Maggie's Page

"The most wonderful accompaniment of music for our wedding, your music echoing through the castle made it come alive and transported our guests to another time.." wedding client ( Baltimore, MD)

"One of the most exciting and innovative hammered dulcimer players recording today and with a fire and passion to her playing." Dirty Linen Folk & World Music magazine*

Hear 2 minute audio samples of all maggie sansone recordings on www.CDbaby.com

1)CD:Mystic Dance- ancient Celtic and renaissance music.The Celtic Wedding Set: March of the Kings, click here: ww.cdbaby.com/cd/sansone8

2)CD:Traditions, Parson's Farewell, (track 6) Hammered dulcimer & Celtic Harp) click here: www.cdbaby.com/sansone9

3) CD: Dance upon the Shore, Sergeants Early Dream-a slow air. Hear the beautiful and peaceful sounds of solo hammered dulcimer with accompant with fretless bass, click here:Sergeants_Early_Dream

*All of Maggie's Music, and Maggie Sansone's music is availalbe from maggiesmusic.com; Apple iTunes; Amazon.com and in fine retail stores everywhere.

* Maggie Sansone now has 12 recordings including Celtic and Holiday titles and her newest recording is: A Celtic Fair:tradition and innovation in a festive gathering.

America's premier hammered dulcimer player and recording artist, Maggie Sansone music and pioneering artistry has brought the ringing beauty of her music to hundreds of thousands of music lovers around the world.Maggie has been featured on CBS-TV Sunday Morning , and NPR's All ThingsConsidered, Performance Today, and The Thistle & Shamrock. As producer and performer, Maggie has performed at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall, National Geographic Grossover Hall and many other venues; from the large stage to small town fairs, Renaissance and folk festivals; special events and weddings. Maggie brings her unique vision and virtuosity to music of the ancient Celtic lands and her hammered dulcimer has been praised as the perfect music for Renaissance weddings and special events.Recent awards:WAMMIE award for best Irish/Celtic instrumentalist from the Washington Area Music Association (DC's answer to the Grammies); ANNIE Award for Performing Arts from the Anne Arundel Country Cultural Arts Foundation .Maggie is the author of hammered dulcimer music books published by Mel Bay Publications. Mel Bay included Maggie in their Hammered dulcimer Anthology Series featuring America’s finest performers and teachers. Maggie is founder and CEO of MAGGIE'S MUSIC record label. The label, which features over 50 albums distributed worldwide, is a eight time WAMMIE winner for "Record Label of the Year." Maggie's recordings include: Mystic Dance: A Celtic Celebration; Celtic Meditations: Into the Light ; A Traveler's Dream; Dance Upon the Shore; Mist & Stone (AFIM INDIE winner); Traditions; and her Holiday recordings: A Scottish Christmas (WAMMIE winner, "Celtic Recording") Ancient Noels (AFIM INDIE winner); Sounds of the Season and Sounds of the Season II (AFIM INDIE nominee). Maggie also is featured on the DVD: A Scottish Christmas.

.READ MAGGIE SANSONE'S FEATURE ARTICLE--Read Maggie's feature article in Dirty Linen Folk & World Music Magazine -April/May 2006, seach for issue 123.http://www.dirtylinen.com/123

or go to home page of the maggiesmusic website/click on name: maggie sansone- see article ( PDF). VISIT: www.maggiesmusic.com

A Celtic Celebration
Here is the line up that performed for St. Patrick's Day ( Harmony Hall,
Ft.Washington, MD ( l-r: Paul Oorts, Karen Ashbrook, Maggie,
Dave Abe, Connie McKenna, Deborah Brower and
dancers from Broesler School of Irish Dance).

What was your home environment like when you were a child? I grew up in Miami, Florida and my house was a fun, creative place to be. Both my parents were in the Arts. My dad was a professional cartoonist and my mom wrote advertising copy. They were a strong influence - I majored in art in college and still love to draw like my dad, and whenever I do any marketing or advertising for my record label, I feel like I’m walking in my mother’s shoes. I heard a lot of music around the house -- Dad played jazz piano and would let me sit next to him on the piano bench and play the bass line when he played boogie woogie-style . I started piano lessons at 8. Our family always went to a variety of concerts and usually whoever I heard up on stage I wanted to do that too! When I heard the New York Pro Musica I fell in love with early music and started recorder lessons at 14. Then later, I heard a woodwind quintet,loved the bassoon and took lessons on that eventually joining the high school orchestra and winning a Bassoon scholarship to the Easton Music Festival in Greensboro, NC. In college, I majored in Fine Arts but kept up my music and continued to play piano, recor der and guitar .
Of all the instruments you played, why did you choose the hammered dulcimer? It was in the mid-70's, I was living in Baltimore and was playing Irish music on mandolin and guitar in an Irish Band called Kids on the Mountain when I first heard the hammered dulcimer. It was on streets of Key West, Florida and I was completely mesmerized. I sat on the curb for a long time just listening to the sound. I was obsessed with finding one and learning how to play it .
What was your first dulcimer? After a lot of research, I settled on a Sam Rizzetta dulcimer. I picked it up in West Virginia in a raging snow storm .
What do you play now? I own several dulcimers that I use for different types of events. I have instruments made by Nick Blanton (Sheperdstown, West Virginia) and Sam Rizzetta (Inwood, West Virginia). I also own a Persian Santur and am studying that style of playing which stresses improvisation and uses very light hammers to create delicate ornamentation.
Once you had heard the instrument, how did you learn it? During the time, about 6 months before I got my first dulcimer, I was already "practicing" I made a note chart on a piece of paper and used chop sticks. I was able to play "Solder's Joy" right off the bat. Sam gave me some pointers and I was on my way. There weren't many instruction books in those days, so I taught myself and learned alot from listening to other traditional folk musicians .
Was it a long road from there to your new solo recording, “A Traveler’s Dream”?It's been a long and exciting road. From my first recording recorded live to two-track in a living room in Oakland, California, to owning my own record company. It’s a thrill to still be out there performing as a musician .
Where did the Scottish Christmas idea come from? I was overdue for a new Christmas album (previous albums are Sounds of the Season, Sounds of the Season, Ancient Noels) and wanted to create a concert concept to perform at Christmas time at the National Geographic Society and a new holiday recording.. The Irish Christmas repertoire had been recorded a lot, but holiday music from Scotland had not received much attention. On my record label at the time was the #1 Scottish Fiddle Champion in the USA- Bonnie Rideout. So I talked to Bonnie about the idea of a A Scottish Christmas recording that would feature Bonnie as the principal musician and as Music Director and co-producer. Bonnie also said provided the cover image which was the final touch to a wonderful project- she said, ,"Guess what I have!" and pulled out the postcard of a Scottish castle with a Christmas tree in front of it that she had been saving for 15 years! It’s funny how we came full circle, because the piper who does such great things on our album is Eric Rigler who is a friend of Bonnie’s, played on her ablums and we asked him to join our recording and concert tour. He was the bagpiper on the movie sountrack for Braveheart movie which also made Scottish music and culture more mainstream.
The Scottish Christmas tour is big touring act that originated out of your label. How did that happen? Yes, my label and Bonnie Rideout, Al Petteway and I were all featured on CBS-TV- Sunday Morning two days before Christmas, 1996. After that doors opened for our label. One of my hammered dulcimer students was married to the owner of Mainstage Booking Agency,so with a video copy of the TV feature from CBS- Sunday Morning in hand, I pitched the show to him. He signed us on to his Booking agency based on that one meeting and the video! Thanks to him, A Scotish Chrismtas reached a hugh audience and enthusiatic response with sell out shows throughout the USA our first year! That year, our shows were known as the fastest pre-show sell out on the circuit.
How did you get into the recording business? I was living in California at the time and performing all kinds of places including the fisherman’s wharf in San Francisco along with the other buskers. Often people asked if I had a recording. I got tired of saying “No,” so with a little help from my musician friends,I made my first album on a shoestring budget, recording direct to two-track in the engineers' living room. A month later I moved back East traveling in my canary yellow Dodge Dart across country and would stop into any record or new age gift shop on the way. I found I had a knack of self-promotion and selling my album. Then I began performing in the Washington D.C. area, anywhere and everywhere! It seemed to be a word of mouth, grass roots thing and my mailing list and fan base began to grow like that. It sold so well that I learned to listen closely to passersby! When they started asking for Christmas music, I made “Sounds of the Season.” At that point I had to decide whether to take a chance and pay for production of a risky new format called the compact disc. I took a chance and that recording received national acclaim and got some awards.
Aren’t you known for chamber-folk sound which made you stand out from the pack? Yes, the sound is unique on our label . Because of my early classical and early music background, my recordings incorporated folk and early music instruments. You can hear that in my first Christmas album “Sounds of the Season” back in 1988. It was later dubbed: “chamber folk” and my label is considered a pioneer of that sound. Later, I wanted to appeal to the Windham Hill crowd- now called New Age- and added more lush instrumentation for my 1990 album “Mist and Stone.” It was everywhere- gift and new age stores, Nature Company and mail order catalogs. This album went on to become a big seller in the US- over 80,000 albums. I was attracting the attention of the press and radio and was lucky to get a feature story in Billboard Magazine. This helped get credibility with major record distributors - and I was on my way!
How do you choose the artists you sign to your label? The traditional music scene is strong in Washington D.C. area where I live and there are many music events and festivals where musicians come together both formally and informally. It’s a chance to get to know the musicians. Signing artists to a label is a little like getting married. It s a long term commitment and I like to use what I call the “trench method.” When you’re in the trenches with a musician - under the hot stage lights - you get to know them as artists and as people. All the artists on Maggie’s Music play together a lot which is probably why the label feels like a family. Celtic harper Sue Richards (the first person I signed in 1991) and multi-instrumentalist Robin Bullock, for example, are brilliant musicians and participated very generously to my first few albums so it seemed both right and smart to sign them to the label as solo artists. Sue brought her Celtic ensemble Ceoltoiri ("Kyul-tory" means "Musicians" in Irish Gaelic) with her. That included Connie McKenna singing in Irish Gaelic before it was a fad. Then we signed Karen Ashbrook, well known in the dulcimer community and because she was doing such magical things with Irish music on the dulcimer. I fell in love with Al Petteway’s guitar playing and signed him. Bonnie Rideout was another great discovery and a good friend. There was a blizzard while we were recording "Dance Upon The Shore,” and Bonnie lived near the recording studio, so she and her family put me on a couch for the duration of the snowed-in recording process. Most recently we signed the incredible early music group Hesperus made up of founders of the Folger Consort because they feel such a strong kinship between early music and traditional Scottish and Irish music, and we like the “crossover” feeling they bring to our label. We also signed the world champion City of Washington Pipe Band who are considered one of the best pipe bands in the world and most of the members live right here in Washington D.C.!
Why is Celtic music enjoying a Renaissance and what part is your label playing? Since my last interview with Dulcimer Player News (D PN (Vol.16, No.2, April-June, 1990), Celtic music was not as popular as it is today. I think that Celtic music speaks directly to the soul. It’s just so beautiful! The airs have a kind of mystical moodiness which speaks to the heart in this era of technological overload. And it has those dance rhythms – jigs and reels - that people respond to whether they dance or not. As for our label’s part - we feel good that we were one of a few labels in this country to record Celtic music and be nationally distributed through the independent network. Now there’s a great “Riverdance” rush and the major labels have leapt in with their own recordings, so they make Celtic more popular but flooded the market too. Our challenge is to reach that bigger markets too and keep our artistic values intact, too.
What's up for the future for you? I want to get a better balance between music and doing business, and spend more time on my own music. I try to practice and spend time with my music every day. My music room and office are in the same room so I am looking at my musical instruments, tune books as well as computers, and the business of music. Its all very left brian/right brain. I am interested in the ancient traditions of the hammered dulcimer in other countries and have studied the Persian santur with a few top players who reside right here in the Washington D.C. area! I never stop being fascinated by musical instruments. My recent addiction is the Scottish and Northumbrian small pipes. I acquired my own set from a maker in Northumberland, England, and have been attending workshops. I want to continue composing, and have Alesis synthisizer hooked up to my computer and will try to enter the 21st century as a high-tech folkie! As a performer...I still manage to do 30-50 concerts a year. I am concentrating on my own solo recordings and concerts now based on Celtic and Christmas themes. I still like to do the local folk festivals and continue to perform on stage and in the “village street” in costume at the Maryland Renaissance Festival for over seventeen years.

[ HOME ] [ ABOUT ] [ CELTIC MARKETPLACE ] [ CALENDAR ] [ LINKS] [ NEWSLETTER ] [ SAMPLER ] [ ORDER ] [ ART and PHOTO GALLERY] Maggie's Music ~ PO Box 490/ Shady Side, MD 20764 Office: 410/867-0642 ~ FAX: 410/867-0265

[ HOME ] [ ABOUT ] [ CELTIC MARKETPLACE ] [ CALENDAR ] [ LINKS]
[ NEWSLETTER ] [ SAMPLER ] [ ORDER ] [ ART and PHOTO GALLERY]

Maggie's Music ~ PO Box 490/ Shady Side, MD 20764
Office: 410/867-0642 ~ FAX: 410/867-0265