Jane Peppler performs and teaches more-or-less traditional music

I'm a vocal and instrumental musician based in the Durham-Chapel Hill area of North Carolina. At Youtube you can see Pratie Head videos and Mappamundi videos...

Types of music:

• Traditional music (world music): Eastern and Western Europe, British Isles, Jewish traditions, music of Colonial America and early North Carolina;
• Early music (Medieval, Renaissance, Elizabethan);
• Choral music from many traditions
• Miscellaneous folk music and American popular music

My instruments:

• Violin and viola;
• English concertina;
• Piano;
• Appalachian dulcimer (aka lap dulcimer);
• Gadulka - known in Greece as the lyra, this great little member of the vielle/fiddle family was built by Ken Bloom;
• Tenor rebec - built by John Pringle;

Performances

• Wedding Music in North Carolina is the umbrella site for hiring me and my musician friends in NC wedding bands. (I'm putting up our favorite love songs for weddings at the companion site Best wedding songs.) The site features:
  • Mappamundi is an ensemble specializing in high energy acoustic "More-or-less Traditional Music of the Northern Hemisphere and the Previous Millennium" - we play concerts, festivals, workshops, and private celebrations of all kinds.
  • The Pratie Heads is a British Isles duo (English, Scottish, Irish, and early American music with a few songs and tunes we've written and a few surprises from elsewhere) with Bob Vasile.
• As of spring 2009, I'm "retiring" after fourteen years as director of the Triangle Jewish Chorale.

Solo work:

• I taught at Village Harmony summer sessions in 2005 (teen camp) and 2006 (adult session), presenting, arranging, and conducting songs of English, American, Klezmer/Yiddish, and Mariachi traditions
• I taught vocal classes (including performance master classes, individual tutoring, Balkan singing and Yiddish singalongs) for two summers at Pinewoods camp for the Country Dance and Song Society (CDSS).
• I presented a week-long program based on "Songs for Non-Singers" at the North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching
• Music of the world for ElderHostel in Chapel Hill
• Fiddling and singing for weddings, parties, even wakes and funerals
• Fiddle workshops
• Songs of Immigration
• Music of the Holocaust
• Songs of the Supernatural
• General international programs
• Music of the British Isles
• Music of early North Carolina

Teaching (adults only)

• Fiddle lessons (adults only)
• Voice lessons
• Coaching vocal and instrumental performers and ensembles.
• "Rise Up Singing" song circle

Recordings

Available at Skylark Productions:

• The Solstice Assembly:
  • Under the Drawbridge, featured on NPR's Weekend Edition
  • Some Assembly Required
• Sedgefield Fair: more or less traditional music of England and Scotland, made with Jacqueline Schwab and Robbie Link.
• Mappamundi's "World Music Our Way," (November 2004).
• The Pratie Heads:
  • "We Did It! Songs of People Behaving Badly," (October 2008)
  • "Rag Faire" (November 2006)
  • A double-cd re-release of 2-1/2 hours of early Pratie Head recordings, "Early Fare."

Website design, coding, and management

Mine

• Mappamundi web page
• Pratie Heads web page
• Best wedding songs (A blog where I am posting the mp3s of love songs suitable for wedding preludes, ceremonies, and receptions)
• Wedding Music in North Carolina (free mp3 sound samples, bios, playlists, etc. of the music my bands play for weddings and private parties)
• Weddings in North Carolina (a blog I am developing while my daughter plans her wedding; it contains reviews, pictures, etc. of local wedding vendors)

Friends

• Amero Metal Design - John Amero is a great metalworker
• Uncle Shlomo's Pushcart - I built this website for my friend Paul - and I also got Bob (see below) to build the actual pushcart - but sadly, the business never happened. I may keep the site open to sell my original postcards, etc.
• Sheva Zucker - Sheva is my brilliant Yiddish teacher
• Bob Vasile - Bob is my co-Pratie Head, a fabulous bouzouki and guitar player and singer.