MORE 2025 STAFF
DAVID CANTIENI
David Cantieni (Deerfield, MA) is primarily known for playing
Irish style wooden flute, but also for his performances
on the Breton bombard, oboe, sax, and whistle.
David has been inciting people to dance to his music for more than two decades. He switched to playing dance music from Bach and Stravinsky on oboe (music which he still adores) after developing a passion for the traditional New England dance-
contra dancing. A love of music and dance infuses all of David’s many activities, from performing with well-known contra dance bands Wild Asparagus and Swallowtail, to leading a parade of costumed campers at family dance camps.
David has been leading workshops and teaching for years. He was a featured staff member at the Romp in 2023. He has also appeared at Irish Week at Swannanoa,
Northern Week at Ashokan, Heritage Arts Workshops in
Elkins West Virginia, Pinewoods, and other music and dance camps around the country.
MEGAN MACARTHUR
Megan MacArthur (Marlboro, VT) has lived her entire life on MacArthur Road in Marlboro, Vermont. She grew up listening to the traditional folksongs sung and played by her mother, Margaret MacArthur. This rich background, along with her rural lifestyle, influences Megan's music as she continues the traditions of singing ballads and songs of country life.
Megan’s voice has been called “a clear fluid instrument” in SingOut magazine. Whether singing alone or with family and friends, she creates a sound that effortlessly carries the listener deep into the history and culture of traditional Vermont life.
GARRETT SAWYER
Co-founder of the Gaslight Tinkers, Garrett Sawyer (Montague, MA) cut his teeth playing in some of the most well-known bands in Trinidad, including the soca calypso band, Atlantik. Back in New England as a sound engineer, producer, and owner of the world class Northfire Recording Studio, Garrett became connected with musicians in the traditional music scene. He engineered albums for such notables as Bare Necessities, Elixir, Anna Patton, and many others.
While you might find Garrett playing bass for a contra dance, he’s that rare musician that has performed in settings ranging from a Trinidadian soca band in an abandoned fort in the heart of Grenada, a Senegalese hip-hop group in a National Geography concert at Grand Central Station, a klezmer group at the opening of the Boston Greenway, and an Eastern European heavy metal/reggae band in a dark club in Springfield, MA.
Garrett writes and performs with a depth of understanding born from both academic analysis (as a Berklee graduate) and real-world experience. Since 2012, Garrett has played concerts, festivals, and contra dance weekends across the US with the genre-bending world fusion band, The Gaslight Tinkers.
HILARY MENEGAZ WEITZNER
Hilary Menegaz Weitzner (Brattleboro, VT) is a fiddler and singer who is currently studying Music Therapy and American Roots at Berklee College of Music. Hilary developed her New England and Celtic fiddling chops during her formative years in Brattleboro under the tutelage of Louisa Engle and Becky Tracy, as a student in the Brattleboro Music Center's Northern Roots program, and later as a participant and mentor in the Young Tradition Vermont touring group.
Since then, Hilary has expanded her playing to many other styles including Old Time, Scandinavian, and Bluegrass. She won first place in the Young Tradition Vermont Contest in 2022 and has played at venues across the Northeast. She has a passion for community joy that extends into her music, and she plays with a unique blend of folk traditions old and new from across the globe.
LOUISA ENGLE
One of Louisa Engle’s (Brattleboro, VT) fondest childhood memories is dancing through a long tunnel of clasped hands during a contra dance at her elementary school. She grew up to be a fiddler and fiddle teacher who is passionate about bringing together musicians and dancers of different ages and abilities.
Louisa has taught at the Brattleboro Music Center, Maine Fiddle Camp, and Nelson Elementary School, has had numerous private students, and has called and played at family contra dances throughout New England. She has helped run the legendary all-night Brattleboro Dawn Dance for a decade. Her current interests include Maypole dances, claw hammer banjo, family dance calling, and alternate fiddle tunings.
PETER SIEGEL
Educator and founding member of The Gaslight Tinkers, Peter Siegel's (Brattleboro, VT) music is deeply rooted in American traditions, yet spans the globe. Over the years he's shared the stage and been mentored by folks like Pete Seeger, Jay Unger and Molly Mason, Utah Phillips, and Noel Paul Stookey. He was a bandmate of bluegrass powerhouse Michael Daves and poet Alicia Jo Rabins in the 90's "New Old Time" band Underbelly, which the Berkshire Eagle called "a supergroup of New England talent." Peter also contributed and recorded on the Grammy award winning Pete Seeger album, "Tomorrow's Children," and has published songs in Sing Out! magazine and the fiddle tune compilation, The Portland Collection.
As as educator, Peter has been teaching in the public schools and writing songs and theatrical productions with children for the last 20 years, as well as being a contributing writer to The George Lucas Foundation site Edutopia on social curriculum and music educational practices. His Symonds School CD Peace Place won a Parents Choice Award in 2012.
AMANDA WITMAN
Amanda Witman (Brattleboro, VT) is a singer, song leader, instrumentalist, and event organizer. Her love of harmony infuses her singing and playing. She is an advocate for inclusive, community-based music where players and singers at all levels are encouraged and supported.
Amanda leads the monthly 3rd Saturday Brattleboro Pub Sing, which she founded in 2011 with legendary Brattleboro singer, Tony Barrand. She helps organize the annual Northern Roots Festival and teaches at the Brattleboro Music Center. Since 2015, she has performed with Vermont-based quartet Big Woods Voices, presenting detailed, original art arrangements of poetry and other songs. But her favorite thing is just sitting around with a few friends and swapping songs wherever and whenever they happen to be together.
STEVE ZAKON-ANDERSON
Steve Zakon-Anderson has been a caller and organizer for contra dancing for almost 40 years, and in real life has also been a chef at various locations, such as the Dublin (NH) School, Fiddleheads Cafe in Hancock, NH (owned and operated with his wife Bettie) and currently at MacDowell in Peterborough, NH.
Steve has fond memories of cooking at the Northern Roots weekend in the past and at River Jam Romp's first year, both at Green Mountain Camp in Dummerston, VT, which had a certain charm. But Steve is excited that the Romp has landed at Potash Hill where the kitchen is state-of-the-art and somewhat more bear proof. Steve, often with his wife Bettie at his side, always offers up meals that inspire much music-making, singing, and dancing.