Nic Gareiss and Brittany Haas
Each year, Greater Lansing's international dance phenom Nic Gareiss invites a musical friend or two to develop and then present an original program of music and dance. This year, the musician is the versatile fiddler, Brittney Haas. Annual Ten Pound Fiddle Membership Meeting, 7-7:15pm. All are welcome.
Two leading figures in the new resurgence of folk music and movement join forces for an evening of fiddle, voice, and percussive dance duets.
Brittany Haas (she/her) is widely regarded as one of the most influential fiddlers of her generation. Hailing from Northern California, she immersed herself in string camps as a teen, crafting her distinctive sound under the mentorship of Bruce Molsky and Darol Anger. At fourteen, she hit the road with Anger’s Republic of Strings, and by seventeen, released her self-titled debut album. While earning a degree in Evolutionary Biology at Princeton, Haas joined the groundbreaking band Crooked Still. She has performed on Late Night with David Letterman and Saturday Night Live with Steve Martin’s bluegrass band, and featured on his Grammy-winning album The Crow. Brittany performed and recorded with Bela Fleck, Vince Gill, Abigail Washburn, Tony Trischka, Yonder Mountain String Band, and more. She is the newest member of the Grammy-winning band the Punch Brothers and has toured with the Dave Rawlings Machine. Along with her cellist sister Natalie, she released a much-awaited duo album in 2023: HAAS. Named Americana Music Association’s Instrumentalist of the Year in 2020, Haas continues to inspire the next generation of fiddlers through teaching and performances.
One of Dance Magazine’s “25 to Watch,” Nic Gareiss (he/they) grew up learning percussive dance from Ireland, Canada, and Appalachia surrounded by fiddlers, banjo-players, and balladeers at folk festivals in the Midwest. This mix of instrumental music, song, and movement from rural places has become the heart of Nic’s creative work, influencing his singular style marked by a deep love of clog, flatfoot, and step dance footwork; improvisation; and musical collaboration. Nic has concertized in seventeen countries with many of the luminaries of roots music and folk dance including Yasmin Williams, Bruce Molsky, The Chieftains, Colin Dunne, Darol Anger, The Gloaming, Jake Blount, Ira Bernstein, Liz Carroll, Phil Wiggins, and Sandy Silva. He has performed at London’s Barbican Centre, the Irish National Concert Hall, the Munich Philharmonic, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and at the Cork Opera House for the 75th birthday of composer Steve Reich. Gareiss holds a MA in Ethnochoreology from the University of Limerick and received the 2020 Michigan Heritage Award, the highest state award bestowed on traditional artists. His visual album with banjoist Allison de Groot made NPR’s Best Roots Music of 2022 list and can be experienced exclusively on Bandcamp.
Brittany Haas
Two leading figures in the new resurgence of folk music and movement join forces for an evening of fiddle, voice, and percussive dance duets.
Brittany Haas (she/her) is widely regarded as one of the most influential fiddlers of her generation. Hailing from Northern California, she immersed herself in string camps as a teen, crafting her distinctive sound under the mentorship of Bruce Molsky and Darol Anger. At fourteen, she hit the road with Anger’s Republic of Strings, and by seventeen, released her self-titled debut album. While earning a degree in Evolutionary Biology at Princeton, Haas joined the groundbreaking band Crooked Still. She has performed on Late Night with David Letterman and Saturday Night Live with Steve Martin’s bluegrass band, and featured on his Grammy-winning album The Crow. Brittany performed and recorded with Bela Fleck, Vince Gill, Abigail Washburn, Tony Trischka, Yonder Mountain String Band, and more. She is the newest member of the Grammy-winning band the Punch Brothers and has toured with the Dave Rawlings Machine. Along with her cellist sister Natalie, she released a much-awaited duo album in 2023: HAAS. Named Americana Music Association’s Instrumentalist of the Year in 2020, Haas continues to inspire the next generation of fiddlers through teaching and performances.
One of Dance Magazine’s “25 to Watch,” Nic Gareiss (he/they) grew up learning percussive dance from Ireland, Canada, and Appalachia surrounded by fiddlers, banjo-players, and balladeers at folk festivals in the Midwest. This mix of instrumental music, song, and movement from rural places has become the heart of Nic’s creative work, influencing his singular style marked by a deep love of clog, flatfoot, and step dance footwork; improvisation; and musical collaboration. Nic has concertized in seventeen countries with many of the luminaries of roots music and folk dance including Yasmin Williams, Bruce Molsky, The Chieftains, Colin Dunne, Darol Anger, The Gloaming, Jake Blount, Ira Bernstein, Liz Carroll, Phil Wiggins, and Sandy Silva. He has performed at London’s Barbican Centre, the Irish National Concert Hall, the Munich Philharmonic, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and at the Cork Opera House for the 75th birthday of composer Steve Reich. Gareiss holds a MA in Ethnochoreology from the University of Limerick and received the 2020 Michigan Heritage Award, the highest state award bestowed on traditional artists. His visual album with banjoist Allison de Groot made NPR’s Best Roots Music of 2022 list and can be experienced exclusively on Bandcamp.