Her songs display “the come-hither sultriness of her slinky, earthy vocals.” (Performing Songwriter) Natalia Zukerman has a sound that’s strong yet delicate, gentle yet insistent. You can call the music she makes folk if you want, but there’s jazz in it, too, and blues, and a soulful something or other that you can’t quite put into words. Whether onstage or on record, she presents herself just as she is—no gimmicks, no flashy pyrotechnics, only the solid musicianship of someone who knows and loves her craft. The daughter of violinist/conductor Pinchas Zukerman and flutist/writer Eugenia Zukerman, Natalia grew up in Manhattan immersed in classical music. Performing live—and experiencing what she calls the life of a “wandering gypsy”—seems to be a family tradition: her sister Arianna is an opera singer, and her paternal grandfather played clarinet in klezmer bands in Poland and later Israel. But after receiving the requisite training early on, Natalia realized her first instrument—the violin—was not taking her where she really wanted to go. “I couldn’t match what I heard (in my ears), physically,” she recalls. “The sound I produced drove me out of my mind.” Nor did she feel at home in the world of classical concerts and recitals: “I didn’t like getting dressed up and sitting in silence, rehearsing and playing the same piece the same way, over and over again,” she says. There were glimpses now and then of an alternative. “My parents used to go to the Aspen Music Festival in the summer when I was very young. One day I saw the classical violinist Nigel Kennedy playing fiddle in a bluegrass band, and heard banjos for the first time…” Zukerman laughs as she thinks back on that “aha” moment, joking that “I felt like I’d been lied to!” Once her eyes opened to the folk scene, everything began to change. She turned her attention to the guitar—beginning with classical lessons—and began writing songs of her own after graduating from college. The lyrics she came up with—which have often been hailed for their imagery and intelligence—are intensely personal, without the self-obsessed confessional tone of what she nicknames “diary rock.” And her love for the guitar has led her to explore more and more varieties and offshoots of the instrument: electric, acoustic, slide, lap steel, even the banjo and a brief foray into traditional Indian technique. “Nimble fingers capable of picking upward of thirty notes per measure,” says a music writer for the New Yorker, offering further praise that “when she sings she can switch from scat to swoon in the course of a glissando." Her debut recording, Mortal Child (2001), provided an early glimpse at her talents. Things really fell into place on her second album, On a Clear Day (2003), which showcased her evolution as a guitarist. For that one, Zukerman gathered a veritable Who’s Who of respected players from the acoustic music community to join her in the studio, including percussionist Allison Miller (Natalie Merchant), multi-instrumentalist Julie Wolf (Ani DiFranco, Dar Williams), and bassist Jason Kriveloff (Topaz, Tortured Soul), among others. One listen to the instrumentation on the recording—with its touches of cello, banjo, flugelhorn, accordion, and flute—and you can tell Zukerman knows exactly how to create richly textured, atmospheric settings for her intimate songs. 2006 brings a third album, Only One, and a very different approach. “People have been asking if I have a recording that’s more representative of what I do live,” she says. Those requests, along with her desire to create an intimate, unpolished, and almost-live sound, inspired her to record at home, creating an album on which she plays the songs as written: for guitar, for Dobro, and for her voice. As for those live shows, they’ve been growing more and more frequent as word of Natalia has traveled along the acoustic circuit. She’s equally at home before an intimate audience of a hundred or an audience of two, or in front of the thousands at gatherings like Telluride, the Rocky Mountain Folk Festival, and Ottawa Folk Fest. Recent tours as the guitarist for Andy Friedman’s group, Andy Friedman and The Other Failures, as well as sharing the stage numerous times with Melissa Ferrick, have won her countless new fans as well. When she’s not playing music, Zukerman can be found running her own label, Talisman Records, or painting bigger-than-life murals commissioned for public or private spaces. Onstage, however, is where she’s most at home. As Friedman notes, “Her bright vocals can send an orchid into bloom, while her delta-slide guitar can open a beer bottle with its teeth.” One thing’s for certain: this girl can play.

VISIT OUR ART STUDIO CATALOG:http://singingstring.org/EESCatalog.html

*** ELEMENTAL ESSCENTIALS OF SALEM --

Pagan and Historically-Inspired

Energized and Blessed Incense and Herbs

Handcrafted Altar and Home Accessories

Music and More!

*** MAGGI'S MISSIVES (CARDS AND STATIONERY) (catalog under construction 12/06)

*****

Maggi Smith-Dalton has sung as a soloist with choirs and choruses both here and abroad, acted and sung in professional theater productions and participated/performed in radio and television projects and programs. She is a frequent guest lecturer -- on the integration of humanities and the arts, on folklore, and on American music and history, to name a few topics.

In addition to an active performing career, she authored a prize-winning short story and writes often for newspapers and magazines. Maggi produced a cable TV series and programmed and hosted musical theater, arts interview, and classical music shows for community and NPR public radio stations. She currently writes an arts and cultural/heritage history column ("Naumkeag Notations")for the Salem Gazette in Salem, Massachusetts.

A former Chairperson of the Haverhill Cultural Council, Maggi served as Musical Theater Director at Hill House (a community Arts Center) in Boston's Beacon Hill; as Director of "Adventures in Art,"a summer arts program; and as a director of children's choirs, among other activities. She now works with children on producing original musical theater works under the auspices of her own production company.

Current cultural and visual art interests/activities include: Calligraphy, (professional) cartooning, painting, philosophy, comparative religion and spirituality, folklore/mythology, media and cultural studies, rare book collecting, jewelry-making,

With a background in teaching multiply-handicapped children, Maggi continues interest in and study of music therapy. She is currently co-authoring a book on historical ritual music with her husband; is working on a children's book; and is always working on cultural-and-heritage-tourism writing projects.

Visit our studio page at http://singingstring.org/JD

Visit our BLOG at http://singingstring.blogspot.com/ ***** Would you like to learn to play guitar, mandolin, mandocello, banjo, Renaissance lute, bouzouki...or other instruments? About the Artists Jim and Maggi Dalton perform music of popular/vernacular, folk and cultivated traditions, covering time periods from the Middle Ages to the present, focusing largely on American, Celtic and British Isles repertoire. They specialize in music of the 19th and 20th centuries. Instrumentation: mostly plucked strings and voices. Concerts and programs contain commentary designed to place the music performed in historical context for the audience. Programs reflect the continual and ongoing research in which the two delight. They also perform original songs and compositions. Jim and Maggi have released two recordings to date, and have designed a full spectrum of programs which they present nationwide. They have been featured often on radio and television.(PBS,ABC,NBC, CBS affiliates, Cable Networks; NPR stations,NewsRadio, interview programs across the USA; feature stories in newspapers and magazines, i.e., The Philadelphia Inquirer & Courier-Post) They have performed at nationally-known venues (i.e., Colonial Williamsburg, Seneca Falls, the Harriet Beecher Stowe House) and countless local and regional venues nationwide. They have served as artists-in-residence at various colleges, public history sites, community and educational centers, presenting series addressing American history and other topics in the humanities, using music as the core of each session. Previous audiences and sponsors have said: "engaging, scholarly, delightful, warm, intelligent, flexible, humorous, talented, versatile, enthusiastic, personable, joyful ..." “Simply put, Jim and Maggi Dalton are a national treasure.” Multi-instrumentalist Jim Dalton is an educator, conductor and award-winning composer and arranger. As a performer, he specializes in historical and ethnic playing styles on a variety of plucked string instruments including guitar, Renaissance lute, mandolin, banjo, mandocello, bouzouki etc. He also plays piano, organ, recorder and tin whistle. His compositions have been performed across the U.S. and Canada and in Europe. His choral composition, “The Rocky Road to Dublin,” won first prize in the 1997 Toronto Camerata Competition. Two of his pieces for carillon have been published in anthologies by Fenwick Parva and the Friends of the Albany Carillon. Jim teaches in the Music Theory and Composition Department of The Boston Conservatory and is Director of Music at North Parish (UU) of North Andover, Mass. He also maintains a private teaching studio in North Andover. He has written articles for Blues Revue magazine and is the author of Mandolin for Beginners, published by Workshop Arts, Inc./Alfred Publishing. He is a frequent guest lecturer on topics such as composition, choral arranging and Irish traditional music. Maggi Smith-Dalton has sung as a soloist with choirs and choruses both here and abroad, acted and sung in professional theater productions and participated/performed in radio and television projects and programs. She is a frequent guest lecturer -- on the integration of humanities and the arts, on folklore, and on American music and history, to name a few topics. In addition to an active performing career, she authored a prize-winning short story and writes often for newspapers and magazines. Maggi produced a cable TV series and programmed and hosted musical theater, arts interview, and classical music shows for community and NPR public radio stations. A former Chairperson of the Haverhill Cultural Council, Maggi served as Musical Theater Director at Hill House (a community Arts Center) in Boston's Beacon Hill; as Director of "Adventures in Art,"a summer arts program; and as a director of children's choirs, among other activities. She now works with children on producing original musical theater works under the auspices of her own production company. With a background in teaching multiply-handicapped children, Maggi continues interest in and study of music therapy. She is currently co-authoring a book on historical ritual music with her husband; a children's book; and is always working on cultural-and-heritage-tourism writing projects. Singing String Music Studio

Bio Compositions Instrument pages Jim and Maggi Dalton (Singing String Music) Studio/Lessons Music Theory Other activities and interests World Music What's New Links   Other Links of Interest Member, Salem (MA) Chamber of Commerce *** Singing String Music (Jim and Maggi Dalton) Institute for Music, History, & Cultural Traditions (IMHCT) Back issues of The Singing String News Cultural Resources/Other Sites of Interest

SINGING STRING MUSIC studio in SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS Jim & Maggi Dalton, Co-Owners, Instructors serving the North Shore & Boston Mailing address: 203 Washington St. #263 Salem MA 01970 phone: 978-744-4833 LESSONS ON / IN GUITAR MANDOLIN BANJO BOUZOUKI MANDOCELLO TIN WHISTLE UKE THEORY EAR TRAINING IMPROVISATION COMPOSITION Primary Instructor: Jim Dalton Associate Instructor: Maggi Smith-Dalton As a performer, Jim specializes in historical and ethnic playing styles on a variety of plucked string instruments. Students may take lessons which focus on one or more of these styles, or lessons of a more general nature. Together, Maggi and Jim Dalton have performed throughout the USA, in concert programs, artistic residencies, and as performer/educators. See their main site: Singing String Music: Performance, Production, and Publishing for more information.

Jim is on the faculty of The Boston Conservatory, teaching music theory, ear training and world music courses for both the Music Theory and Music Education Departments. His background includes teaching positions at: University of Idaho Lionel Hampton School of Music (ID) Merrimack College (MA) Fitchburg State (MA) Philadelphia College (PA) Georgian Court College (NJ) Cumberland County College (NJ) Indian Hill Music (MA) Hill House Community Music Academy (MA) and numerous community music schools over the past two decades. He has taught for the National Guitar Workshop, and is currently on the faculty of the Cape Cod Festival of Mandolins. He has written articles for Blues Revue Magazine and is the author of Mandolin for Beginners, published by Workshop Arts, Inc./Alfred Publishing. Recent Music Theory Research: In 2004-2005 Jim received a MACRO research grant (Univ. of Wisconsin) to study and analyze palindromic compositions in the concert music repertoire and presented this work at the 2005 Macro Musician's Workshop in Madison WI. Jim Dalton plays and endorses the Phoenix Neoclassical Mandolin

About the Artists--Downloadable PDF form Programs--Downloadable PDF form