Benefit Concert with Halali
(Hanneke Cassel, Laura Cortese, Lissa Schneckenburger)

Saturday, March 24, 2001, 8pm
First Parish of Watertown
35 Church Street, Watertown
Admission: $12

Halali is a newly formed traditional Celtic band featuring dynamic fiddlers Hanneke Cassel, Laura Cortese, and Lissa Schneckenburger.

Hanneke Cassel’s fluid and graceful fiddle style has brought her honors as the winner of the 1997 U.S. National Scottish Fiddle Championship, as well as the ’92 and ’94 National Scottish Junior Championship. She has a degree from the Berklee College of Music in violin performance and has performed across the U.S., Cape Breton, and Scotland with the likes of Alasdair Fraser, Matt Glaser, and Buddy MacMaster. She is currently performing regularly with the Cathie Ryan Band. In addition to performing, Hanneke teaches at Alasdair Fraser’s Valley of the Moon Scottish Fiddle Camp and on the Isle of Skye, Scotland. She is featured on Darol Anger’s "Diary of a Fiddler" album.

Fiddler Laura Cortese was the 1998 New England regional Scottish Fiddle Champion. She was featured on tour with Alasdair Fraser and the San Francisco Scottish Fiddle Club in California and Alaska. She has studied with Fraser, as well as Martin Hayes, Buddy MacMaster, Catriona MacDonald, Jerry Holland, and Carl MacKenzie. Laura has also gained acclaim as a step-dancer. During an apprenticeship with Footworks Percussive Dance Ensemble, she performed fiddle and dance at the Mission folk Festival in British Columbia. She has choreographed modern dance performances at the University of California at Santa Cruz, and studied step-dancing with Mary Janet MacDonald, and Eileen Carson. Laura taught step-dance workshops in California and Alaska. She has performed on BBC Scotland with cellist Christine Hanson.

Lissa Schneckenburger made her professional debut recording The Mad Hatter on the Outer Green Label in 1997. Drawn from her study of Irish, Scottish, French Canadian, and contradance fiddle styles, the CD also includes many compositions of her own. The Mad Hatter has been aired on National Public Radio’s international Celtic show, Thistle & Shamrock, and has been reviewed in every major folk publication in the United States as well as several in Europe. Lissa has been featured in countless radio and television broadcasts, including a solo on National Public Television’s "A Taste of Chanukah" filmed in New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall, a live performance on WBZ Boston, and annual features on Maine Public Radio’s Live at 11.

Halali plays a dynamic mix of Celtic and American folk styles in new and innovative arrangements.

All proceeds from the concert will go to the Support Committee for Battered Women in Waltham.

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