Nutmeg Dulcimer Festival

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Nutmeg Dulcimer Festival

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This year's featured artists are former National Champions Kara Barnard on mountain dulcimer and Nate Pultorak on hammered dulcimer.

Fri-Sat, November 6-7, 2026 / Milford, CT

Featured artists:
> Karen Mueller (mountain dulcimer)
> Karen Ashbrook (hammered dulcimer)
> Sasha Bogdanowitsch (mountain dulcimer) At Nutmeg, we believe that hammered dulcimers and mountain dulcimers are among the world's coolest musical instruments, they belong in popular music as well as folk music, and that they deserve to be known by the general public.

2024 will be the 21st annual Nutmeg Dulcimer Festival, Friday-Saturday, November 8-9. As always, we offer a full program of workshops on both instruments for all levels of players. This year's hammered dulcimer instructors include Cliff Cole, Maryz Katz, Mary Grace Lee ... and special guest cimbalom artists Daniel Skála and Matěj Číp. Mountain dulcimer instructors include Sasha Bogdanowitsch, Sam Edelston, Ron Ewing, Sandy Lafleur, Ellen Pratt, Susan Trump, and Carol Walker. Vendors will be Ron Ewing, Gerald Heinrich, Don Kawalek. Our Friday and Saturday evening concerts will be open to the public. Friday evening will be the workshop leaders, plus a special set by our two guest cimbalom artists. Saturday evening will be the two featured artists. In addition, by popular demand, on Saturday afternoon we'll have a dulcimer orchestra performance and our second-ever Open Mic.

11/04/2026

Nutmeg Chair Sam Edelston will be on WTNH-TV tomorrow morning, Thursday, Nov. 5, sometime in the 9-10am hour, on their "Good Morning Connecticut at 9" show, to tell people about the festival. In many towns, you can tune in to channel 8 - you can watch live at this link:

The live stream schedule on WTNH.com and the WTNH News 8 streaming app is subject to change due to preemptions or special coverage. Today’s livestream schedule News 8 Originals Lifestyle Programmin…

10/16/2026

⏱️ Exactly 3 weeks from this moment, on Friday, Nov.6, the Nutmeg Dulcimer Festival will be starting in Milford, Connecticut. Come join us! www.NutmegDulcimer.com

10/15/2026

Our ears were ringing this evening. It turned out that the host of the Milford Open Mic was saying really nice things about Nutmeg.

Milford, CT, is a pretty artsy and musical town, but it doesn't have a lot of dulcimer players (that I'm aware of) (yet). Nutmeg offers two great opportunities for people who don't play dulcimer: Come to our concerts! (Quality entertainment by real people!) Or sign up for the daytime program, get a loaner mountain dulcimer, and feel a sense of success on Day 1.

10/11/2026

Just 26 days until the Nutmeg Dulcimer Festival. Come join us on Friday-Saturday, November 6-7. In addition to featured artists Karen Mueller, Karen Ashbrook, and Sasha Bogdanowitsch, we'll have 15 other people teaching workshops.

Some perennial favorites who will be teaching are Cliff Cole (HD), Ellen Pratt (MD), Carol Walker (MD), and Nina Zanetti (MD). (And yes, I'll be teaching one HD and one MD this year.)

Get full details and reserve your place at www.NutmegDulcimer.com

10/09/2026

Exactly 4 weeks from now, the Nutmeg Dulcimer Festival will be in the middle of Friday afternoon workshops. That's Friday, November 6. Plus more workshops on Saturday, two great concerts, a dulcimer orchestra performance, and an open mic where _you_ can perform. Get full info and reserve your spot at www.NutmegDulcimer.com

We hope to see you there!

10/09/2026

Just 28 days until the Nutmeg Dulcimer Festival, Fri-Sat, November 6-7 in Milford, Connecticut. Here's a big "Welcome Back!" shoutout to some workshop leaders who haven't been with us in a few years: Carrie Crompton (HD), Rudy Gabrielson (MD), and Nutmeg co-founder Deb Justice (HD). Get complete information and register at www.NutmegDulcimer.com !

06/25/2026

Save the date - and don't miss - the 2026 Nutmeg Dulcimer Festival. Fri.-Sat. November 6-7 in Milford, Connecticut. Nearly 50 workshops for all levels of mountain and hammered dulcimer players, two great concerts, open mic, and more. Featured artists will be Karen Mueller (mountain dulcimer), Karen Ashbrook (hammered dulcimer), and Sasha Bogdanowitsch (mountain dulcimer).

04/02/2026

ANNOUNCING:
Nutmeg Dulcimer Festival 2026
Fri-Sat, Nov. 6-7🎵Milford, CT

01/24/2026

I've just learned that Ron Ewing has passed away. I have no details at this time. He was a many-time vendor at Nutmeg, willing to drive more than 600 miles to do it. Here's a favorite Ron Ewing/Nutmeg story.

At the very first Nutmeg in 2004, one of our attendees was a 14-year-old girl. She was new to the mountain dulcimer, but wanted to learn to play. During the lunch break, I noticed her at Ron's booth, with the two of them sitting next to each other playing Liza Jane. Toward the end of lunch hour, I walked past again, and they were still playing the same tune. In between the afternoon workshops, still there, same positions, same tune. Same thing during the dinner break and again during the concert intermission. At first, I was a bit miffed that she was skipping all the workshops I had scheduled, but then I realized that she was doing exactly what she needed. (Wax on, wax off.) And Ron was patiently doing it with her.

I first learned of his passing from a post by Kevin Roth, who pointed out that Ron was the innovator who introduced the 1+ fret and the dulcimer capo. (Last fall, I asked Ron about the 1+ fret, and he told me that he'd subsequently learned that one of the older builders had made some dulcimers with a 1+, but those hadn't caught on.) He also knew a ton of tunes and was a very fine player. The dulcimer community will miss him, Nutmeg will miss him, and I'll miss him personally.

By the way, this photo was shot in Milford, Connecticut when he was up for Nutmeg one year recently. It's his current FB profile picture.

Sam Edelston

09/19/2025

Just 4 weeks until the Nutmeg Dulcimer Festival, Fri-Sat, October 17-18. Come see featured artists Aubrey Atwater, Butch Ross, Ken Kolodner & Mary Lynn Michal ... plus a dozen workshop leaders, nearly 50 workshops, two concerts, open mic, and more!

Address

168 S Broad Street
Milford, CT
06460

Website

http://www.NutmegDulcimer.com/

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