On April 18, Ken Kolodner, a fiddle and hammered dulcimer virtuoso, and opening act The Boys of County Bucks, playing traditional Celtic music, will perform at the Perkasie Patchwork Coffeehouse in the Perkasie Mennonite Church hall at 4th & Chestnut Streets in Perkasie, PA. Doors open at 7 pm with performances at 7:30. Adults $9, Adults over 65 $7, Students 13 and up $4, 12 & under free. Tasty refreshments for sale. Check out our website www.perkmenno.org for directions or more information, or call 215-723-2010.
Without any formal music background, Ken Kolonder began learning to play the fiddle at age 23 by listening to recordings of bluegrass and American Old-time or Appalachian music. A few years after picking up the fiddle, Ken discovered the hammered dulcimer while in graduate school. Ken’s interest in the two instruments developed into an ever-expanding musical appetite beginning with Celtic music and eventually into music spanning many cultures ranging from South American music to Chinese music.
As a member of the trio Helicon (with Chris Norman and Robin Bullock) and Greenfire (with fiddler Laura Risk) and in solo appearances, Ken has toured extensively throughout North America and Europe and has been featured in nationally broadcast concerts on NPR, German National Radio, The Thistle and Shamrock, the CBC, Performance Today, All Things Considered, and on the Voice of America, as well as countless television and radio broadcasts around the U.S. Ken has been featured at numerous major festivals and performing arts centers in the U.S., was the first American to be featured at the International Hackbrett Festival in Germany and has performed with major symphony orchestras. His appearance as the featured soloist with a combined chorus (The Baltimore Choral Arts) and a chamber orchestra of members of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra was broadcast in an Emmy-nominated CBS-TV Christmas special.
Opening for Ken will be The Boys of County Bucks. They play traditional Celtic music — from Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Canada and the US — on fiddle, guitar, banjo, whistles, bodhrán, as well as songs of the auld sod in tight vocal harmonies.
A portion of the proceeds from this concert will go to Pennridge FISH (Fellowship in Serving Humanity), a local a non-profit food pantry created to serve the needs of the low income families in the Pennridge School District. Patchwork Coffeehouse is a collection point for FISH, at any concert you can drop off non-perishable foods for the food pantry.
Upcoming Perkasie Patchwork Coffeehouse shows:
May 16 – Kim & Reggie Harris + Chip Mergott & Annie Bauerlein,
October 17 – Gordon Bok,
November 21 – Charlie Zahm & Tad Marks + Unsafe At Any Speed
The opinions expressed in articles posted on Mosaic’s website are those of the author and may not reflect the official policy of Mosaic Conference. Mosaic is a large conference, crossing ethnicities, geographies, generations, theologies, and politics. Each person can only speak for themselves; no one can represent “the conference.” May God give us the grace to hear what the Spirit is speaking to us through people with whom we disagree and the humility and courage to love one another even when those disagreements can’t be bridged.