News Release

Library hosting ‘Traditional Music of Pennsylvania’ concert series

January 8, 2007

"Traditional Music of Pennsylvania" is the focus of three upcoming concerts hosted by Penn State Harrisburg’s library.

The concerts are free and open to the public and begin at 6:30 p.m. in the Morrison Gallery of the library. The music for the concerts is based on traditional tunes and ballads collected by Penn State folklorist Samuel Bayard and archived on Penn State’s University Park campus.

The duo of Ken Gehret and LeRoy Mumma begins the series on Wednesday, Feb. 28. Gehret is a gifted and versatile multi-instrumentalist who has played bluegrass, jazz, Celtic, and many other styles from his home base in Reading and in Nashville, Tenn. He will be featured on fiddle with his mentor, Mumma, from Denver, Pa., a country/bluegrass fiddle master who has toured the U.S., Canada, and Europe.

On Monday, March 19, "The Keystone Rebels" will feature fiddle tunes collected by Bayard from the southwestern region of the Commonwealth and featured in two books, Hill Country Tunes and Dance to the Fiddle, March to the Fife. The band consists of York County native Todd Clewell on fiddle, Pittsburgh banjoist Mark Tamsula, Indiana University of Pennsylvania music librarian Carl Rahkonen on bass, and guitarist Henry Koretzky from Penn State Harrisburg.

The concluding installment Thursday, April 26 will feature The Folkemer Family from Gettysburg. Singer Beth Folkemer will be joined by her husband, Stephen, and their two children to present traditional Celtic and American ballads gathered from the Bayard archives.