MEET THE BUCKEYE INSTRUCTIONAL STAFF

MOUNTAIN DULCIMER INSTRUCTORS

HAMMERED DULCIMER INSTRUCTORS

DAVE HAAS

Intermediate/Advanced

***************

Dave Haas lives in Charleston, WV and has been playing the mountain dulcimer since 1990.  He teaches in both private and group settings and was the founding member of the Almost Heaven Dulcimer Club in Charleston.  Dave loves to share the mountain dulcimer and its history with schools, churches, civic organizations, and has even brought the dulcimer to those in prison!  Dave is a popular instructor, performer and jam leader at music festivals and has taught and performed with the mountain dulcimer in over two-thirds of the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada.  He is known for his gentle, fun, and enthusiastic teaching style.  Dave has released eight dulcimer instructional books/CDs – including the very popular “Let’s Jam!” book/CDs, four instrumental dulcimer CDs, and a popular dulcimer chord chart.  Dave is proud to be an Endorsing Artist for Folkcraft Instruments since 2014.

In 2020, Dave retired Professor Emeritus from the University of Charleston where he exposed countless students the joys of Chemistry.  One of his favorite teaching activities was to sing chemistry songs (on dulcimer and guitar) with his students.  In addition, Dave plays the guitar, sings, and enjoys leading music on Christian retreat experiences such as Kairos Prison Ministry, The Walk to Emmaus, Cursillo, and Teens Encounter Christ (TEC).  Dave has been blessed with a wonderful wife, two sons, and 10 grandchildren! 

More information on Dave can be obtained at www.davehaasmusic.com.

***********************************

ZOOM OPTION:  Dave's 10 hours of extended instruction will be offered as a Zoom option for those folks who cannot attend in person.  The Zoom feed will be monitored by BDF staff who will be sure that any questions are answered. 

Zoom Registration form

JODY MARSHALL

Intermediate/Advanced

************************
We are so sorry that Ruth and Steve Smith had to cancel due to health reasons.  We wish them THE BEST!

****************         

Jody Marshall, a native of the Washington, D.C. area, grew up in a musical family. Enchanted by the sound and visual appeal of the hammered dulcimer, she developed a passion for the instrument and began playing in the late 1980s. Her performance credits include the White House, the Kennedy Center, and Wolf Trap’s Filene Center for the Performing Arts.

Jody was a founding member of the popular folk trios, Ironweed and MoonFire, and also performed extensively with the award-winning Celtic ensemble, Connemara. A popular dulcimer teacher, she has been on the faculty of many festivals and arts workshops across the nation and overseas. From 2010 to 2014, she was also the staff coordinator of the Augusta Heritage Center’s Spring Music Week in Elkins, WV.

           The Washington Post describes Jody’s music as “lovely, lively, and shimmering.” She has several recordings to her credit, including Cottage in the Glen (on the Maggie’s Music label) and Carol of the Bells. Her books include Carol of the Bells: Seasonal Favorites for Hammered Dulcimer and Other Instruments  and A Baker’s Dozen: 13 Duets for Hammered Dulcimer and Other Instruments.

 For more information, visit www.jodymarshall.net.

ZOOM OPTION:  Jody's 10 hours of extended instruction will be offered as a Zoom option for those folks who cannot attend in person.  The Zoom feed will be monitored by BDF staff who will be sure that any questions are answered. 

Zoom Registration form
 

JOE STEINER

Past Beginner/Early Intermediate

Joe Steiner is a well-respected and innovative instructor on several instruments, and he has several recordings to his credit with various old-time and bluegrass groups. Joe is recognized for his banjo and mountain dulcimer knowledge and skills, but he is just as comfortable with harmonica, guitar, and bass. He has been performing, playing, and teaching stringed instruments all over the Midwest for over 45 years!

A sought-after instructor and jam leader, Joe is involved with workshops and performances at many festivals. In addition to private lessons and workshops, he has coordinated in-school music programs, workshops, clubs, and performances for children and adolescents, and has been instrumental (no pun intended) in running a large bluegrass non-profit organization that sponsors two festivals per year for the last 49 years. In addition to running the festival, you can occasionally see him filling in onstage with some of the bands.

Joe is the host and programmer of Blue Ridge Breakdown, a bluegrass and old-time music program on WLFC 88.3, University of Findlay, now in his 26th year behind the controls. You can listen to him any Monday night from 8-10 pm. EST, on http://www.pulse.findlay.edu/listen-live

Joe currently performs with several ensembles including the Old-Time Duo with his wife, Chris Steiner, and Buckeye Roadshow with Chris and Shari Wolf.  Joe can be reached at banjo_one@yahoo.com
 

CHRIS STEINER

Past Beginner/Early Intermediate

In 1997, when Chris Steiner responded to a newspaper ad that said, “Learn to play 10 songs on the dulcimer in 2 hours.  Keep the dulcimer. $35”, little did she know where it would lead.  That first dulcimer turned out to be a cardboard mountain dulcimer. Within two weeks, she was performing at the county fair and local nursing homes. A few months later, she saw her first hammered dulcimer, and fell in love all over again. The very first dulcimer festival that she attended was none other than Buckeye, and she has attended every one since then, as a participant the first four years, and an instructor the last twenty-two. (Yes, she has all of her name badges to prove it!) As someone who never touched a stringed instrument until she was in her 40s, Chris is living proof that you are never too old to learn, and she just LOVES teaching “old dogs new tricks”.

In addition to private lessons, Chris conducts workshops and performs at several festivals and venues yearly.  Her vita has included assisting with in-school music clubs and programs, and conducting workshops for school teachers for “Bluegrass in the Schools” in conjunction with the International Bluegrass Music Association in Nashville.  Chris (and Joe) are also very instrumental in running a large, twice-yearly bluegrass festival, now in it’s 49th year.

Chris (Cooperrider) Steiner is one-half (the better half, she says!) of Chris and Joe - Old Time Duo.  Chris’ instrument of choice is the hammered dulcimer, but she can also be found playing upright bass when the opportunity arises. For more information about Chris or Old Time Duo, email Chris at Cooperrider@yahoo.com.

DIANE HOCHSTETLER

New Players/Beginners

MELANIE SHAPIRO

New Players/Beginners

Melanie Shapiro began playing the marimba when she was 10 years old and earned a degree in percussion performance from Indiana University.  Soon after college she took a break from playing music and instead kept her connection to music through listening to it at folk dances.  At dances she would frequently see a hammered dulcimer in the band and thought “someday...” but raising kids and working kept her from pursuing the dulcimer for many years.  After her husband gifted her with her first hammered dulcimer, she brought it to her first festival in 2012—the Buckeye Dulcimer Festival—for her first ever lessons on the dulcimer.  She soon fell in love with and became thoroughly addicted to the hammered dulcimer.  Melanie studied hammered dulcimer with Mark Alan Wade for 10 years.

With Melanie’s classical background, her repertoire tends to include a fair amount of classical music but Celtic music  and ragtime are other favorites.  Melanie is co-founder of the Central Ohio Hammered Dulcimer Club and can be found at one of the Columbus Irish Sessions on most Tuesdays. Melanie loves to share her enthusiasm for the hammered dulcimer with people who are new to the instrument and looks forward to working with you!

CHARLES WHITMER

Autoharp

Charles Whitmer has 35 years of public school music teaching experience 31 of them teaching band. He has also been teaching autoharp classes from 1985 to the present.  

In 2008 he was inducted into the Autoharp Hall of Fame. He is a current staff member of The Autoharp Quarterly and was also a long time staff member for The Autoharpoholic, a former international quarterly magazine.  

He has a Bachelor of Music degree in education (1980) and a Master of Curriculum & Instruction (music education) degree (1989) both from the University of Houston. He is a member of the Texas Music Educators Association and the Association of Texas Small School Bands. He also formerly taught music for the Department of Defense Dependents Schools (DoDDS) at the US Army's Camp Zama in Japan for one year. 

His workshops outside the public schools are primarily teaching autoharp classes. He also teaches workshops in Sacred Harp shape note singing, an American folk hymn tradition.

Programs for which he has taught autoharp and performed include Northwest Autoharp Gathering, Co-Founder of The Midwest Autoharp Academy, North Georgia Foothills Dulcimer Association Fall Festival, QuaranTune Virtual Dulcimer Fest, Palestine Old Time Music & Dulcimer Festival, Winter Creek Reunion Dulcimer Fest, California Autoharp Gathering, Lagniappe Dulcimer Fête, Augusta Heritage Arts Workshops, Ozark Folk Center, Mountain Laurel Autoharp Gathering, Willamette Valley Autoharp Gathering, California Traditional Music Society's Summer Solstice Festival, Summer Stringalong in Wisconsin, Winter Festival of Acoustic Music in Texas, Little Rock Dulcimer Getaway, Lone Star State Dulcimer Festival, Gateway Dulcimer Music Festival, New Mexico Dulcimer Festival, Cranberry Dulcimer Gathering in New York, Buckeye Dulcimer Festival, Central Florida Dulcimer & Autoharp Festival as well as other festivals across the US and a few in Japan.

In addition to teaching autoharp workshops and performing on autoharp, he currently has 720 traditional song arrangements written out for autoharp in print. He is also the author/arranger of a major work for concert bands entitled 52 Hymns and Chorales for Winds, published by Wingert-Jones Publications (a division of Excelcia Music Publishing).

**************************************

ZOOM OPTION:  Charles' 10 hours of extended instruction will be offered as a Zoom option for those folks who cannot attend in person.  The Zoom feed will be monitored by BDF staff who will be sure that any questions are answered. 

Zoom Registration form

We are so sorry that Ruth and Steve needed to cancel for health reasons.

 
UKULELE CLASS on Thursday & Friday
Is CANCELLED.

There will be a ukulele mini session on Saturday.
 

SHARI WOLF, BAND IT!  INSTRUCTOR   
CLASS on THURSDAY AND FRIDAY IS CANCELLED FOR 2025.
THERE WILL BE MINI SESSIONS ON SATURDAY.

For many years, Shari created, taught, led, and facilitated the Band It! workshop here at Buckeye.  It's the type of workshop that draws on a lifetime of music experience to bring out the best in all players.  Shari has been involved in teaching music workshops on guitar and mountain dulcimer, developing workshop schedules, creating and running festivals and camps as a member of Sweetwater, Country Strings, and as a past officer, president, and member of the Mountain Dulcimer Society of Dayton, music leader for a local community group, Nine Mile Creek out of Russia, Ohio.  Just before the pandemic, a new group was arose from the festival, Buckeye Junction (Chris & Joe Steiner, Joyce Harrison and Shari).  We lost Joyce to covid in 2021.  Lots of things changed, but the music continued to be a driving force.  Later in 2021, Joe, Chris, and Shari continued as a group now called Buckeye Roadshow.    This trio created monthly online Buckeye Roadshow Zoom Jams, serve as leadership of the long-time Buckeye Dulcimer Festival, and you might see them at local festival events and live music venues.

Since coming back from the pandemic, Shari seized the opportunity to once again lead the Band-it! workshop. This workshop is so special in that each participant has a purpose and will add to their music.  It's a wonderful class to keep and sharpen music skills.   She is really excited to be doing it again this year, 2025.