Tag: Dan Navarro

The Seldovia Arts Council is happy to announce the eighth annual Acoustic Alaska Guitar Master’s Concert in Seldovia, Alaska . The Acoustic Alaska Guitar Camp is a music camp held in Wasilla, Alaska  each summer. .Instructors of world renown have been teaching at the camp and have then  been traveling to Seldovia to give  an after the camp concert for us  via the invitation first in 2007 by local Susan Mumma who went to the camp and then  excitedly recommended Seldovia as a dynamite place to  hold a concert, fish, relax and enjoy beautiful scenery.  After the first year they have returned as  a greatly anticipated event  invited  by the Seldovia Arts Council.

This year, the instructors coming to Seldovia include:

Betty  Soo, who returns to us with her witty songs and beautiful voicing. Dan Navarro, celebrated songwriter and musician  and music activist. Mega Mandolin artist, Sharon Gilchrist and the awesome finger-style guitarist Mary Flower.

Betty Soo returns to teach and inspire. Her beautiful voice and poignant songwriting, sometimes comically points out some of the difficult truths of  life. She is from Austen, Texas.

Her accolades include:  Kerrville New Folk Winner, Mountain Stage New Song Competition Winner, Big Top Chautauqua Songwriter of the Year,

Wildflower! Festival Songwriting Competition Winner, Sisters Folk Festival / Dave Carter Memorial Songwriting Competition Winner.

Betty Soo has been a featured performer: at  SXSW ,Kerrville Folk  Festival, Vancouver Island Music Fest, Calgary Folk, Festival, APAP, Tin Pan South Sisters Folk Festival, Wilderness Songs (NL)Texas on Tour BBC2 with Bob Harris (UK),CBC Radio (Canada),  Woodsongs Old Time Radio Hour Folk, Alliance  International, FAR-West Folk Alliance, Southwest Regional Folk Alliance, Northeast Regional Folk Alliance, Ontario Council of Folk  Festivals Alberta Showcase.

Dan Navarro  started his career as a songwriter, often with Eric Lowen, for artists as diverse as Pat Benatar (the Grammy-nominated “We Belong”), The Bangles, Jackson Browne, Keb’ Mo’, Dave Edmunds, The Temptations, Dionne Warwick, Dutch superstar Marco Borsato,  The Triplets,  Austin outlaw legend Rusty Weir and many more…

In the 1990s, he recorded and toured with Lowen in the acclaimed acoustic duo Lowen & Navarro until Eric’s retirement in 2009. Dan has since transitioned into a growing solo career, increasingly in demand on the national concert circuit…

Dan has moonlighted as a singer and voice actor for 25 years, in major motion pictures, television series, commercials and records, including the October 2014 release of The Book Of Life, plus the smash hit The Lorax, Legends of Oz: Dorothy’s Return,  Rock of Ages, Happy Feet (1 & 2), Rio (Oscar-nominated “Real In Rio”), Ice Age (2 & 3), and a dozen more; TV series Turbo Fast, Prison Break, Family Guy and American Dad; recordings with Neil Young, Andrea Bocelli, Luis Miguel, Jose Feliciano, Susanna Hoffs and Jon Anderson of Yes; and commercials for Subaru, Shakey’s Pizza, McDonald’s, Toyota, Coca-Cola, Honda, El Pollo Loco, Nationwide and hundreds of others…

He has contributed countless hours in Washington on issues of intellectual property, copyright and performer’s rights, including testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Copyright Royalty Board on behalf of the Nashville Songwriters Assn Int’l, AFTRA, NARAS, BMI , Sound Exchange and the music FIRST Coalition…

Sharon Gilchrist has long made her home in the American acoustic music scene. Whether you have seen her playing mandolin, thumpin’ the upright bass, singing a traditional ballad or performing one of her original pieces, you’ve heard an artist steeped in traditional Appalachian music delivering these sounds with a distinct spacious, graceful and fiery nuance. Sharon has performed with  Darol Anger, Peter Rowan and Tony Rice Quartet, Laurie Lewis and the Right Hands, Uncle Earl, Ger Mandolin Orchestra directed by Mike Marshall, Scott Law, Kathy Kallick Band, Bill Evans, and Donald Rubinstein. She is currently based in the East Bay  of northern California.

In addition to performing, Sharon is a respected mandolin teacher. She is available for private mandolin instruction in Oakland, California and is also available to teach mandolin lessons on-line via Skype. She served as mandolin instructor at the Santa Fe University of Art & Design from 2004 – 2012 and has also taught at numerous music camps throughout the States. As for her own education, Sharon earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Mandolin Performance from Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee.

Mary Flower is an award-winning American musician and music educator [2][3] on the independent Yellow Dog Records label. A blues and ragtime fingerstyle guitarist and vocalist, she combines intricate syncopated Piedmont style fingerpicking with lap-slide guitar.[4]

In 2000 and 2003, Flower placed in the top three at the National Finger Style Guitar Championship, the only female to do this twice for guitar.[5]

She’s performed with Jorma Kaukonen, guitarist/songwriter Pat Donohue, Hot Rize founder Tim O’Brien, singer Mollie O’Brien, guitarist/songwriter Geoff Muldaur, and the Campbell Brothers.[6] As a songwriter, arranger and educator she has several musical and instructional releases to her credit.[7][8] She is currently based in Portland, Oregon, United States.

Some the text for this article is taken from each artist’s website.   You can read more about them and the camp at: acousticalaska.com,

This event is brought to us by the Seldovia Arts Council with the help  grants from the Alaska  State Council on the Arts