ROCKPORT — “Vermont Folklife’s Sugar in the Pan trad band of superstar teenage musicians is touring Maine with an exciting program of Franco-American favorites,” said YTV touring group manager Christina Read Kennedy, in a news release.

Ahead of their June performances in Québec, the Young Tradition Touring Group learned traditional tunes and songs with Québécois musician mentors Pascal Gemme of Genticorum and Véronique Plasse of Bon Débarras.  Six Touring Group members plus two alumni, Bates College student Grace Martin and Maine fiddler Owen Kennedy, are excited to bring the program to Maine as Sugar in the Pan. Their concert features traditional call and response songs, energetic jigs and reels, and beautiful arrangements that showcase instrumental and vocal harmonies. 

While in Maine, Sugar in the Pan will be performing at Callahan Hall in Lewiston on May 23, at 6:30 p.m.; at Rockport Opera House on May 24, at 7 p.m.; and will be the band for the Kennebec Contra Dance in Hallowell on May 25, at 7 p.m. 

All ages are welcome.

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 and keyboard; and harpist Eleanor Freebern and cellist Fenton Cooper-Roberts. Touring Group alum Grace Martin, a member of the Bates College a capella group “The Crosstones” who has also performed locally at open mics, for contra dances, and in Lewiston for an Oasis of Music concert, will be playing mandolin and guitar. Alum Owen Kennedy is joining the band on fiddle and tenor banjo; he has performed extensively in Maine, from the Maine Celtic Celebration 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.  

To learn more about this group, please visit www.vtfolklife.org/touring-group. 

Event information can be found at www.fiddlerokennedy.com/events .