Dr. Warren Hofstra

Advises on historical themes, recommends scholars/musicians, advises on outreach

Dr. Hofstra holds B.A. Washington University, St. Louis 1969; M.A. Boston University, 1974; Ph.D. University of Virginia, 1985.  His fields of expertise include:  the American Frontier, Virginia History, Culture of the Cold War, and vernacular architecture.  He is the Stewart Bell Professor of History at Shenandoah University in Winchester, VA.  He has published a number of books including, A Separate Place, Virginia and The Planting of New Virginia: Settlement and Landscape in the Shenandoah Valley.  He has published numerous articles on regional and national history.
 

Dr. Gregg Kimball

Presenter, advisor on Virginia musicology, recommends scholars/musicians

Dr. Kimball has long had an interest in traditional music. He holds a PhD. in history from UVa.  In 2002 he organized the Virginia Roots Music project at the Library of Virginia, putting together a major exhibition, programs, and performances that highlighted the state’s religious, old-time, and blues music traditions. He also assisted with the production, writing, and editing of an associated CD, Virginia Roots: the Richmond 1929 Sessions (2002), that received positive reviews in the Washington Post, Billboard, and many other magazines and newspapers. He performs traditional blues from the pre-World War II era. 
 

Dr. Ted Olson

 Presenter, advisor on Appalachian musicology, recommends scholars/musicians

Ted Olson holds the Ph.D. in English (1997) from the University of Mississippi. Olson served as co-chair of the curatorial committee for the 2003 Smithsonian Folklife Festival's "Appalachia: Heritage and Harmony" exhibition.  Presently Associate Professor of Appalachian Studies and English at East Tennessee State University, he has served as Director of that school's Appalachian, Scottish, and Irish Studies program.  Olson is the author of Blue Ridge Folklife (the University Press of Mississippi, 1998); Writings About the Big Bang of Country Music (McFarland & Company, Inc., 2005); He was the Music Section editor and associate editor for The Encyclopedia of Appalachia (University of Tennessee Press, 2006). 
 

Madeline MacNeil

Presenter, advises on Shenandoah valley musicology
 

BME, Longwood University (Distinguished Alumna 1976); Renowned dulcimer player, singer, and teacher; founder, Dulcimer Players News; content consultant, Scheitholt and dulcimer exhibit at Museum of the Shenandoah Valley; performed with Robert Shaw; Recognized for work with folk community by California Senate.

Ralph Lee Smith

Presenter, advises on Shenandoah valley musicology

Leading authority on the history of the early Appalachian frontier and on the Appalachian dulcimer.  Author of books on Appalachian folksongs and instruments.  Ralph has made many Appalachian field trips, meeting old-time dulcimer makers and players in Virginia, North Carolina, and Kentucky.  He also acquired a number of antique and traditional dulcimers, which he uses in demonstrations and displays.  Ralph's books include Appalachian Dulcimer Traditions, Songs and Tunes of the Wilderness Road and Folk Songs of Old Kentucky: Two Song Catchers in the Kentucky Mountains, 1914 and 1916.