Special Guests
From left: Jeff Hiner, Howard Burns, Jon Ozment, Jay Moody
Howard Burns Quartet
Guest Artists for Sunday, August 11
Howard Burns is a composer, saxophonist and educator for more than 39 years. Howard is a native of Baltimore, Maryland and lives in Hagerstown, Maryland. Howard received his Bachelor degree from Howard University in 1979 and received a performance degree from the Royal Conservatory of Music in 1980 in Brussels, Belgium in classical saxophone. Howard has studied saxophone with Thomas (Whit) Williams and George Coleman. Howard has had the opportunity to perform with various artists such as Jimmy Heath, Jimmy Cobb, Clark Terry, Frank Foster, Jon Faddis, Gary Bartz, and Dr. Eddie Henderson and many more. Howard is a frequent performer in the Maryland, D.C., West Virginia, and Virginia area. Howard has been the Jazz Band Director at Frederick Community College for 30 years. Howard is the Director of the Don Redman Next Generation Jazz Academy for the last 19 years at Harpers Ferry National Historical Park.
Jeff Hiner plays double bass, electric bass and tuba. He is a music educator with Carroll County public school system and teaches private lessons and coffees music in Westminster, Md. He has been performing jazz, blues and rock in the local area for many years. He has been a member of the Howard Burns quartet for over 20 years.
In his career as a sideman Jeff has performed and/or recorded with some of the musicians in the world such as Billy Harper, Cecil McBee, Eddie Gomez, Curtis Fuller, Buster Cooper, Frank Wess, Sonny Cohen, Vince Predauta, Michael Raitzyk, Lou Donalson, Clark Terry, Joe Wilder, Larry Willis, Howard Burns and many more
Jesse “Jay” Moody, III was born in Baltimore, Maryland. At an early age he developed an interest in music and began playing the drums at age nine. Jay Moody studied music at Towson University.
Jay has performed for two US Presidents, Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama. He has recorded on many albums including his own album, Notes from the Family in 2017. Jay has received many awards and in 2014 was recognized for his contributions in music by the House of Representatives, State of MD, and Baltimore City.
Jay has mentored drum students at Morgan State University, Essex and Frederick Community Colleges.
Jay has performed with Dionne Warwick, Eddie Levert, Cyrus Chestnutt, Benito Gonzalez, and many others. He has performed on local TV show, including a role in the Barry Levinson movie, Avalon.
Jay is currently a drum instructor at the Baltimore School for the Arts, a performing arts high school in Baltimore.
Pianist Jon Ozment is a performer, instructor, composer and arranger. He has a Master's Degree in Jazz Studies from the University of Maryland, College Park, and also pursued private study with Paul Bley. Jon has appeared on numerous recordings, has performed in concerts with Jon Faddis, Bobby Hutcherson, Al Jarreau, Nneena Freelon, Frank Foster, Clark Terry, Frank Wess, Chuck Brown, Curtis Fuller, John Handy, and Larry Ridley, and has toured nationally with Marlena Shaw, Miki Howard, Rain Pryor, Kim Waters, and the Blackbyrds. Throughout 1997-1999 Jon toured the States and Europe with saxophonist Maceo Parker; he also performed and recorded for 20 years with local sax legend Roger Buck Hill. Jon is currently Adjunct Professor of Jazz Piano at the University of Maryland in College Park and at the American University.
Previous Special Guests
Earl White
Earl White String Band, Festival Finale 2023
Fiddling Earl White has been a mainstay in the old time, folk and dance community for more than 45 years. An original and founding member of the famed Green Grass Cloggers, Earl is one of few Black Americans preserving and playing Appalachian style old time music. Oldtime music was once an intricate part of Black communities and formed the foundation of American music of today. Earl White is well known for his extensive repertoire of tunes, and his heartfelt, syncopated, driving style. He has played in numerous old time string bands, and he currently leads the "Earl White String Band”. The Earl White String Band has emerged as a favored dance band for both square and contra dances. The band performs at festivals and instructional music camps throughout the US and abroad.
Earl White String Band includes Earl White, Adrienne White, and Jason Dilg
Nancy Cook
Guest Speaker, Festival Finale 2023
Nancy Cook is a writer and teaching artist from St. Paul. She serves as flash fiction editor for Kallisto Gaia Press and is a regional vice-president for the League of Minnesota Poets. She founded and directs “The Witness Project,” a program of writing workshops and community-engaged initiatives in Minneapolis designed to enable creative work by underrepresented voices. In the fall of 2022, Cook served as artist-in-residence at Harpers Ferry National Historic Park. Previous residencies include Artsland, County Tyrone, in Northern Ireland, Gettysburg National Historic Park, Kingsbrae Gardens in New Brunswick, Canada, and the former Fergus Falls State Hospital in western Minnesota. Twice nominated for a Pushcart Prize, Cook has been awarded grants from, among others, the Minnesota State Arts Board, the National Parks Arts Foundation, the Mayo Clinic, Minnesota Humanities Center, and Integrity Arts and Culture. In 2020, she received a Featured Writer Award from Alternating Currents Press for works of historically-based fiction and poetry. She is particularly interested in exploring the intersections of geography, history, and cultural heritage in her work.
Appearance sponsored in part by the National Park Service's Harpers Ferry Historical National Park
H. Rosi Song, Ph.D.
Guest Speaker, Lost in Plain Sight, 2022 & 2023
H. Rosi Song specializes in the literature, intellectual history, and culture of contemporary Spain. She is the author of Lost in Transition: Constructing Memory in Contemporary Spain (Liverpool UP, 2016), and the co-editor ofTraces of Contamination: Unearthing the Francoist Legacy in Contemporary Spanish Discourse (Bucknell UP, 2004) and of Towards a Cultural Archive of la Movida (Farleigh Dickinson UP, 2013). Her articles have appeared in Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies, MLN, Revista de Estudios Hispánicos, Romance Notes, Hispamérica, Revista Iberoamericana, Hispania, among others. She teaches courses on modern and contemporary Spanish narrative and culture, detective fiction, and film.
Engagement sponsored In conjunction with an IMPACT grant awarded by Durham University (England)