SCDH Board Members 

“Temperance Reel”
Traditional Tune
Silver Jubilee -  Lilies of the West
(Marcia Bruno, Karen Harvey (HD), Patty McCollom, Barbara Whitney, Jill Worley)
All rights reserved.
http://www.musicbypatty.com/



 

Meet Our All-Volunteer SCDH Board Members

 

Bobbi Adler (President)
Bobbi entered the Fretted Dulcimer world in 2000. She has been President of Southern California Dulcimer Heritage since 2006. She composes for the instrument, and works with children who are learning to play and perform. She has taught and performed at the Midland (Michigan) Dulcimer Festival, and teaches locally. She is a dulcimer student of SCDH Past President Cyntia Smith. The Owner/Director of Mobile Music Therapy Services of Orange County, Bobbi is a Board Certified Music Therapist, specializing in intellectual disabilities, gerontology, psychology, and subacute care. She has a background in opera, plays guitar, owns a large variety of instruments, and loves every one of them, particularly her three fretted dulcimers and five guitars.
Barbara Gershman (Vice President)
Barbara first heard the Hammered Dulcimer on a recording in a Yosemite gift shop and then found Patti Amelotte, a HD teacher. Learning to play the dulcimer provided balance to a career in community college teaching (Nutrition & Family & Consumer Sciences) and led to many friendships and musical opportunities. She founded ‘On A Lark’ Celtic trio with Jill Cassidy and Terry Gucwa, succeeding the trio, ‘Dulcimania’. She also plays accordion and accompanies sing-alongs at many healthcare facilities with the Fountain Valley Senior Strummers & Singers. She and Patti Amelotte perform as a duo ‘Better Than One’ for Chapman University's annual Wassail. She also performs solo, plays with ‘Legacy’ band and ‘shepherds’ various dulcimer groups in So Cal as well as teaches beginning HD students. Barbara believes that the hammered dulcimer is ‘Music for the Soul’ and that SCDH helps keep traditional music alive. www.dulcimernotes.com

 






Teresa Alvarado (Secretary)
Teresa Alvarado (Secretary) had her first exposure to dulcimers about 9 years ago when she spotted a mountain dulcimer in a shop window while on vacation in Kentucky. She fell in love with the beauty and sound of the instrument and had it shipped home. She was only able to play a few tunes on it for the first year, and it was doomed to collect dust until she found SCDH and started taking lessons from Bobbi Adler. It opened up a whole new world, and she has since traveled 4 times to Mountain Dulcimer Week at Western Carolina University. Recently retired from a career in aerospace, she hopes to spend more time on music, travel and her hobbies of woodworking and jewelry / metalsmithing.
Lori Young (Treasurer)
Lori has always enjoyed music and has dabbled with the piano and guitar. She was so impressed by the Hammered Dulcimer at the Harvest Festival of Dulcimers when held in Dana Point that she began to take lessons. She is thrilled to settle on ‘her instrument’ and participates in several hammered dulcimer jam/ practice groups in So Cal. Lori recently retired from being a school nurse for a high school district in Orange County. She enjoys quilting, kayaking, hiking and camping and traveling to dulcimer and music festivals. She also volunteers as a pet foster parent to foster kittens for an animal shelter.
Jim Romano (Member at Large)
Jim is a founding member of SCDH. He is also a member of a local Celtic/ Old Time band, “When Pigs Fly! His primary instrument is acoustic guitar, but he also plays Fretted Dulcimer, ukulele, bodhran (Irish frame drum) and assorted percussive instruments. Jim is a ‘born again’ musician, having played the guitar during high school, losing interest and then regaining interest in music when his wife, Bea, began learning the Hammered Dulcimer. Jim has met many, many wonderful people through his involvement with SCDH and other musical groups and promotes the dulcimer as much as possible. http://www.whenpigsflymusic.com/
 
Kathryn LaMar (Member at Large)
Kathryn has been learning instruments, singing, and playing music for fun and to make life interesting her entire life. She began learning the Fretted Dulcimer in 1988, and it’s now her primary instrument because of its intuitive simplicity. Over the years, she has given dulcimer and ensemble-playing workshops at the San Francisco Folk Music Club's Camp Harmony and San Francisco Free Folk Festival. She produced SCDH's print newsletter for several years. Kathryn runs the loaner booth at N. California's Redwood Dulcimer Day. Since retiring as a scientific/ medical writer/editor, she has taken up the study of community music development and drum-circle facilitation. She has facilitated healing drum circles for cancer survivors, their caregivers, and people living with mental illness, as well as spiritually oriented circles for a UU church. www.spirithorsedrumsong.com
 

Key Committee Chairs

Leo Kretzner (Publicity)
Leo is master of the Mountain Dulcimer and has performed and taught for over 25 years at folk festivals and coffee houses. He plays everything from Celtic jigs and reels to blues and rock, as well as more traditional Appalachian styles of music. His motto: tradition meets innovation! He is also known for his user-friendly yet highly informative teaching style and rounds out his concert performances with vocals and guitar playing. Leo plays with Old Grey Cats, traditional music string band. He is a key member of the SCDH festival publicity team and reaches out to players throughout California and the Western states. Leo is a strong believer in exploring all kinds of musical groupings. http://youtu.be/IvFztldKQ2U
 

 
Terry Gucwa (Dulcimer Events E-mail Calendar)
Terry is known for bringing a touch of class to any musical venture as he fuses his Cello with just about any type of music. He has taken up the Fretted Dulcimer recently and also the tenor banjo. Terry has gained quite a reputation as an arranger as part of his contribution to many ensembles: When Pigs Fly!, On a Lark (Celtic Trio), Madison Avenue International Dance Band, and more. Terry is the author of “Easy and Eas-ified Jam Tunes and Songs.” He has been a long-time supporter of The Living Tradition (TLT) and SCDH. He now publishes the SCDH Dulcimer Events Monthly E-mail Calendar.
Michelle Wallace (Sponsorship/Membership)
Michelle moved from California to Little Rock, Arkansas for a time and wanted to learn the mountain dulcimer. She then found Linda Brockinton, dulcimer musician and teacher, and enjoyed performing with her group at Mountain View, Arkansas. When she moved back to California she worked as a nurse at Fairview Developmental Center and surprisingly walked in on a music therapy class and said “Oh, a dulcimer!” and that’s when she met Bobbi Adler playing a dulcimer and gladly became involved with SCDH festivals. “Let’s sing a song” is the favorite thing her pet cockatiel, Larkin, likes to hear. “Keep a song in your heart and the singing birds will come.”