2025 Artistic Work Study Students

Our esteemed Artistic Work Study program not only provides a platform for the next generation of Trad professionals to showcase their skills, but also offers them invaluable opportunities to learn from and collaborate with industry professionals. The contributions of these artists diversity and enrich our community in a multitude of ways, and we can’t wait to welcome them!

Mo Brachfeld

Mo Brachfeld is a fiddler and dancer who grew up attending intergenerational music and dance events. They play traditional and original tunes for concerts and dances, including as part of the duo Starling with Jared Kirkpatrick. Mo has studied many traditional percussive dance styles (and dabbled in more) and has taught sean nós dance classes both online and in person. They live in Western Massachusetts where they work on honing their pottery skills and expanding their collection of houseplants.

Nora Carroll

Nora Carroll has loved Celtic fiddle music since she was a toddler. Nora, now 18 years old, started Suzuki classical violin lessons when she was 4 with her sister Emilie and then began taking classes at The Connecticut Academy of Irish Music in 2014 when she was 7, where she was taught and inspired primarily by Jeanne Freeman and John Whelan. Since then she has further developed her passion for Celtic fiddle with lessons with Katie McNally. Since around 2016, she has been in a band with her sister, Emilie, known as the Carroll Sisters. In 2020, the band met Sammy Wetstein on Cello and have been the Carroll Sisters Trio ever since. The Carroll Sisters Trio has played at many venues from house concerts to the 2024 Longs Peak Scottish Irish Highland Festival in Estes Park, CO. They recorded their debut album, Daybreak, in 2022 and recorded their second album in January of 2025. Nora is thrilled and honored to be a part of the New England Celtic music community!

Lily Harwell

Raised in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains in North Carolina, Lily Harwell is a singer, songwriter, and Scottish fiddler. She discovered her passion for music as a child while studying fiddle at a local camp, where she developed a deep appreciation for bluegrass, old-time, and Celtic styles. A two-time champion of the Scottish fiddling competition at the Grandfather Mountain Highland Games, Lily shares her talents by teaching, performing, and recording with various fiddling groups in her community. She is currently working on her debut duo album with her guitarist, Sean Ashdown.

Owen Kennedy

Maine musician Owen Kennedy is an award-winning fiddler rooted in the Maine Maritime tradition and immersed in his growing passion for Scottish music, splitting time between Maine and Cape Breton where he’s studying Gaelic language, culture, and music at Beinn Mhàbu. Owen’s love of traditional music and enthusiasm for performing has taken him all over New England, up to Maritime Canada, and over to Scotland and Shetland, where he has played with the Pineland Fiddlers, the Young Tradition Vermont Touring Group and the Youth Commission (now Sap Line) and in duos with Seán Heely, Ethan Tischler, and Ben Foss. Owen is the 2022 New England Regional Open Scottish Fiddle Champion and the 2021 Junior US National Scottish Fiddle Champion. Recently, Owen has begun adding the tenor banjo and traditional songs into his performances. His debut album “Oh When: Now” was recorded with Owen Marshall and features tunes from the Maine Maritime tradition as well as newer favorites from Scotland, Cape Breton, and Shetland. Owen just wrapped up a solo project, 50 Fiddlers from 50 States, available on YouTube.

Sean McLeod

Sean is a guitarist, fiddler, and banjo enthusiast hailing from Eastern Massachusetts. He started playing violin at age 8 and grew up in a house filled with Bluegrass and classical music. Since then he has fallen in love with the Celtic music tradition. Sean studied guitar with Simon Lace. At 19, he is a first year at Bard College in New York’s beautiful Hudson Valley, where he studies German and mathematics, and plays violin in Bard’s community orchestra. When he’s not playing for contra dances, Sean enjoys baking, doing Tai Chi, and hiking. He attended the Boston Harbor Scottish Fiddle School weekend in 2019, as well as the Scottish String Fling at the Ashokan Center in 2023 and 2024.

The Acadia Festival of Traditional Music & Dance is governed by Friends of the Acadia Trad Festival, a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) Maine nonprofit corporation. Website art by Anabelle Keimach and Annelise Papinsick.