Andrea Arredondo
Andrea is 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 each of the 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.
Karl Burrelsman Karl joined the band
from Rae Johnson's fiddle circle. As a fiddler
with two decades of bowing under his belt, 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 CD
Mists of Ennistymon playing his rapid-fire mandolin passages
on "Banish Misfortune", "Morrison's Jig"
and "Raggle-Taggle Gypsy."
Sara Cassano
Sara recently joined Dannsair as our singer on Sundays at The James Joyce. Sara was studying music at SBCC with Linda Holland, and came to see us perform because she's friends with Kevin Kinsella. She is currently getting her degree at UCSB.
Russ Doherty
Over the years, Russ has played at most of the clubs in Santa Barbara, including 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. Few of those performances were Irish Music, however - Russ used to perform with different Rock, Blues, and Dance bands. Russ has degrees in Music and Film from UCSB. Russ and his daughter Siobhan have performed or recorded with a wide
variety of musicians including: The Chieftains, Dennis Cahill
(Martin Hayes), Matt Molloy, Donogh Hennessy (Lunasa), Eilis
Kennedy, Natalie MacMaster, Allison Moorer (Songcatcher),
Mick Conneely, The Beach Boys, Kenny Loggins, Steppenwolf,
Pat Broderick and Gilles Apap.
Siobhan Doherty
Siobhan was the start
of the band. At age 11 she wanted to study Irish dancing, so one day the family went to Dargan's so she could practice with the traditional band, and, as they say, the rest is history. As one of Dannsair's main singers Siobhan
has contributed sterling vocal performances on each of the CDs, and has composed a few of the songs, as well. 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. Siobhan lives in Southern California, where she is studying for her MFA in Acting from UC Irvine. She has degrees in Theatre from UC Berkeley and PCPA.
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.
Kevin Kinsella
Kevin plays the cajon and djembe with Dannsair. He is also the drummer for the Kinsella brothers band with Dannsair guest star, Brian Kinsella.
Armand Renga
Armand is one of
the best Jazz bass players in Santa Barbara (and is, coincidentally, not the person writing this bio). He is a
member of the Roman Glowlights Jazz band and was previously a player
with Ulysses' Jasz, Legrand-Franks Band and a sometimes performer
with the Paradise Road ensemble. Armand joined us in 2008 and
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.
Emily Sommermann
Previously the director of the Westmont
College Chamber Orchestra, Emily comes to us from a more classical background. Though she grew
up around folk and rock music in 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. 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.
Jocelyn Tipple
Jocelyn performs on multiple woodwinds in Southern
California. She can be found playing in orchestral, theatrical
and recording settings. She has performed with 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.
Alicia Lopez
Alicia is Dannsair's sound operator at The James Joyce, and general promoter of the band.
She currently attends SBCC.
