|
2008 - 2010 Musicians 2006 - 2008
Alumni
Dannsair has achieved a depth and clarity in Irish music few
expect from these centuries-old tunes. By combining jazz,
classical and traditional Irish sensibilities they push the
envelope of the sound into completely new territory. The orchestrated
arrangements, emotional fiddle & flute playing along with
the percussion and bass bring a complete and essential sound
to this traditional folk music.
Emily Sommermann
Previously the director of the Westmont
College Chamber Orchestra, Emily Sommermann
comes to us from a more classical background. Though she grew
up around folk and rock music in downstate New York (Long
Island) she has never been in a traditional music ensemble
before. Emily was influenced by her older brother and sister
who introduced her to the Beatles, Peter, Paul & Mary,
the Doors, Cream, Moody Blues, etc. She also got exposed to
opera, swing, latin rumba, sousa marches and symphonic music
from her dad. Now entering her 3rd year with Dannsair, Emily
has a master’s in Violin from the University of New
York at Stony Brook and has been performing and teaching violin
in the Santa Barbara area for over two decades. She currently
runs the Laguna Blanca string program and has her own violin
studio. An incredibly versatile performer, Emily can be sweetly
emotional on the slow airs as well as rhythmically intense
on the more up-tempo tunes.
Dannsair started years ago through the original Reel On The
Ha'Penny sessions at Dargan's Irish Pub. People slowly started
gravitating to the music and didn't leave. Russ was performing
guitar with his daughter Siobhan on flute and doing the traditional
dances. Kristen was doing a classical violinist gig with the
City College Orchestra. Karl showed up from Rae Johnson's
fiddle circle. Jon Pollay came along from the previous blues
band he & Russ had been in. Emily joined up from the Master's
program at the University of Califormia. Suzanne Duffy sat
in a couple times and played some of the more formal performances.
Dannsair currently can be seen live two nights a week: Sundays
at the James Joyce and Thursdays at Dargan’s Irish Pub,
both located in old town Santa Barbara’s thriving club
scene.
Jocelyn Tipple & Serena Corr (L - R)
Jocelyn
McCoun Tipple performs on multiple woodwinds in Southern
California. She can be found playing in orchestral, theatrical
and recording settings. She has performed with are the Santa
Maria Philharmonic, San Luis Wind Orchestra, Lompoc Pops,
Current Sounds New Music Consortium, Santa Barbara Civic Light
Opera, Music Theatre of Santa Barbara, PCPA, Swing Shift,
SBCC jazz band and as concert mistress to the Santa Barbara
City College Concert Band. Along with playing, Ms. Tipple
is a conductor, educator, arranger and maintains a busy private
studio of clarinet and saxophone students. Her heart is with
the sea and she can be found surfing all along the California
coast when she is not surfing the sound waves. Jocelyn plays
whistle and bodhran with us and keeps us laughing every night.
Serena Corr came to us from the sean-nos
singing tradition of county Tipperary. She grew up singing
in her dad's band in Clonmel and doing all of the Irish singing
competitions. On the new CD The Galway Train she
can be heard singing the haunting "Marrying the Sea"
and the hilarious "Raggle-Taggle Gypsy." A wonderfully
happy singer and flute player she has been the main singer
at The James Joyce for the last two years.

Russ Doherty, Armand Renga &
Andrea Arredondo. (L-R)
Armand Renga is one of
the best Jazz bass players in Santa Barbara. He is still a
member of the Roman Glowlights Jazz band and is past player
with Ulysses' Jasz, Legrand-Franks Band and still performs
with the Paradise Road ensemble. Joining us in 2008 he has
raised the performance of the rhythm section to new heights
of clarity, percussive intensity and precision. Armand is
a sailor by day (ask him about his 41-foot sailboat) and a
marine machinist. He still can't believe we perform over 150
gigs a year.
Andrea Arredondo has
been with us for 3 years now as the Thursday singer at Dargan's
Irish Restaurant. Hailing from Santiago, Chile she has a sweet,
dusky voice reminiscent of Diana Krall & Astrud Gilberto.
With a repertoire of over 300 latin songs and over 3 decades
of experience Andrea has enthralled our Dargan's audience
as well as added gorgeous songs to the last two CDs. Her versions
of "On A Sea of Fleur de Lis" on the Mists of
Ennistymon CD and "Wind That Shakes the Barley"
on the new Galway Train CD are just wonderful.
The Santa Barbara scene is reminiscent
of Austin’s 6th Street musical wonderland. A ten block
smorgasbord of sounds: Jazz, Irish, Pop, Blues, Tango, Reggae,
Disco, Martini Piano Lounge, Retro 80’s Hair Bands,
R & B, Dixieland, Salsa, Old Time, Zydeco, Heavy Metal
Tribute Bands, Hip Hop, Nouveau Flamenco, Singer/Songwriter
Showcases. It’s all there; over 40 clubs right on-and-off
State Street, from Velvet Jones in the 400 block to Café
Buenos Aires in the 1300’s.
Over the years, Russ Doherty
has played plenty of them, including some clubs under three
or four different owners and names. Zelo’s, SOhO, Roy,
Head of the Wolf, Gallagher’s, Rocky Galenti’s,
The Blue Shark Bistro, Andria’s, State & A, just
to name a few. The week this is being written one club alone,
SOhO, has Allison Browne playing bluegrass one night, Ottmar
Liebert and Luna Negra playing Flamenco the next and Glenn
Phillips from Toad the Wet Sprocket doing his alt-acoustic
set the following night. Michael Jordan comes to town every
summer and tends bar at O’Malley’s to raise money
for his underprivileged kid’s basketball camp at the
nearby University of California. It’s a vibrant scene
that has spawned all sorts of musical styles, bands, and solo
acts.
Irish music hasn’t been slighted. Dannsair, Reel On
The Ha’Penny, Foggy Dew, Treasa McGetttigan, Kitchen
Junket, Salt On The Rug, Lorin Grean, Mary Murphy, Queen Mab,
etc., all gig around town on a regular basis.
Members of the band have performed with The Chieftains, Donogh
Hennessy, Eilis Kennedy, Pauline Scanlon, Natalie McMaster,
Pat Broderick, Matt Molloy, Mick Coneeley, Gilles Apap, and
most of the Irish musicians in Santa Barbara.
Linda Holland
Linda
L. Holland, Ph.D. is a freelance flutist-composer
based in Santa Barbara, California. She received her Ph.D.
in composition and M.M. in flute performance from the University
of California at Santa Barbara, her M.M. in composition from
the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and B.M. in flute
performance from California State University in Sacramento.
Her work includes teaching music at Santa Barbara City College,
adjudicating competitions and coaching chamber music workshops,
maintaining a private teaching studio, performing and recording
music of many styles, and fulfilling composition commissions.
Dr. Holland performs regularly with the Arcangelo Flute Quartet,
the Santa Barbara Civic Light Opera, the Santa Barbara Choral
Society, the Channel Islands Symphony, the Santa Barbara Dance
Alliance, the Santa Barbara Studio of Music, and in solo performances.
She is a co-founder of Current Sounds, a chamber group that
performs twentieth century music. The Santa Barbara Independent
has described Dr. Holland as "a performer with a luscious
tone and sure-fire technique."
Dr. Holland's compositions have been performed in concerts
and new music festivals across the United States and in Great
Britain. Her piece Blessed Vocation for solo flute was a prize-winner
at the International Festival of Women in Music in 1998, and
was given its international premiere by flutist Jill Felber
at London's Wigmore Hall. Dr. Holland's primary flute teachers
were Laurel Zucker and Jill Felber. Her primary composition
teachers were William Kraft and Elinor Armer
Siobhan Doherty
Siobhan was the start
of the band. At age 11 she wanted to study Irish dancing.
In 1998, shortly after Dargan's opened Siobhan and Russ started
playing every Thursday with a group of parents and children.
Some of the original members still show up on the CD recordings,
Lief Dautch, the incredible fiddler, in particular. As the
years went by musicians came and went. Siobhan was the main
dancer and evolved into one of the best flute players. After
she went to Pacific Conservatory for the Performing Arts (PCPA)
to study theater, she still came back into town regularly
for performances and became the original singer. She left
for the Bay Area 3 years ago and has since received her BA
in Theater, minor in Dance from UC Berkeley.
As one of Dannsair's main singers Siobhan
has contributed sterling vocal performances on Rias Medias
(W. B. Yeats' "Down By The Sally Gardens"), Mists
of Ennistymon (her own composition "Remember")
and the new CD Galway Train (a joint Russ-Siobhan
song called "Shakespeare's Dream").
Siobhan performs regularly with various
acting troupes: The San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, Berkeley
Repertory Theater, TheaterFirst! in Oakland, and Center Rep
in Walnut Creek to name a few. She is currently filming an
Irish movie called Love On The Line in Half Moon
Bay. She has been on every tour of Ireland, including this
last summer where we performed in Dolan's Traditional Music
Pub, John Benny's & Small Bridge in Dingle and McGann's
in Doolin. She sang a number of lovely songs with Eilis Kennedy
& Donogh Hennessy while we were performing in Dingle.
Karl Burrelsman
Karl joined the band
about 4 years ago from Rae Johnson's fiddle circle. A fiddler
for over two decades he brings a dry wit and some down-home
Irish playing to the band. He performs regularly around Santa
Barbara with various musical groups but loves playing mandolin
& fiddle with Dannsair. He can be heard on the new CD
Mists of Ennistymon playing his rapid-fire mandolin passages
on "Banish Misfortune", "Morrison's Jig"
and "Raggle-Taggle Gypsy."
|
|