Community Stage

10 time National Scottish Fiddling Champion, recording artist, composer, teacher, carries on the traditional style of the Golden Era of Scottish Fiddling. Hear him live and unaccompanied once again at the Occasion for the Arts.

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Doug Alan Wilcox delivers music that will stick in your head - as well as your heart. Over the years, Wilcox has provided support for or shared a stage with a diverse cross-section of musical talent including Peter Mayer, Tom Prasado-Rao, Jen Chapin, L.J. Booth, Stacey Earle, Pierce Pettis, and Peter Case. “Passionate and insightful....” “Funky, folky....” "Doug Alan Wilcox has the soul of a poet and the songs to prove it. He immediately became a favorite guest on the Acoustic Highway.” - Barry Graham, Folk music producer / WHRV FM "I was drawn to your authentic soul-filled sound and the lyrics caught me by surprise." - KD Morris, gallery owner “Wilcox's honey soaked vocals can exhibit swagger and occasionally a sadness.....” - Brian Tucker, Bootleg magazine

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Community Stage

Runaway String Band is "an impressive ensemble of awesome musicians with a foot tapping, irresistible sound,” say the Tidewater Friends of Folk Music. With lush vocal harmonies and hot instrumentals, the band provides their audiences with a taste of traditional and popular American music. They perform in concerts and festivals around Virginia as well as private events such as weddings and parties, combining mandolin, guitar, 5-string banjo with the 7-string viola da gamba, a family member of the upright bass with a tender, haunting sound.

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Flute Frenzy is a premier flute choir. Its mission is to expose the public to a wealth of wonderful music written especially for flute ensembles

Community Stage

We are happy to host the first ever Youth Art Panel, a conversation with teachers and students about their participation in AOFTA. Through hands-on projects and real-world artistic experiences, students get to dive into different art forms, discover new talents, and learn in a fun, engaging way. It’s all about making learning creative and fun!

Community Stage

Scrapper Tuesday is a trio that plays pop and rock and makes it sound like Americana. They mix in blues, bluegrass and roadhouse to create their good time sound. Phil Casey writes toe-tapping originals, often about the people, places and history of Hampton Roads, and plays guitar, mandolin and cigar box guitar. Matt Houser, Phil’s son-in-law, plays the tasty licks on electric guitar and cigar box guitars (which he also makes.) Mark McGowan ensures the center holds on bass. They started playing together in 2016.

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Poisoned Dwarf is a Celtic music group that plays virtuosic, innovative and passionate renditions of traditional Irish and Scottish music on acoustic instruments. Five talented musicians create a driving sonic energy that has been captivating audiences for over a decade with whistles, flutes, violin, guitar, percussion, and Uilleann pipes together with exciting and lyrical vocals. Poisoned Dwarf performs at a wide variety of musical venues from highland festivals to theaters, from churches to sophisticated listening venues throughout the East Coast, to the occasional pub just for fun.

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Community Stage

The Williamsburg community has enjoyed the music of our youth harpists since 1995, when Cynthia Campbell harpist and music teacher at Rawls Byrd Elementary school, began teaching the school students on a few rented harps. Although based in public schools for more than a decade, the Rawls Byrd-Berkeley harp program was privately funded from its inception. In 2006 parents voted to end the school-based program and to form the Williamsburg Youth Harp Society, a non-profit organization dedicated to the success of the new private program.

Community Stage

“Friel is a very talented vocalist with a big and unique voice,” writes Toronto Exclusive Magazine. Whether performing original compositions or favorite cover songs, award-winning songwriter Skip Friel delivers an energetic and moving performance. Friel’s music spans from acoustic variety to tasteful rock. Cover songs include both contemporary and popular tunes of the past. Skip is at home in large festival venues, as well as on intimate, acoustic-friendly stages.

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Joe’s Day Off (JDO) is a local Williamsburg Virginia band that covers country, rock, standards, & oldies with great harmonies and a variety of instruments. They’ve been rocking the town since 2007. Frontman, Joe Duggan, can play solo, or the band can perform as a duet, trio, quartet, or quintet. For small venues and special occasions, JDO can perform acoustic sets, or for large event, they can add additional players.

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The march of the Fifes and Drums is an indispensable part of the Colonial Williamsburg visit. The shrill fife and the resounding drum broadcast a wave of sound throughout the Historic Area, announcing the red-and-blue-uniformed regiment moving through the streets of Williamsburg. Standing along Duke of Gloucester Street as the Fifes and Drums march by, today’s guests experience exactly what the soldiers of the 18th century felt as the vibrations of sound resonate not just in their ears, but through their whole bodies.

Duke of Gloucester Street

Since the beginning, we've produced puppet shows for children that entertain, enlighten, and educate. In 1977, David Messick and a group of family and friends were asked to produce a puppet production for the Charles Taylor Library System in Hampton, Virginia. "Jack and the Beanstalk" became our first show. Our first puppets were marionettes or string puppets. We soon converted these to rod puppets to create better site lines at the libraries where we played.

Community Stage

Rooted in blues tradition, Sammy Lee has a soul that wails. Cadence-driven, acoustically inclined, Motown folk is showcased in his pristine and energetic performances, with stylistic nods towards the cities that have provided him with his unique sound. Many vocalists of closely related genres seem tepid and soft spoken by comparison. Sammy offers a shock to the system with a skilled and polished delivery that provides a glimpse into the expertise developed over the many evolutions his career has endured. Over a decade of vocal expertise allows this rough and dirty baritone to stun audiences with a range that bewilders, a devastatingly honest lyrical vulnerability, and a power and range that leaves Sammy in a category all his own. Needing no pretense and no disguise, Sammy’s show is a stripped down and naked performance by design. His thoughts in a world of processed and filtered pretenders? Less is more, passion speaks for itself, and authenticity reigns.

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Family oriented dance program. In 2007, Heidi Robitshek, former artistic director and founder of the Chamber Ballet along with her protégée Adelle Carpenter founded the Virginia Regional Ballet to dedicate a school to the continued improvement and enhancement of classical ballet technique. Virginia Regional Ballet Academy sponsors the Virginia Regional Ballet, Inc., whose purpose is to bring to the community and develop among its citizens an educational and cultural program in dance. Virginia Regional Ballet is located in Williamsburg’s Art District at 1228 Richmond Road adjacent to the Williamsburg Community Pool and is professionally designed and constructed to provide the best possible facilities for instruction. In 2013, Virginia Regional Ballet acquired a second location in Yorktown at 5315 George Washington Memorial Highway and 110-B Dare Road.

Community Stage

The Higher Ground Big Band is a community outreach group that seeks to uplift and inspire with swing, Latin, and jazz standards as well as modern big band arrangements. The band is composed of 18 professional and amateur instrumentalists, along with a vocalist. It has played in many venues throughout the Hampton Roads area since 2006. The band is directed by Joel Joiner and we derive our motivation from a sense of service to others, but to be honest, we also play because our music is just so much fun.

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Community Stage

Mix of covers and originals on drums, resonator guitar, musical saw and sackbut. Stephen Christoff writes songs from what you might call sidewalk observations: On one hand, he’ll write songs about Prague, wanderlust and airports and on the next, Executioner’s Daughter’s and Trains. As a performer, Stephen has performed frequently on Virginia’s public radio, The Smithsonian Center for American Art and Portraiture, The Library of Congress, Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens, Peninsula Fine Arts Center, The College of William and Mary and The Black Swamp Arts Festival.

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Award winning classical ballet company.

Community Stage

Winsome is a guitar based acoustic group covering popular music from the 60s, 70s and beyond with a focus on well crafted vocal harmonies. Members are Jane Ferguson, John Trindle, Rob Weinberg and Niki Worrell.

Main Stage

Meade Skelton Haufe, otherwise known as "Meade Skelton", grew up in Loudoun County, Virginia, and began playing music at a very early age. After graduating from High School, he soon moved to his late mother's home town of Richmond, and quickly got involved in the music scene, playing with such bands as The Floating Folk Festival, The Kate Lawton Band, and The Gravity Hounds. Described as "Coffee Shop Country", by critic Ned Hepburn, Meade also embraces his "outsider music" status. Meade oozes a Countrypolitan demeanor, usually dressed in his favorite blazer , cowboy boots, and vintage Western Cowboy shirts.

Community Stage

Williamsburg based band Clan MacCool is a fun, high energy band specializing in original and traditional Irish/Scottish music. Thier play list spans several centuries and includes many pirate inspired originals. This local favorite is comfortable on stage in front of hundreds or roving events making one on one connections with your patrons.

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