BECKY GRABER
When well-meaning adults asked 8-year-old Becky Graber (Brattleboro, VT) what she wanted to do when she grew up, she answered, “Something with music, and with people.”.And that’s what she’s been doing ever since. Something with music, and with people!
Becky plays piano, sings, teaches, entertains, and organizes. She founded and led the Brattleboro Women’s Chorus (now Brattleboro Harmonia) for 30 years, and started the Good Trouble Street Choir in 2025. She sings with Big Woods Voices, and teaches piano at the Brattleboro Music Center. She likes nothing better than bringing people together through song. Newly retired from Brattleboro Harmonia, she’s not altogether sure what her next project will be! But she’s happy to have this chance to lead some singing at the Romp!
BEN CARR
Ben Carr (Putney, VT) grew up in the rolling farmland suburbs of Philadelphia. His first instrument was the alto sax, but he found his true love in a pair of bongos, which quickly morphed into a drum set (and then a bigger drum set!). From that moment he’s been on a course of rhythmic exploration that continues to this day. He played around the East Coast with various groups, and in the late 1990’s landed in New Orleans to pursue music full time.
In 2005, Ben relocated to Southern Vermont where he discovered the area’s wealth of great musicians and educators. Here he has performed with a large number of regional New England bands including R&B/jazz artist Patty Carpenter, the Americana rock group The Milkhouse Heaters, and the original Vermont reggae outfit Mo Ambesa.
Currently you can find him playing drums with the cajun/zydeco band, Bayou X; and the blues group, Sunny Lowdown. In addition to these groups, Ben has shared the stage with the likes of Clarence ‘Gatemouth’ Brown, Trumystic, Carlos Averhoff, Eugene Uman, Lou Erlanger, Ayizan Sannon, Page McConnell & Mike Gordon, Jim & Liz Beloff, Lil’ Rev, and Victoria Vox.
NAOMI MORSE
Naomi Morse (Weathersfield, VT) grew up right here in Marlboro, surrounded by music and dance both here and in the wider folk communities of New England. She is known for her energetic and driving fiddle playing for both contra and English Country dancing. Naomi finds sounds "both fiery and flowing" in various styles of roots music, including American Old Time, New England, Irish, Quebecois, and Scottish. Her bands have included The Poor Cousins, Night Watch, Housetop, and the mega-fiddle-band Childsplay, and she has toured extensively with the world music ensemble Northern Harmony. After over a decade of living in Brooklyn, she has returned to live in the woods of Vermont with her husband and son.
STEFAN & MARY ALICE AMIDON
As a youngster, Stefan Amidon (Brattleboro, VT) toured nationally with his parents, Peter and Mary Alice, and his brother Sam as The Amidon Family, teaching and sharing their music with camps and communities across New England and beyond. They also sang and recorded many beloved CDs of songs for children over the years, still treasured by many families. In 2022, Stefan started teaching at a couple of local schools, took on the post of church choir director in Guilford, and restarted the Brattleboro Music Center Children’s Choir, all of which have brought him back to the music of his youth a with fresh perspective.
Stefan graduated from Oberlin Conservatory as a jazz percussion major. Also a gifted singer and singing leader, Stefan leads shape note singing at the Old Songs Festival, and has led harmony singing at Oberlin and at the CDSS-sponsored summer camps Pinewoods Family Week and Ogontz Family Week. He has been on several Northern Harmony tours and was a leader of an Adult Village Harmony singing camp.
Stefan is a founding member (and percussionist/singer) of the Sweetback Sisters, a “honky tonk band for the modern cowboy and girl”, featuring his wife Zara Bode and childhood friend Emily Miller as lead singers. He is also a founding member and bass singer in Starry Mountain Singers a cappella ensemble, and, in 2015, became the percussionist for The Devil Makes Three, the Zara Bode Little Big Band, the local rock band Match, and the honky tonk outfit Atom and the Orbits. He is also the percussionist of choice for several of America’s favorite contra dance bands, including Assembly (a.k.a. Popcorn Behavior, with Keith Murphy), Magic Foot, Lissa Schneckenburger, and the hot new contradance band Top Spin. And on top of all that, Stefan has also been known to pick a banjo and scratch a fiddle on occasion.
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Mary Alice Amidon (Brattleboro, VT) has been involved with teaching and performing for many years. She fell in love with folk singing, contra-dancing, and storytelling in 1975. Since then, she has participated in teaching at and co-chairing weeks at many of the CDSS camp weeks.
Mary Alice, a member of New England Dancing Masters, which received the CDSS lifetime achievement award in 2023, is now retired after years of elementary school residencies of traditional dance and song, performing assembly programs, and elementary school teacher workshops, both solo and duo with her late husband, Peter.
Mary Alice is an Orff Advocate for music educators and enjoys leading gospel and shape note singing workshops at festivals such as Old Songs Festival and the Dance Flurry. Currently, she is deeply involved in local choral singing with the Brattleboro Camerata, Guilford Community Church Choir, and the hospice singing group, Hallowell. She also enjoys Irish tune classes as a student at the Brattleboro Music Center.
KEITH MURPHY
A native of Newfoundland, Keith Murphy (Brattleboro, VT) is a highly respected traditional singer and guitar player based in Brattleboro, VT. He performs in many configurations but his most enduring musical collaborator is his wife and fiddler Becky Tracy with whom he often performs. Other projects include the Hanneke Cassel Band and a duo with Yann Falquet featuring songs of Quebec and Newfoundland. Keith also performs solo showcasing his song repertoire and with his Band of Amber, a grouping that performs music related to his most recent solo project, Bright As Amber (June 2023). He also worked extensively with traditional song icon, Tony Barrand.
Keith is a faculty member of the Brattleboro Music Center (BMC) and the artistic director of the BMC’s Northern Roots Traditional Music Festival in Brattleboro Vermont which he founded in 2008. He is an accomplished composer and arranger in the realm of traditional music and has also composed for theater and film. Several of his compositions were prominently featured in the Ken Burns’ documentary on the Roosevelts. He is a featured performer on well over a dozen recordings and a guest musician on numerous others. He has four highly regarded solo recordings.
LISSA SCHNECKENBURGER
Over the last several decades, fiddler Lissa Schneckenburger (Brattleboro, VT) has made music that showcased everything from traditional New England dance tunes, to original songs inspired by her experience as a foster and
adoptive parent. Her recent recording, Falling Forward, has blended her love of traditional music with her love of
writing, in her first fiddle-forward album in over a decade.
Raised in a small town in Maine, Lissa grew up with music. She began playing fiddle at the age of six, inspired by her parents' interest in folk music. In 2001, she graduated from the New England Conservatory of
Music with a degree in Contemporary Improvisation. She has been writing, performing, and teaching music here in Brattleboro and around the world ever since.
To me, music creates community," Schneckenburger says. "Music is what people sing along to,
dance to, fall in love to... music brings people together."
MARKO PACKARD
Marko Packard (Montague, MA) lives in Western Massachusetts and is an Irish flute player, saxophonist, and guitarist. He has been playing traditional music for most of his
life. He has toured the US and England with contradance bands including Airdance, Reckless Abandon, and The Groovemongers, and was a founding member of Elixir. He was saxophonist with the tap-dance company Rhythm In Shoes, and has also composed and performed music for several films, including the
short film "Gravel", which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2003. His collective collaboration called Undertoe, with English accordionist Karen Tweed and banjoist Stuart Kenney was a marvelous meeting of the minds, and resulted in their 2006 album, "Walking Down Angell Road." Marko has taught music at Ashokan Northern Week and the BACDS American week in Mendocino, CA. Marko is currently
working on his first solo album and playing with the contradance band The Vintons (with Andy Davis & George Wilson) and the Swedish band Flurut. When not playing music, he works as a public librarian.
LIZ NELSON
Liz Nelson (Greenfield, MA) is a contra caller based in Greenfield, MA. She’s known for her clear, easy-to-follow teaching style, steady presence, and warm, welcoming energy. Liz approaches every gig with an open mind because she knows that people of all ages and experience levels can find joy and success in the dance hall. She also loves taking to the dance floor herself, and serves on committees that run contra and fusion events in Western MA.
Since stepping up to the mic as a contra dance caller in 2018, Liz has learned so much about the community she loves through the adventures and experiences she’s had. Liz has called at regular dances, festivals, and special events across the country from Maine to Hawai’i—and
she’s always excited to see where the dance floor will take her next.