Portland Selection 2: Contra Dance Music in the Pa

Musicians:

George Penk is a dancer at heart whether it be on the floor with his feet or on the fiddle strings with his bow. His deep sense of the pulse of the music translates into an unusual ability to infuse his fiddling with both driving rhythm and intense emotion. His music in turn causes dancers respond soaring and gliding to beautiful jigs or stomping and shrieking to fast-moving reels. His range is very broad. George s powerful connection between music and dance has placed him in high demand for Saturday night dances, week end dance camps and week long instructional events on both US coasts. When not fiddling, George is a high school chemistry teacher.

Clyde Curley has been playing folk music on acoustic instruments since high school. He plays mandolin, octave mandolin, and 4-string banjo and is equally adept at melody, harmony, and rhythmic back up riffs on all of them. He also plays fiddle and guitar. In 1986 Clyde began playing for contra dances with Jigsaw and the Rose City Aces. Since then, he has found himself on stages at local dances all over the Pacific Northwest and on staff at festivals and camps in and beyond the Northwest. Currently, in addition to the above musical interests, he is pursuing Québécois music with his band, Group du Jour. Clyde has retired from several decades of teaching high school English.

Susan Songer has been actively involved in the contra dance community for more than 20 years, first as a dancer and then as a musician on both piano and fiddle. Susan s driving piano style invests the music with lift and pulse. Her deep connection to the dance is evident when she plays in that setting. She has been on staff at various week end and week-long dance and music camps and has tutored both fiddle and piano at the American Festival of Fiddle Tunes in Port Townsend, Washington. Susan is founder and director of the Portland Megaband, an orchestra of about 75 dance musicians that plays for special contra dances at least once a year. Susan has retired from her private practice in psychology.

Susan Songer, Clyde Curley, and George Penk (aka The Portland Connection) have been involved in contra dance music for more than 2 decades. They play local and regional dances. In addition, they have been on staff at week end and week-long dance and music camps and festivals in the Northwest and in other parts of the country. George, Clyde, and Susan each play in many different configurations, with many different musicians. When they play together, their expertise on their instruments, their musical commonalities and bonds, their long experience with contra dance music, and their deep connection to the dance enable them to invest their music with a danceability that draws dancers to the hall and keeps them there until the last note of the evening has been played.