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."