Windborne

WINDBORNE (Vermont/Massachusetts) has appeared at various times as a duo, trio, and quartet throughout the past 10 years.  A group of vocal chameleons, they grew up in musical families, going to Shape Note singing parties, taking classical voice and instrumental lessons, and seeking out folk music in their communities and schools. As teens, they all fell in love with world folk music at Village Harmony singing camps, and their current repertoire includes songs from the US and around the world. Specializing in close harmony singing, they draw upon their collective four decades of experience as performers and teachers to switch effortlessly between drastically different styles of singing within the same concert, all the while regaling the audience with their energy and carefully crafted arrangements.

Members

LYNN MAHONEY ROWAN (Vocals) grew up singing in southern Vermont.  Her passion for learning about other cultures through music and dance blossomed when she attended Village Harmony Camp as a teenager.  Through these camps and affiliated organizations, she has studied, performed, and taught across the US and Europe.  In college, Lynn studied choral conducting, vocal performance, and theater, and has gone on to found and direct several world music ensembles with her husband, Will Rowan.

WILL THOMAS ROWAN (Vocals, Banjo) was raised in a community where folk music, traditional mummers plays, and folk dance played an important role in bringing people together to celebrate.  As a teen he went to Village Harmony Camp where he fell in love with ensemble singing, and he took frequent semesters off in college to tour in the US and Europe.  A prolific composer, he won an award from the Choral Project of San Jose, CA, and his songs have been published in the Northern Harmony Shape Note songbook and performed by ensembles around the country.  Will is an avid player of old-time clawhammer banjo, and he builds his own instruments.

LAUREN BREUNIG (Vocals) spent much of her childhood at folk dances, singing parties, and potluck suppers, as her parents were heavily involved in the folk scene revival in New England in the ‘70s and ‘80s. Her musical background includes classical voice and flute lessons, collegiate a cappella, and many years studying world folk music at Village Harmony Camps.  She has toured in the US and Europe with Northern Harmony and other ensembles, and currently works as a circus artist, teaching and performing aerial fabric, trapeze, and partner acrobatics.

JEREMY CARTER-GORDON (Vocals, Banjo) grew up immersed in English and American folk traditions in the music and dance community around Boston, MA. He discovered the world of performing through the Christmas Revels in Cambridge, MA and Village Harmony Camp. He has worked with the Smithsonian Folkways education program to create a series of lesson plans that help teachers integrate traditional music into classrooms. In 2011, he was awarded the prestigious Thomas J. Watson Fellowship to conduct the largest ethnographic study of European hilt-and-point sword dances in the past century. He has taught harmony singing and participatory dance around the nation at folk camps, festivals, and schools, and internationally in England, Germany, Spain, and Italy.