Community Advisory Group
Tim Borlase currently resides in Moncton where he is Co-Ordinator of the Capitol School of the Performing Arts. He received the order of Newfoundland and Labrador in 2005 and an Honorary Doctorate from Memorial University for life long contribution to the arts in 2001. He has served as the Executive Director of the Labrador Institute and in 1993, he compiled Songs of Labrador the only anthology, to date, of songs from Labrador.
Jean Hewson is a prominent guitarist in St. John's and a past president of
the St. John's Folk Arts Council. She and Christina Smith tour extensively as an award-winning duo and have recently released their second CD, titled August Gale.
Anna Kearney Guigné is a folklorist and received her Ph.D with distinction from Memorial University of Newfoundland in 2004. She is a fellow of Memorial's School of Graduate Studies and an Adjunct Professor at Memorial’s School of Music. Kearney Guigné is the author of Folksongs and Folk Revival: The Cultural Politics of Kenneth Peacock's Songs of the Newfoundland Outports (2008). Her research interests include Newfoundland folklore and cultural heritage, folk revivals, biography, music and politics, collection acquisition and practices, folksong, fiddle music, contemporary legend, and material culture including ship building and heritage gardens.
Doreen Klassen is a professor of Folklore and Anthropology at Grenfell Campus in Corner Brook, Newfoundland. She compiled the important anthology, Singing Mennonite: Low German Songs Among the Mennonites, and has subsequently studied various aspects of contemporary Mennonite culture and West African story telling.
Ruth (Banfield) Matthews was born in Burgeo on Christmas Day in 1932. Traditional games and dancing were part of her lifestyle in an isolated community. After marrying and moving to the Burin Peninsula in 1953, she was a founding member of the Burin Folk Arts Council (est. 1976 to preserve the cultural heritage of the region). In 1981, as a project of BFAC, she organized the Penney Folk Dancers and three years later began a lengthy tenure as organizer and program chair of the Burin Peninsula Festival of Folk Song and Dance. In 2002, Ruth Matthews was the first recipient of the St. John's Folk Arts Council's Lifetime Achievement Award.
Jim Payne is a multi-instrumentalist, actor, writer, and producer originally from Notre Dame Bay, Newfoundland. He is a prolific songwriter and owns his own recording label, SingSong Inc. specializing in traditional Newfoundland music. He tours extensively throughout Canada, the US, Europe, Japan and Australia.
Stan Pickett, originally from Fair Island, Newfoundland, is a prominent button accordion player and member of the Auntie Crae Band in St. John's. In a former life, he was a secondary school teacher of English and Mathematics. He is preparing to release a CD of music from Fair Island.
Eric West is a musician, composer, teacher and publisher. Following studies at Carleton University and the Banff School of Fine Arts, he returned to Newfoundland where he established Vinland Music, a company that issues songbooks and sheet music. A number of his compositions may be heard on the CD Gros Morne—A Musical Journey, in collaboration with singer/songwriter Shirley Montague. In 2001 he founded the Vinland Music Camp, dedicated to teaching the music of Newfoundland and Labrador.
