Ed Kavanagh • harper
Ed Kavanagh originally from Kilbride, Newfoundland has worked as a writer, actor, musician, theatre director, university lecturer, and editor. His stories, essays, dramatic scripts, and poetry have earned 14 awards in the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts and Letters Competition. Ed has taught creative writing through the extension services of both Memorial University and the University of New Brunswick.

In addition to the Amanda Greenleaf series of children’s books, Ed has published The Cat’s Meow: The ’Longside Players Selected Plays, 1984-1989 (co-author and editor), and released a cassette tape of his children’s songs: Alison Gross and Other Wickedly Wonderful Songs. His first adult novel, The Confessions of Nipper Mooney, was published in 2001. It won the Newfoundland and Labrador Book Award for Fiction, was a finalist for the Winterset Award, and was also nominated for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. Ed’s most recent book is Amanda Greenleaf: The Complete Adventures, which was shortlisted for the 2006 Newfoundland and Labrador Book Award for Children’s Literature. In 2004 Ed released the best-selling CD Weaving the Wind: Music from Newfoundland Performed on Celtic Harp.

Since the publication of his first book in 1986, Ed has travelled widely, visiting many schools and libraries. As a musician and writer, he adds variety to his visits with musical selections on guitar and Celtic harp. He has performed extensively throughout Newfoundland and Labrador as well as in Nova Scotia, Ontario, New Brunswick, Ireland and New Zealand.

August 19

Carol-Ann Lyver • storyteller, singer
Carol-Ann Lyver has heard many stories from her late mother Mary Power. For tonight’s concert, Carol-Ann has prepared some of her mother’s stories her mother used to tell. The picture shows her at the Interpretation Centre at Cape St. Mary’s in 2002 with her mother.

Lorna English • singer
Lorna loves to sing. Born and raised in Branch, Lorna English comes from a family of 14 children. Her parents were singers. Her father was one of the best step dancers in the community,
but she was the only of her siblings that could sing like her parents, and who always encouraged her to sing when she was a child. Lorna always enjoyed performing locally in concerts, which she does to this day. She is married, has a 19 year old daughter, and a 12 year old son Jesse is a member of the Branch Accordion Group. She will be accompanied by singer/songwriter Joy Norman.

Joy Norman • singer
At only 21 years of age, St. Bride’s native Joy Norman has earned a solid reputation with fans, media, and the music industry for her powerful voice. In 2001, she worked with some of Canada’s greatest musicians and multi award winning producer Paul Mills on her debut album “Lately”. When released it garnered high praise from critics and media both here and abroad. Joy and “Lately” received four Music NL nominations that year.

Joy has opened shows for a number of high profile acts and has toured the province and parts of Atlantic Canada. Among her favourite festivals she appeared at are the Atlantic Scene Festival in Ottawa, the Stan Rogers Folk Festival in Canso, Nova Scotia and closer to home, the Newfoundland and Labrador Folk Festival. She has been part of the Music Newfoundland and Labrador Songwriters Circle, and the performed at George St. Festival in St. John’s.

Joy has been featured in a Discovery Channel documentary and has can be heard on a number of compilation CDs including ‘Homebrew 3’, ‘Valley Voices’. She was the only Newfoundland artist to appear alongside of the Rankin Family, Natalie MacMaster, and Rita MacNeil on Atlantic Heart: Maritime Women in Song. In July 2006, Joy released her second album 'Field of Diamonds'. Field of Diamonds is available in all fine music stores across Newfoundland and Labrador.

Delf Maria Hohmann • musician
Delf Maria Hohmann is a singer and musician who performs frequently on both sides of the Atlantic. He plays guitar, banjo and dulcimer and sings a mixture of contemporary and traditional folk music in English, French, Yiddish and German. He has performed across Canada including the Mariposa Folk Festival and the Home Country Folk Festival in London, Ontario. From 1981 to 1985 he promoted environmental causes with Clearwater on the Hudson River and performed with Pete Seeger at Carnegie Hall in New York and Massey Hall in Toronto.

Since 1999, he coordinates the Cape St. Mary's Performance Series and is International Coordinator of Sound Symposium. He collaborates with St. John's storyteller Dale Jarvis in the theatre productions of “Under the Juniper Tree - Stories & Songs from the Brothers Grimm Collection”, and “The Devil Made Me Do It - Stories and Songs about the Man in Black” which brought them to the Yukon International Storytelling Festival in Whitehorse in 2002 and 2004. With The Cape St. Mary's All-Stars he plays folk music from around the world, he has created soundtracks for Visual Artist Christopher Newhook's slideshows. He is the composer of several Harbour Symphonies, Music for Ships' Horns. Delf Maria Hohmann lives in St. John’s, Newfoundland, where, aside from being a musician, works as a freelance translator, radio author and lecturer.

Christopher was the winner chosen to design the commemorative Newfoundland 25 cent piece for Canada’s 125th Anniversary coin series. As a trained graphic artist and photographer he works in the field of publishing, fine art consulting, and set design. Christopher moves with ease from the easel to camera and computer, blending the qualities of each medium to create unique perceptions of his favourite subject: the Natural History of the Cape Shore, with a special fondness of Cape St. Mary's Ecological Reserve. He delivers lectures and slide presentations to local schools and community centres with the focussing on art as an important form of expression. He has been appointed to several positions on art critique boards. You can contact Christopher at his studio in Placentia, Newfoundland, Canada.

September 2

Branch Accordion Group • musicians
The Branch Accordion Group is a recent addition in an emerging interest in the traditional arts in Branch, a small community on the Avalon Peninsula in Newfoundland. Brent Power, 11 years old, Jamie Mooney and Jesse English both 12 years old, took up playing the accordion after their teacher David Welshman offered accordion lessons at their school Fatima Academy in St. Brides. The boys were thrilled and signed up for the lessons. There hasn’t been a day yet, when Brent, Jamie and Jessie haven’t picked up their instruments to play. Brent Power is also a skilled step dancer. He has learned his skills from Mr John Hennessey of Branch. Due to popular demand they have returned to the Cape St. Mary’s Performance Series this year.

Gerald Campbell • singer
Gerald Campbell was born in Branch, St. Mary’s Bay. He has been living in Branch most his life. He went away to work when he was younger.

Gerald learned a lot of his songs from his parents. He also learned the songs he had heard at Garden parties, and during the Christmas season when there were parties every night at almost every house in the community.

Gerald favours songs with a story, despite that some of them are fairly long, he never wrote them down, but listened carefully to learn them, especially when they were carried on a nice tune. From the time when he was working for the railroad, Gerald he remembers Albert Roche a fellow from Branch singing The Shores of Twin Lakes which he picked up from him listening to him sing.

Gerald was invited to Mariposa Folk Festival twice. He went along with Mary and Anthony Power, Pat and Joe Byrne, and the Wareham brothers. This also where he met fellow Newfoundlander Rufus Guinchard, who prompted him to sing The Sweet Forget me not a song Gerald knew from the singing of his mother since he was young. It is still one of his favourites. It has been recorded by Eddie Coffey, and others, among them famed Irish singer Dolores Keane, who learned it from a recording made by Aidan O’Hara from Gerald Campbell’s singing of the song.

In 2005 Gerald Campbell was received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the St. John's Folk Arts Council.

Andrea Monro • songwriter
A resident of St. John's, Newfoundland, Andrea has been performing locally or five years. As a singe /songwriter she has shared the stage with such great Canadian performers as Penny Lang and Ron Hynes, as well as guesting two years in a row on CBC's singer/songwriter concert series. Andrea also showcased in the Roots Room venue during the 2002 Juno Awards. In 2004 she began performing with the bluegrass band Five for Silver, with whom she continues to sing and play banjo and guitar. Andrea has performed with them at the St. John's Folk Festival, The Mount Pearl Bluegrass Festival, and other many local concerts and venues.

Andrea’s songs have gained much critical acclaim in recent months. They have won her studio time in Toronto with multi award winning producer Justin Grey and have been chosen as one of the ten final songs in the provincial leg of the National Songwriting Competition. Andrea's newest project The Andrea Monro Band remains true to her love of country and bluegrass music, adding the heart and soul of her original material. Since its birth in February 2006, the band has appeared on Rogers Television's Out of the Fog, and has performed several live shows to much audience acclaim. Band members Peter Mcguire (harmonica), John Clarke (dobro), and Grant Curle (double bass), are all top notch musicians in their own right and add their refined musical talents to the carefully crafted songs, making the band's performances memorable, exciting and leaving the listener wanting more. Currently Andrea is beginning work on her first full-length recording, which she hopes to have completed by fall 2006. Andrea will appear solo at Cape St. Mary’s.

The Black Swanns • musicians
The Black Swanns (with two ns!) came together in 2006 to perform at a concert to honour the memory of Steve Woodcock, who died suddenly in December of 2005. Steve built and repaired musical instruments and was an integral part of our musical community here in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Alison Black is the concert master of the Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra and plays first violin with the Atlantic String Quartet. Cellist Francesca Swann is the host/producer of CBC Radio's "Musicraft" and plays with local bands Tickle Harbour and The Pickett Line.

Members of the Black Swanns have also discovered their namesake at the local liquor store in the form of a range of South Eastern Australian wines called "Black Swan" (with only one n), and rehearsals are often accompanied by the tasty peppery hints of a robust Shiraz.