OCEAN Quartet brings tapestry of Celtic and British songs and tunes for the season to the Mainstay in Rock Hall, MD on Saturday September 27 at 8:00 p.m. Admission is $15.
OCEAN Quartet’s musical vision is created with a stirring combination of compelling originals and innovative arrangements of traditional songs and tunes with composer. The show is entitled “Autumn Leaves” after one of bandleader Jennifer Cutting’s original compositions.
The group features Jennifer Cutting on accordions & keyboard; the wondrous vocals of Lisa Moscatiello who also plays whistles & guitar; the champion Scottish fiddler Andrew Dodds, and folklorist Steve Winick on vocals and percussion. They put a glorious spin on traditional songs and Cutting’s fine original compositions, from soaring ballads and stirring sea chanteys to blazing fiddle and accordion tunes, from electrifying jigs and reels to goosebump-raising vocals and otherworldly airs. Their love of deep scholarship and great sense of humor add layers of enjoyment to their performance. The Washington Post calls their live show “nothing short of spellbinding.”
As a songwriter, Cutting is best known for her Celtic-tinged originals celebrating the turning of the seasons and human rites of passage. She was a protégée of A.L. Lloyd, (who also mentored members of Fairport Convention and Steeleye Span) and is a Library of Congress ethnomusicologist as well as a pioneering bandleader who founded OCEAN, and before that, The New St. George (which also featured Lisa Moscatiello). At home in the studio as well as onstage, Cutting has written and produced songs for artists such as Maddy Prior and Annie Haslam.
She spent 10 years as leader of The New St. George, and then created and produced the award – winning CD, OCEAN: Songs for the Night Sea Journey, collaborating with international superstars such as Maddy Prior and Peter Knight (Steeleye Span), Dave Mattacks (Fairport Convention) Tony Cuffe (Ossian) and Troy Donockley (Iona [UK]). She swept the 2004 WAMMIE awards, winning “Musician of the Year,” “Songwriter of the Year,” and “Best New Artist,” as well as “Album of the Year” and “Best Contemporary Folk Recording” that recording. She has won two Maryland Governor’s Citations for composition, as well as prestigious national level songwriting awards such as First Prize in songwriting at the Merle Watson Festival, and American Songwriter Magazine’s Song of the Year.
When Cutting auditioned Moscatiello for the New St. George, a musical partnership that would last a lifetime was born. Moscatiello proved to be the perfect voice for Cutting’s vision. A native of the Washington, D.C. area, and a veteran of its thriving Celtic music scene, Moscatiello has a voice that Billboard magazine has called “one of the most gorgeous instruments in all of folk-tinged pop.”
Moscatiello was the lead singer for the traditional Irish trio Ceoltóirí (with Sue Richards and Karen Ashbrook), for Jennifer Cutting’s British folk – rock band The New St. George, and for the electric Celtic band Whirligig. Lisa studied voice at Yale, and toured with the a cappella group Redhot and Blue. She has also toured as a solo artist, and as a duo with Baltimore fiddler Rosie Shipley. She has three solo and duo CDs to date. She sings on all of Jennifer Cutting’s albums, including one by the New St. George and two by OCEAN.
Stephen Winick, a Library of Congress folklorist, has a Ph.D. in Folklore and Folklife from the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied under song specialists Kenny Goldstein and Roger Abrahams. He specializes in traditional ballads and sea chanteys as both a performer and a lecturer and teacher, bringing scholarly depth to OCEAN. He has been singing traditional songs in English and French since his childhood, and spent several summers under the tutelage of the late Dublin ballad singer Frank Harte. He is a member of Ship’s Company Chanteymen, and was engaged as an expert scholar, researcher, and performer for the 2008 Washington Christmas Revels, which presented the music of Québec. He reprised his role on the 2010 CD release Le Temps des Fetes, and in the same year appeared on OCEAN’s CD Song of Solstice.
Andrew Dodds is an award winning Celtic fiddler from Springfield, Virginia. As a member of IONA, he toured nationally and internationally and won a WAMMIE for Best Traditional Folk Album, 2006 (A Celebration of 20). He has won nearly every regional Scottish fiddle competition in the Mid – Atlantic, and placed 2nd in the U.S. National Scottish Fiddle Championship. Co-founder and Instructor of the George Mason University Celtic Music Ensemble, he also teaches Classical, Irish, Scottish, and Old -Time fiddle at Del Ray Performing Arts Center in Alexandria, Virginia.
The band’s story began when Jennifer Cutting returned from several years in Britain, where she had studied with the English folk-revival pioneer A.L. “Bert” Lloyd, who also inspired and mentored electric folk bands such as Fairport Convention, Steeleye Span, and 5 Hand Reel. During her time in England, she also worked with and opened for members of these bands, and returned to the US determined to continue the tradition of Electric Folk that they began. Inspired by the subtle fire of Moving Hearts and the Bothy Band, the spine-tingling power of the Battlefield Band and Ossian, and the stately, majestic qualities of Pyewackett and Malicorne, she created her own electric folk bands, first The New St. George, and then The Ocean Orchestra. With OCEAN, Jennifer has reached the bar set by her heroes, applying the principles and techniques of electric folk to traditional and self-penned material alike. Her heroes have now passed the torch on to her; Maddy Prior (Steeleye Span), Dave Mattacks (Fairport Convention), Tony Cuffe (Ossian), and Gabriel Yacoub (Malicorne) have all guested on OCEAN albums.
The Mainstay (Home of Musical Magic) is the friendly informal storefront performing arts center on Rock Hall’s old time Main Street. For information and reservations call the Mainstay at 410-639-9133. More information is also available at the Mainstay’s website https://www.mainstayrockhall.org.
Write a Letter to the Editor on this Article
We encourage readers to offer their point of view on this article by submitting the following form. Editing is sometimes necessary and is done at the discretion of the editorial staff.