Fiddler Greg Boardman of 乐播传媒’ applied music faculty.

A pianist called “tremendous” by the BBC and one of Maine’s best-known folk fiddlers offer an evening of original and traditional music in the New England style at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 7, in 乐播传媒 College’s Olin Arts Center Concert Hall, 75 Russell St.

Admission to this concert by pianist Neil Pearlman and fiddler Greg Boardman is free but tickets are required, available at . For more information, please contact 207-786-6135 or olinarts@bates.edu.

The program includes music composed by Boardman and recorded by the pair for his recent release Trip to Benton, as well as other originals, dance tunes and airs. In addition to fiddle and piano, Pearlman and Boardman will sing and play guitar and mandolin.

Boardman has fiddled throughout Maine and beyond since the early 1970s, learning from such Maine music legends as Otto Soper, Simon St. Pierre, Leo Murphy, Alfred Parent, Lucien Matthieu, Ben Guillemette and Don Roy.

He has performed solo and with a wide variety of bands, including the Northern Valley Boys, Kennebec Valley Boys, Maine Country Dance Orchestra, Old Grey Goose, Boardman and Sons, the Gawler Family, Michael Parent and Jessie Boardman.

Dedicated to keeping Maine’s traditional dance music alive, Boardman is a co-founder of the East Benton Fiddlers’ Convention and the Maine Country Dance Fiddle Workshop, and is the founder of the Maine Fiddle Camp. Trip to Benton is the latest of his several recordings.

Neil Pearlman is a pianist known for his versatility.

Pianist and mandolinist Pearlman is rapidly distinguishing himself as a uniquely innovative artist in traditional music. Called 鈥渁 force to be reckoned with鈥� by WGBH鈥檚 Brian O鈥橠onovan, he is recognized in Celtic music circles for his distinctive approach to the piano. Rooted in traditional Cape Breton styles, Pearlman brings in ideas from many other genres, producing an exciting new sound that remains true to its traditional roots.

Also an accomplished Cape Breton step dancer, Pearlman grew up in the family band Highland Soles, led by father and mother, Ed Pearlman and Laura Scott, both influential figures in Scottish-style music and dance in the U.S. Pearlman has performed with such musical luminaries as Natalie MacMaster, Alasdair Fraser, Natalie Haas,聽 Seamus Connolly, Kimberley Fraser, Maeve Gilchrist and Hanneke Cassel.

Pearlman currently performs with a wide range of musical projects including Alba鈥檚 Edge, a Scottish-jazz-Latin quartet; Soulsha, a Scottish-West African-funk octet; the Scottish-influenced Katie McNally Trio; and Pearlman鈥檚 duo with his father Ed Pearlman.

Alba’s Edge. From left, Doug Berns, bassist; Neil Pearlman, pianist; Lilly Pearlman, fiddler; Jacob Cole, percussionist. At 乐播传媒, Katie McNally will fill in for Lilly Pearlman.

NOTE TO READERS: Because of heavy snow predicted for Feb. 8, the 乐播传媒 College Folk Music Festival has been postponed until spring. Watch bates.edu/news for an announcement of the new date.

Contradancing, workshops and performances by musicians from as far away as Scotland are on tap for the third annual 乐播传媒 College Folk Music Festival, a two-day event beginning at 5 p.m. Friday, Feb. 8, in the Muskie Archives, 70 Campus Ave., and Chase Hall Lounge, 56 Campus Ave.

The event is open to the public. Admission fees vary according to ability to pay — from $5 to $20 for one day, and $10 to $30 for both days. No one will be turned away for inability to pay. Tickets are available at the door. For more information, please visit .

The event is sponsored by the Freewill Folk Society, a student organization at 乐播传媒. For more information, please contact mpickof2@bates.edu.

The event opens Friday with music by the 乐播传媒 ensemble Chase the Fiddlers, led by Greg Boardman of the applied music faculty, and by the Scottish trio Cantrip.

Friday鈥檚 performers also include 乐播传媒 College students; the Press Gang, an Irish-music trio from Portland; and the Scottish-Latin fusion band Alba鈥檚 Edge. Kim Roberts of Farmington calls a 6:30 p.m. contradance with the Maine duo Velocipede and a 9 p.m. contradance with the Scottish band Alba鈥檚 Edge.

The Scottish trio Cantrip — from left, Eric McDonald, Jon Bews and Dan Houghton.

On Saturday, a yoga and stretching session starts the day鈥檚 activities at 9 a.m., followed by a 9:30 a.m. contradance with music by Greg and Jessie Boardman. Velocipede offers a concert at 3:30 p.m. The Portland band Tumbling Bones performs at the Ronj, 乐播传媒’ student-run coffeehouse at 32 Frye St., at 9 p.m.

About the performers

Chase the Fiddlers is a folk band composed of 乐播传媒 students and faculty including Greg Boardman, of Auburn, a longtime presence in the Maine folk music scene.

Cantrip is composed of fiddler Jon Bews, bagpiper Dan Houghton and multi-instrumentalist Eric McDonald. Performing on both sides of the Atlantic for more than a decade, the band weaves together music both traditional and contemporary to take audiences on a unique cultural journey.

Velocipede, featuring fiddle tunes from around the world, consists of Julia Plumb, a member of the 乐播传媒 class of 2005 who plays fiddle, viola and foot percussion; and Baron Collins-Hill, playing mandolin and tenor guitar.

Alba鈥檚 Edge draws on jazz, funk and the music of Cuba and Brazil, infusing traditional Scottish melodies with new ideas. Based in New York City and Boston, Alba鈥檚 Edge is led by pianist Neil Pearlman.

The Press Gang, composed of squeezebox player Christian 鈥淛unior鈥� Stevens, fiddler Alden Robinson and guitarist Owen Marshall, performs all over the Northeast and into Atlantic Canada.

Greg and Jessie Boardman play fiddle and cello.

A singer and fiddler familiar to 乐播传媒 and mid-Maine audiences, Schneckenburger is presented by the college’s Freewill Folk Society. Tickets cost $8 general admission and $5 for seniors, students and ages 12 and under. For reservations or artist information, call 207-268-4013; for directions or other venue information, call 207-786-6135.

Called an “exhilarating young traditional performer” by the folk-music magazine Dirty Linen, Schneckenburger has performed in Russia, Western Europe, Canada and across the United States. She has opened for artists such as master Scottish fiddler Alasdair Fraser and renowned singer Judy Collins. Her recordings include two solo titles, the widely reviewed Different Game (Footprint, 2001) and The Mad Hatter (Outer Green, 1997), as well as recent CDs with the bands Halali, Phantom Power and Spin.

A product of rural Litchfield, Maine, Schneckenburger picked up the fiddle at age 6 and was quickly recognized as a prodigy. Her teachers included Greg Boardman, a member of the 乐播传媒 music faculty and a pillar of Maine’s folk music community who brought his young prot茅g茅 into the state’s thriving contradance scene.

She went on to become a champion fiddler, taking top awards at the Common Ground Country Fair, Maine Festival and East Benton contests, and she later studied with such top bowmen as Fraser, Jay Ungar and jazz artist Matt Glazer.

“It’s been exciting to observe her progress as a performer over the years,” says Boardman, “as her facility, experience and ardor continue to expand.”

Now a Boston resident and a 2001 graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music, Schneckenburger teaches and performs solo, with the acoustic fiddle band Halali and with the contradance groups Phantom Power and Spin.

“The bulk of the music I play could be described as a New England fiddle style,” says Schneckenburger. “But I’ve been influenced by plenty of other traditional music along the way — French Canadian, Scottish, Irish, Cape Breton, old-time and klezmer. I’ve used those influences to create a style that is all my own.”

Schneckenburger, who typically divides her sets about evenly between fiddle tunes and vocal music, will be accompanied at 乐播传媒 by guitarist Ted Davis and bassist Corey DiMario. Boardman, of Auburn, is expected to join his former student on the Olin stage, and members of Wake the Neighbors — a 乐播传媒-based contradance band that Schneckenburger co-founded — may also perform.

“I’m very excited to come back to 乐播传媒. I had my first recital with Greg there,” says Schneckenburger, also a veteran of 乐播传媒’ orchestra and Noonday Concert Series.

“It sounds silly, but the hall feels like an old friend,” she says. “Add to that the fact that many of my old friends will be in the audience, and I can barely wait for this concert to happen.”

The event is open to the public. A donation at the door is requested. For more information, please call 207-786-6135.

An Auburn resident, Boardman has performed in folk venues all over Maine during his 30-year career. His new recording, Divine Waltz, is a collection of tunes he has written over the past several years, performed more or less in a traditional Down East style — “acoustically delivered with a chamber-rock edge,” says Boardman.

Joining him at 乐播传媒 will be several musicians featured on the disc, including Chris Prickitt, banjo; Beth Borgerhoff, accordion and piano; Peter Sturtevant, guitar; Jeff Taylor, bass; and Mike Hansen, percussion. Boardman’s sons Isaac, Ethan and Aidan will also perform, as will fiddler Ellen Gawler. From 乐播传媒, where Boardman is a member of the applied music faculty, participating musicians include seniors Jessie Gagne-Hall, fiddle; Mike Roberts, bass and dobro; and the folk choir Northfield.

Boardman has performed with the Northern Valley Boys, Old Grey Goose, the Ben Guillemette Ensemble and Timbrel. He practices a fiddle style inspired by such musicians as Don Messer, Simon St. Pierre, Otto Soper and Fairport Convention’s Dave Swarbrick, the English folk-rocker who first moved Boardman to swap his electric guitar for a fiddle.

Boardman’s solo recordings include Century Reel, In Came a Fiddler and Chantons, a Franco-American song collaboration with Michael Parent.

As a promoter of traditional fiddle music Boardman founded or co-founded a number of popular fiddling events, including (with the late Shirley Littlefield), Maine鈥檚 longest-running fiddle contest, the East Benton Fiddlers’ Convention.

He has also long been involved in the state’s burgeoning country-dance scene. Boardman teaches strings for the Lewiston School Department as well as for 乐播传媒.

The program includes Mozart’s “Flute Concerto in G Major” with Jeffery Pelletier, a member of the college’s Facility Services staff, as soloist. 乐播传媒 senior Philip Hsu of New York City will perform a violin solo in the first movement of the “Violin Concerto” by Finnish composer Jan Sibelius.

乐播传媒 senior Marian Drake of Granville, Ohio, will sing a cantata by J.S. Bach, with accompaniment of harpsichord, strings and a solo trumpet performance by John Furman, a member of the applied music faculty at 乐播传媒. The program will conclude with “Bon Temps Chez Nous,” a piece featuring fiddle tunes from the Franco-American tradition, commissioned by the Fighting Bobcat Orchestra from Greg Boardman, a fiddler and member of the applied music faculty at 乐播传媒.

The performance, to be conducted by Greg Boardman, is open to the public. Tickets are $5 and can be purchased by calling 207-783-4422 during daytime hours. Matthews’ Double Concerto for solo violin, solo viola and small orchestra, a three-movement work, reflects the heritage of New England and Franco- American fiddling. The piece includes themes based on such well-known fiddle tunes as “Marie’s Wedding” and “Isabeau s’y promene.” Soloists will be violinist Steve Kecskemethy and violist Julia Adams, members of the Portland String Quartet and string instructors at 乐播传媒.

AVCO will also perform “The Light Cavalry Overture” by Von Suppe and “Slavonic Dances” by Dvor鈥.

The Lewiston/Auburn Youth Orchestra (LAYO), under the direction of Charles Kadyk, will perform selections from classical composers.