Strings Without Boundaries and New Directions Cello Festival

These two landmark multi-style bowed string programs are thrilled to invite the community to our concerts and open mic session as well as our bowed string classes in roots and contemporary styles.

Both adult summer programs will run in the Williston Northampton School’s Campus Center from June 27th-30th and will be open to all levels. The youth program will run in the Williston Northampton School’s John Wright Building on Friday afternoon, June 28th and Saturday, June 29th for minors aged 11-18. Registrants can choose between full or partial registration in both cases.

In addition to extraordinary classes in roots and contemporary styles by top players and educators in the field, both programs will offer nightly public concerts from Wednesday evening June 26th to Sunday afternoon, June 30th, and will include an open mic for registrants as well as the community on Thursday, June 27th from 7-8:30PM.

Faculty for Strings Without Boundaries includes multi-style violinist, composer, author, radio producer, and educator, Julie Lyonn Lieberman; Berklee College faculty and member of the Sirius Quartet, Jeremy Harman, … Contemporary Strings guru and author Tracy Silverman, Gypsy Jazz violinist and author Jason Anick, Italian performer and composer, violinist Luca Ciarla, multi-style cellist Melissa Brun, bluegrass fiddler Pattie Kinlaw, rocker Alissa Jackman, and director of the Northampton Fiddle Orchestra, Annika Amstutz. 

Faculty for The New Directions Cello Festival will feature cellist/multi-instrumentalist and composer Raphael Weinroth-Browne, Brazilian choro and jazz explorer Catherine Bent, multi-genre explorer Ken James Kubota, vocalist and improviser/composer Rupert Gillett, and multi-style player Jeremy Harman.

Stamell Stringed Instruments of Amherst and Poughkeepsie will run an on-campus shop during the summer program in the campus center.

 About The Program Artistic Directors and Stamell Stringed Instrument

Multi-style violinist Julie Lyonn Lieberman helped launch Strings Without Boundaries at Duquesne University, Pittsburgh in 2003, where it ran for ten years before she moved it to other locations nationwide across its next 20 seasons, including three seasons online during the Covid shutdown. She is the author of 13 books, 2 National Public Radio series, and over 50 magazine articles on 21st century string education. In addition to her compositions for Off Broadway as well as numerous dance companies, 25+ of her string orchestra scores have been published by Alfred Music as well as Kendor and Carl Fischer and her newest program, Planet Strings Informance, consisting of 19 string orchestra scores launched in early 2024. She has also composed for Off Broadway. Ms. Lieberman has performed and taught throughout the U.S. as well as abroad in folk and jazz clubs, music festivals, school residencies, and off as well as on Broadway. She has been on faculty at many prestigious university and conservatory programs, including Juilliard, The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music, Manhattan School of Music, and The Royal Conservatory of Toronto, to name a few. She is a distinguished D’Addario Orchestral clinician, an NS Design performance artist, and an Eastman Strings Ambassador.

Though she prefers to hinge her reputation on her own creations, she has recorded and performed with famous artists across her career and many of her former students have gone on to tour with Bruce Springstein, Transiberian Orchestra, Daisy Mayhem, Billy Joel, Cyndi Lauper, and Shania Twain, to name a few. https://www.stringswithoutboundaries.com

Multi-style cellist Jeremy Harman took over as Artistic Director for the New Directions Cello Festival when its founder, Chris White, decided to hand over the reins. Massachusetts-based,

Jeremy is the cellist for the NYC-based Sirius Quartet who have brought their original compositions and progressive sound to audiences throughout the U.S., Germany, Switzerland, China, Taiwan, Malaysia and South Africa. He also appears frequently with instrumental chamber music/indie-rock alchemists Cordis, including performances on NPR’s Mountainstage and concerts throughout the U.S.

Harman has shared the stage with an extremely wide range of artists including Quincy Jones, John Williams, Sting, Peter Gabriel, Bobby McFerrin, Lady Gaga, Sir Elton John, Tony Bennett, Mary J Blige, Pinchas Zuckerman, DeVotchKa, Debbie Harry, Bright Eyes, Marc Ribot and Dame Shirley Bassey among others, and has done session and arranging work for countless indie artists in New England and beyond. A passionate educator, Jeremy is an Associate Professor of Cello at the Berklee College of Music in Boston and the creator of the online course Creative Expansion for Cellists, designed to help intermediate and advanced cellists develop their creative and improvisatory skills on the instrument. https://newdirectionscello.org

Stamell Stringed Instruments was established in 1989 and has been dedicated to making, dealing, appraising, and restoring the finest violin family instruments in the world. Their customers are assured by their guarantee for each instrument they restore or sell, as well as their guaranteed trade-back policy. With the goal to provide the best services to customers at fair and reasonable prices, customer satisfaction is paramount. ​

This event is supported in part by D’Addario Orchestral and NS Design.