East Branch Friends of the Arts (EBFA) is proud to present an evening of enchanting music by North Country artists Barb Heller and Gretchen Koehler. Please join us at the Keene Valley Congregational Church on April 5th at 7:00pm to hear some beautiful reels, jigs, and airs by fiddler Gretchen Koehler (TAUNY Heritage Award Recipient) and singer-songwriter and NCPR radio personality Barb Heller.

Barb Heller & Gretchen Koehler

Best known for her role as on-air host for North Country Public Radio in Canton, Barb Heller has been on the radio since 1989 in northern New York, and as a host for Folk Alley.com, an online music service, since 2005. She’s also a guitarist/songwriter with five albums to her credit, and has taught hundreds of teens and adults how to play fingerstyle guitar. Workshops, family sing-alongs, and campfire entertaining are all part of her repertoire. Heller's songs are often about people and life in the north country, with universal appeal to audiences of all ages.

Growing up in the heart of New England, fiddler Gretchen Koehler has an atlas of musical styles at her fingertips including Irish, French Canadian and Old Time. As a teen, she was a standout in the US/Canadian contest circuit for which Time Magazine labeled her "astonishingly good." She was inducted into the Fiddlers' Hall of Fame and honored with a Heritage Award from Traditional Arts in Upstate New York [TAUNY]. When not performing, Koehler "passes on the tradition" in Potsdam, NY where her 35+ "Madstop Fiddlers" range from pre-schoolers to great-grandparents. www.gretchenkoehlermusic.com

Together Barb Heller & Gretchen Koehler are a pure delight. Each song, jig, and reel carries a piece of history, a charming story and sense of merriment.