David Surette Mandolin Festival

KITTERY — The 21st annual David Surette Mandolin Festival will present four masters of the mandolin — Carlo Aonzo, Joe K. Walsh, Keith Murphy, and Dan Bui — in a kickoff concert on Friday, May 3 at the Kittery ME Dance Hall, followed by two days of workshops and a second concert at the Concord New Hampshire Community Music School on May 4-5. Concert audiences will hear bluegrass, classical, old-time, Celtic music and more. Workshops will offer opportunities for students of all levels to learn new tunes and techniques and jam with fellow pickers.

This year’s instructors beautifully showcase the mandolin’s diversity, representing a vast range of musical traditions and styles. Carlo Aonzo of Savona, Italy is a well-renowned player of Italian classical and popular pieces. Carlo has taught, performed, and recorded all over the world, including recording with David Grisman, playing as a guest with numerous mandolin and symphony orchestras, and performing at the Vatican. He also plays with his own trio and runs the Accademia Mandolino in Italy, where David Surette taught in 2018 and 2019.

Inspired by traditional bluegrass as well as modern innovators like David Grisman and frequent collaborator Darol Anger, Joe K. Walsh is known for his adventurous yet tasteful style. Joe plays with the inventive jazz-inflected stringband Mr. Sun, and is a faculty instructor at Berklee College of Music, where he was the first-ever mandolin student in 2003.

Originally from Newfoundland and now hailing from Vermont, festival favorite Keith Murphy returns this year with a rich repertoire of traditional Celtic and French-Canadian tunes and songs, with driving rhythms on mandolin, guitar, and foot percussion. Keith has released three solo albums and frequently appears with fiddlers Becky Tracy (his wife) and Hanneke Cassel.

New to the festival this year is Dan Bui, one of the brightest and best of the new gang of mando players. Best known as a member of the wildly adventurous post-bluegrass band Twisted Pine, Dan is well-versed in traditional bluegrass and old-time, but equally adept in genre-bending, improvisational musical settings. He also plays upright bass and is a recording engineer.

Surette, the festival’s founder, was greatly admired and respected as a player, composer and teacher, with a reputation that reached across the US and beyond to Canada, England, France and Italy. After his passing in 2021, David’s wife Susie Burke and daughters Isa and Julianna Burke resolved to continue the festival in partnership with the Concord Community Music School, where David was a beloved faculty member for 30 years. Susie and Julianna will both perform in the festival concerts.

At the festival, experienced players and newcomers alike share the joy of adding new tunes to their repertoires, learning from passionate teachers, and jamming late into the night. David Surette was known and beloved for his eager embrace of all musicians, students and experts alike. This spirit is alive and well at the festival, where all are welcome to join in the joy of making music together. Festival tickets are available at ccmusicschool.org, which include access to all Saturday and Sunday workshops and admission to the Saturday concert; tickets to the Friday concert are sold separately at thedancehallkittery.org. Tickets can also be purchased for the Saturday concert without full festival registration.