Meet our teaching artists
Since 2000, BMCA has been employing local artists to teach our classes and workshops. Supporting the artists in our community has always been, and will always be, one of our core values. Meet some of our incredible instructors below.
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Alison Adams
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Alison Adams is a classically-trained soprano with over a decade of experience teaching students of all ages and musical abilities. She holds a Master of Music in Voice Performance from the Peabody Conservatory and a Bachelor of Music from Guilford College. Alison teaches Music Together® family classes as well as private voice lessons. She believes singing is a birthright and feels honored to help people deepen their connection to their voices and to connect to one another through playful music-making. Alison spent many years teaching and performing in New York City and the Bay Area before returning home to Black Mountain where she lives with her husband and two children.
About
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Who We Are
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Geoff Bird​
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Nat Copeland​
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Nat Copeland got his start playing the fiddle at age seven in the mountain of Julian, CA. He sought and has been fortunate to study under fiddle masters such as Matthew Hartz, Luke Price and Jesse Maw. At sixteen Nat took first place in the advanced-fiddle division of the annual Topanga Banjo and Fiddle Contest, and at seventeen he placed fifth in the Junior Division of the annual National Old Time Fiddlers Contest in Weiser, Idaho. Nat's passion for music remains, and he now studies music in Swannanoa, NC, with focus on bluegrass, old-time, and country styles. When not studying music, Nat teaches violin and loves kindling a passion for music in others.
Charles Freeland​
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Charles Freeland has been our clay studio manager since 2011. Before coming to BMCA, Charles taught art, design, and ceramics courses at a number of colleges and universities. Charles has been coming to Black Mountain since 2001, spending summers in Montreat as an Artist in Residence at the Sally Jones Pottery Studio. Charles received his BA from Austin College and an MFA from the University of North Texas. Along with his managerial duties, Charles teaches classes and workshops.
Cary Fridley​
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Cary holds a master’s degree in Music Education from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and currently resides in Asheville, NC. She continues to perform solo ballads and string band shows with The Cary Fridley Band. Cary teaches guitar, banjo and singing, and leads workshops in old-time music for schools and summer programs. Seven years ago she returned to our TAPS program in Buncombe County after three year teaching at Univ. of Eastern Tenn. Cary was one of our original string instructors for three years prior to that, making it a total of ten years with the Buncombe County TAPS at the Black Mountain Center for the Arts.
Lacy GIll
Lacy Gill is a Michigan native who moved to Asheville in 2021. She began her performance training at the age of seven in musical theater. She quickly fell in love with dance and began training at the pre-professional level at the age of 13 with Hearts in Step Dance Academy. She trained in ballet, pointe, contemporary, modern, jazz, and hip-hop. She went on to get her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance at Wayne State University. At Wayne, she was able to study choreography, performance, pedagogy, Pilates, and African dance in addition to continuing her training in other dance styles. She was also a member of two student dance companies and performed in musical theater productions. After graduation, she moved to Asheville and has been dancing professionally with Asheville Ballet Company since the beginning of its 2022 season.
Maddy Mullany
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Maddy Mullany has been playing and performing traditional fiddle tunes for over 15 years. Originally from Albuquerque, New Mexico, Maddy moved to Asheville to attend Warren Wilson College, where she graduated with a minor in traditional music in 2016. Since then, she has toured playing music for a clogging team in Colombia, and collaborated with ethnic Yi musicians in rural China. Maddy lives in West Asheville and has been teaching fiddle and band classes with JAM since 2018.
SOPHIA MOECKEL
Sophie grew up surrounded by music in the mountains of Virginia. She fell in love with the community aspect of old time music and dance as a Floyd County JAM student and has been playing and teaching ever since. She's taught in JAM programs for the past 8 years, and has also taught private lessons and run youth and adult music camps, workshops, after-school programs, and non-profit music programming of all kinds in Floyd, VA, and beyond. Sophie has a passion for bringing people together around traditional music and dance, and especially loves drawing young people into the tradition. She has a background in Waldorf Education and has taught in classrooms and run farm-based education programs bringing together music and craft traditions and the outdoors. Sophie is currently pursuing Environmental Education and music studies at Warren Wilson College and enjoying the mountains of Western NC. She's had the honor of being mentored by many dedicated and seasoned tradition-bearers and is thrilled to pass along what she's learned to Black Mountain JAM students this year.
Mathilda Potter
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Sue Richards​
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Richards won the American National Scottish Harp Championship four times and sat in with the Chieftains Irish band. She currently teaches and directs the harp program at the Ohio Scottish Arts School at Oberlin and has many recordings and books of arrangements and original tunes to her credit. Richards also plays and tours with Ensemble Galilei, a group of five musicians performing multi-media concerts commissioned by the National Geographic Society and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Travis Stuart​
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Travis Stuart began playing the banjo as a boy in Haywood County North Carolina. He is a respected banjo player and multi-instrumentalist known for his rich style and solid accompaniment. Travis has toured the US and internationally with The Stuart Brothers, Dirk Powell Band, Riley Baugus, the Reeltime Travelers, Martha Scanlan and step dancer Ira Bernstein. Travis learned from old-time masters such Red Wilson, the Smathers Family, and Byard Ray.
Besides being a renowned performer, Travis is also dedicated to teaching old-time music. He has taught the Junior Appalachian Musicians (JAM) program in Haywood County, NC since 2000. Travis has taught at music camps around the country and abroad. He currently teaches Old-Time music with East Tennessee State University’s Bluegrass, Old Time, and Country Music Studies.
Travis has performed on many recordings and films and has recordings with The Stuart Brothers.
Bob Travers​
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Bob Travers is a graduate of the Pratt Institute & an award-winning wildlife artist who teaches in oil, acrylic, pastel, watercolor & more.
Clarke Williams​
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Clarke Williams is a multi-instrumentalist based in Marshall, NC. While comfortable in a variety of styles, he has a strong focus on the musical traditions of Western NC. He has won awards and recognition for his fiddle, banjo and guitar playing at festivals and fiddlers conventions across the Southeast. Clarke has performed nationally and internationally, in bands such as Jenny and the Hog Drovers (with Phil Jamison), the Georgia Horseshoes and the French Broadcasters. Clarke graduated from Warren Wilson College, where he studied traditional music. In teaching, Clarke emphasizes developing musical intuition, active listening skills, and group 'jam' skills.