“Sugar in the Pan” Maine Tour

Vermont Folklife’s “Sugar in the Pan” Trad Band is coming to Maine!  After learning traditional Québecois repertoire from Pascal Gemme (of Genticorum) and Véronique Plasse (of Bon Débarras) with the Young Tradition Vermont Touring Group, these superstar teenage musicians will bring an exciting and diverse program of music to Maine.  Their concert features traditional call and response singing, energetic reels that will have folks dancing in their seats, and evocative arrangements full of lovely harmonies.  While in Maine, Sugar in the Pan will be performing at Callahan Hall in Lewiston on May 23rd at 6:30pm, at Rockport Opera House on May 24th at 7pm, and will be the band for the Kennebec Contra Dance in Hallowell at 7pm, with additional concerts at schools and retirement communities.

A program of Vermont Folklife, the Touring Group and the Trad Band nurture youth involvement in traditional music and dance, providing opportunities to learn from tradition bearers, to build connections with artists and communities from Vermont and beyond, and to perform traditional repertoire.  Band members include fiddlers Fiona Stowell, Emma Taylor McCallum, and Lux Tierney; Emmett Stowell on banjo, guitar & keyboard; and harpist Eleanor Freebern and cellist Fenton Cooper-Roberts.  Sugar in the Pan is especially excited to share their Québecois program with Maine communities, many of which have deep Franco-American roots.  

Multi-instrumentalist and Bates College student Grace Martin and fiddler Owen Kennedy, two Touring Group alumni, are joining the Sugar in the Pan for their Maine Tour.  Winthrop-native Owen Kennedy has performed extensively in Maine, from the Maine Celtic Celebration and the Maine Highland Games, to Oasis of Music concerts in Lewiston and events in Searsport, Winthrop, Farmington, Bangor and beyond, sometimes with the Pineland Fiddlers or the Maine Folque Co-op, as well as with Ben Foss, Ethan Tischler, and Seán Heely.  Owen was the 2021 Young Stars of Maine Prizewinner inaugural winner of the "Glenn Jenks Future in Music Prize" from Bay Chamber Music School and is excited to be back at the Rockport Opera House with Sugar in the Pan! 

Stopping in Maine in-between multiple Vermont performances and a June tour in Québec, Sugar in the Pan band members have also performed at the New World Festival and the Young Tradition Festival in Vermont and toured Cape Breton in 2023 and have entertained at various retirement communities and schools in Vermont.  To learn more about this group please visit: www.vtfolklife.org/touring-group.