professor of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, with visual learning materials and prizes (in lieu of house points) for students with insightful answers to class questions. My intended audience for these classes are people who have read the entire Harry Potter series, as I base these programs on the books as opposed to the movies. Younger siblings may not necessarily grasp all the concepts I present here, although there is no inappropriate material, and the music itself can be enjoyed by anyone. For your event, I will be happy to collaborate with other presenters to make a seamless, immersive experience.


Before there were enchantments, there was chant. Before there were incantations, there was cantus, the song. Epic literatures demonstrates how the earliest concepts of magic were by means of music. In fact, much of the earliest epic literature itself, including Beowulf, the Illiad, and the Elder Edda, were sung long before they were first written. This lesson presents music with magical properties: a Gaelic song to stop hailstorms, an Italian dance to alleviate the bite of a mysterious spider, an Irish melody taught by a mysterious stranger to cure sunstroke, as well as music historically attributed to witches and a tale of the great wizard singing duel of Karelia.


Knowledge of magical creatures is only complete with an understanding of the music each creature creates. Included in this program are descriptions and melodies of underground creatures like Icelandic trolls, Shetland trows and Irish Sidhe, Scottish music learned from merfolk and selkies, Renaissance tunes of faeries and sprites, A Boy's Lament for his Dragon and the story of how the Chinese phoenix created a description for musical scales.


This is a hands on program. First focusing on Organology- the study of musical instruments, I will discuss the magical origins and properties of instruments such as the Finnish kantele (a lyre used by Baltic shamans and wizards), and Tibetan seven-metal singing bowls and tingshaws, and each student will have a chance to play each of these instruments. Next, using materials from my publication, A Pocketful of Magic, I teach students how to play a couple of melodies from magical creatures on either ocarina or tinwhistle using music with fingering illustrations. Ideally each student should receive their own instrument and book, so at each event their will need to be a system to sign up for this practicum lesson.