Instructors

Butch Ross

Perhaps the only performer to have co-billed with Homer Ledford, Bill Staines, a classical string quartet, and a death-metal band whose name he won't repeat, Butch Ross has been gleefully smashing disparate genres of music together for over twenty years. Treating the mountain dulcimer like a prism, he has used it to conquer everything from Bach to Beethoven to the Beatles to Metallica. His restless musical curiosity, virtuosity, and innate ability to break complex concepts into simple ideas have made him an in-demand teacher and performer at many folk and dulcimer festivals in the US and abroad.

In recent months, Butch has been musically prolific, releasing a single, "Elk River Blues," to which he wrote lyrics. An EP called "Three to Get Ready". A three-song Christmas single called “Little Jack Frost” with singer Hayley Graham, and most recently, a three-song single called “What’s going on” featuring a collaboration with Jerry Rockwell. Finally, He's putting the finishing touches on his next record, "A Series of Pleasant Noises," which will come out on vinyl. He is also producing a number of local artists in his hometown of Chattanooga.

Nancy Galambush

I enjoy helping people experience the joys of making music, especially those who have wanted to play an instrument, but never had the opportunity or never believed they could do it.

In addition to coordinating the Waterbound Dulcimers in Kinston, NC, I teach at workshops and in my home; I play with Flat Mountain Dulcimers, Waterbound, and Dolce Dulcimers; and I enjoy meeting “dulcimer people.” As a matter of fact, most of my best friends are dulcimer people. If you don’t play a dulcimer, why not give it a try?

Marya Katz

https://sites.google.com/view/maryakatz-dulcimations/home

Marya taught public school music for 33 years before retiring in 2009. She earned National Board Certification in Early/Middle Childhood Music in 2002. Currently, she teaches private dulcimer lessons, directs the adult choir at her church, and enjoys performing with the folk group Simple Gifts of the Blue Ridge. With this group, she appears on 5 CDs of an eclectic mix of traditional Appalachian music, Celtic, New Age, Christmas music, and more. She has also produced 9 self-published books encompassing original compositions, basic theory, and arrangements of traditional music for the hammered dulcimer. Several of her original tunes have been featured in Dulcimer Players News.

Ken Bloom

Now based in North Carolina, Ken Bloom has been a professional musician all his life and has had experience playing in a wide range of circumstances. Traditional music from this country as well as many other parts of the world has been a keen interest of Ken’s for decades. He was trained in woodwork by his father from an early age, and Ken now devotes much of his time to building bowed dulcimers as well as several other instruments. He developed the bowed dulcimers he is now building from the older traditional ones, some dating back centuries. Performing has also been a very important part of Ken’s musical life, and he has done so in several countries and at many festivals all over North America.

Carla Fosbre

Carla Ann Fosbre was born and raised in Roanoke County, VA (Vinton) and became a full-time resident of Smith Mountain Lake in 2017.

Carla Ann began her career with the Virginia Department of Corrections, Probation and Parole, District #15, State of Virginia in 1984. Carla Ann retired from Corrections after 25 years of service as a Surveillance Officer in the Sex Offender Unit.

In 1998, Carla Ann attended Hollins University in Roanoke, VA to pursue her teaching certificate in Piano Performance. Carla Ann opened her piano studio and has been teaching piano for the past 27 years.

Carla Ann has been playing dulcimers for 11 years. She has learned to play and sing from some of the best Appalachian musicians in North Carolina, Florida and even Rhode Island! She has performed for churches, Arts Expos, art camps, nursing homes, taught dulcimer group lessons at the Bower Center in Bedford, VA, provided beginning dulcimer lessons at the Moneta Library and gave workshops to elementary and high school students. Carla Ann also works with dementia patients and currently provides sing-a-longs in the Memory Care Unit at the National Elks Home, Spring Oak in Bedford, VA. Carla Ann is especially proud of now providing soothing dulcimer music for the patients and their families at Good Samaritan Hospice in Roanoke, Virginia.

Carla Ann has won awards for her dulcimer playing at the Maury River Park Old Time music festival in Buena Vista, Virginia and at the Galax Old Time Fiddler’s Convention in Virginia. Carla Ann earned her dulcimer teaching certificate at the Black Mountain Music Festival in Black Mountain, North Carolina in 2022. Carla Ann regularly attends dulcimer music festivals in North Carolina. Carla Ann’s style of playing and singing is a mix of old time traditional Appalachian ballads, fiddle tunes, folk music from the British Isles and America as well as medieval and old hymns.

Carla Ann is an active member of the First National Dulcimer Orchestra, the Roanoke Valley Dulcimer Group and is on the board of the Smith Mountain Lake Art’s Council.