A singer and fiddler familiar to ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ 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 ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ music faculty and a pillar of Maine’s folk music community who brought his young protégé 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 ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ 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 ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½-based contradance band that Schneckenburger co-founded — may also perform.

“I’m very excited to come back to ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½. I had my first recital with Greg there,” says Schneckenburger, also a veteran of ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½’ 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 contradance band Wake the Neighbors.

Folk music players and fans from around the region will converge in Lewiston on Friday evening and Saturday, Sept. 12-13, for the first annual Old Time Fiddle Festival. Featuring respected musicians from Maine, New Hampshire, Nova Scotia and Ireland, the festival’s workshops, mini-concerts and a contradance will be held on campus, while a Saturday evening concert by the band Beòlach takes place at nearby Lewiston Middle School.

Schedule information appears below. Admission to the full festival costs $15 for the general public and $10 for seniors and students. Entry to only Friday evening’s contradance is $6 and $3, and Saturday evening’s Beòlach concert costs $10 for all. For tickets and additional information, please call (207) 563-8953 or e-mail.

In addition to Beòlach, a young Celtic band rooted in the same Cape Breton scene that produced fiddle star Natalie MacMaster, festival participants include fiddlers Tommy Peoples, from Ireland, and Nat Hewitt, an eclectic player from New Hampshire. Musicians familiar from Maine’s folk-dance scene include pianist-accordionist Doug Protsik and local favorites Wake the Neighbors, who will be joined by caller John McIntyre at the contradance.

In addition to fiddle, the 19 festival workshops and concerts explore piano, accordion, banjo, mandolin, pipes, guitar, pocket instruments such as spoons and harmonica, and even step-dancing.

Sponsored by the college’s Freewill Folk Society, the festival has been organized by two students from Maine as a “celebration of North American traditional music,” explains Aaron Putnam, a senior from Mapleton. His co-organizer is junior Julia Plumb, of Nobleboro.

Putnam says, “American music is so incredible because it is a conglomeration of so many different styles from everywhere throughout the world. The festival celebrates this diversity in the music that we love and that brings us all together to dance and jam and have a great time.”

The festival begins with the contradance at 8:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 12, in Chase Hall Lounge, 56 Campus Ave. It continues from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday with workshops and concerts in the Olin Arts Center, 75 Russell Street. Finally, the Beòlach concert is slated for 7 p.m. at Lewiston Middle School, 75 Central Avenue.

Beòlach takes its name from a Gaelic word for “lively youth.” The six-member band plays Cape Breton, Scottish and Irish tunes on two fiddles, piano, pipes and whistles, drums and guitar; step-dancing, too, is part of its energetic show. Emerging from an impromptu session at a festival in 1998, the band has performed in North America and Europe, and released its eponymous first album in 2001.

The student-run Freewill Folk Society strives to promote awareness of the traditional folk arts through a variety of events, including monthly contradances with Wake the Neighbors.

The members of Wake the Neighbors are Edward Howe, who plays fiddle; Jim DiCarlo, Irish flute and whistles; John Côté, guitar, foot percussion and lead vocals; and Anthony Shostak, uilleann pipes, clawed banjo and didgeridoo. To this mix the band often adds hypnotic percussion and chanting.

Wake the Neighbors’ sound is rooted in Celtic music but the group adds strong seasoning from other traditions and also performs original compositions. Its approach is distinguished by precise ensemble work, bold instrumental colorings and infectious energy.

“Our music has been described by fans as ‘straight-up Celtic trance-dance,’ ” says Shostak. “We worked on the CD for a long time to capture the energy of our live performances. We are very proud of it.”

The band was founded in 1996, launching the career of respected fiddler Lissa Schneckenburger. Since then it has been in demand across northern New England, traveling to Vermont, New Hampshire and Massachusetts for festivals, dances and radio performances.

During the academic year, Wake the Neighbors performs at a monthly first-Friday contradance at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College. “Everywhere we’ve been, people have begged for us to make a CD. Now we have, and we want to celebrate its release with our home crowd,” says Côté.

Featuring more than an hour of music and priced at $15, the quartet’s self-titled CD will be for sale at the concert and through the Web site .

Wake the Neighbors, specializing in contemporary and traditional Irish, Scottish, French-Canadian and New England dance music, features Ed Howe on fiddle, John Cote on mandolin, guitar and feet, Anthony Shostak on banjo, bodhran and didjeridoo, and Lissa Schneckenburger on fiddle.

A Litchfield resident, 18-year-old Lissa Schneckenburger is a champion fiddler, taking top awards at the Commonground Fair, Maine Festival and East Benton contests. She has played the fiddle from the age of six, much of that time under the tutelage of noted string teacher Greg Boardman of Auburn.

In recent years, Schneckenburger has studied with such national musicians as fiddler Jay Ungar, Scottish fiddler master Alasdaire Fraser and jazz artist Matt Glazer. She will begin classes in the fall as a music performance major at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston.

Often invited to perform at contradances throughout Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts, Schneckenburger joined with three musical colleagues last year to form the band Wake the Neighbors. The group, scheduled to appear the Lewiston’s upcoming Festival de Joie, has appeared at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½, the Norland Living History Center, the Portland New Year’s festivities and the opening of the renovated Merrill Auditorium at Portland City Hall.

Joining Schneckenburger on stage for the July 26 concert will be band members John Cote on guitar and mandolin and Anthony Shostak on banjo. Cote performs on Schneckenburger’s new recording, The Mad Hatter.

The program includes many selections from the new recording, including Irish, Scottish and French Canadian jigs and reels as well as some original tunes. For more information, call 207-782-0386 or 207-268-4013.