Greg Padrick is a nationally licensed acupuncturist and Chinese herbalist, as well as a member of the Maryland Acupuncture Society, the British Acupuncture Council, and the Register of Chinese Herbal Medicine in the United Kingdom. After graduating with a B.A. in Religion from Davidson College in North Carolina, he received his medical training from the College of Integrated Chinese Medicine in Reading, England. Greg returned to the United States and moved with his family to Westminster, opening his practice in 1999 at the Center for Healing Arts, where he combines acupuncture, Chinese herbal medicine, and nutritional therapy to create an optimum healing dynamic for his patients. In addition to teaching Chinese medical theory at the Tai Sophia Institute in Laurel, Maryland, Greg is a Wing Chun Kung Fu instructor.
Maria Luisa Parra was raised in Mexico City where she grew with an interest in the intersection of poetry, music, dance and paintings. She studied psychology and linguistics and recieved her Ph.D. in Hispanic Linguistics at the Colegio de Mexico. She emigrated to the US where she has done bilingual research with Latino families and parents at Tufts University and is writing a book on "Becoming Bilingual: Why Parents and Teachers Matter". She is Spanish Senior Preceptor in the Department of Romance Languages at Harvard University.
Jesse Palidofsky is a performing songwriter on Azalea City Recordings. For twenty-five years he has utilized music for healing in a number of different settings: with children with cancer at Children's National Medical Center; with seniors with dementia and Parkinson's in his work with Arts For The Aging; as well as in hospitals and prisons. For the last eight years he has shared music with hospice patients in the Washington, D.C. area. He has led numerous workshops on Music and Healing for the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization, the Maryland Hospice and Palliative Care Network and the Association of Professional Chaplains annual conference.
Jim Paulsen received a BS degree from Western Illinois University, an MA Degree from Northern Illinois University, and an MFA from the University of Delaware. He has taught art at all levels from elementary and secondary to adult education. He has been a Professor of Art at Towson University since 1969. Jimís art works include jewelry, paintings, drawings, sculpture and installations. He has done commissioned sculpture in England, Scotland, Germany, China and the USA. He exhibits works locally, regionally, nationally and internationally. Jim is a past President of the Maryland Craft Council and Baltimore Sculptors Inc. Following the installation of a 22í sculpture at the Hilton Hotel in Bejing, China, Jim lectured at art schools in seven provinces throughout the Peoples Republic of China. He has also lectured in Europe and the USA. http://jpaulsen@towson.edu
Blind Boy Paxton Jerron Paxton, just 22, was born into a Creole family in Los Angeles. While growing up in the South Central area, he learned banjo, guitar, harmonica, piano and several other instruments in their authentic pre-war American styles. He cops licks from Blind Blake, Papa Charley Jackson, Robert Johnson, Charley Patton, Earl Scruggs, Willie "The Lion" Smith and Lonnie Johnson, recreating the sounds of pre-war music in America. His childhood would be pretty normal for someone born about sixty years earlier. He listened to Toretear Reed, his maternal grandmother’s stories and songs. She taught him life skills: how to make old "Gris Gris" medicines, how to fish, hunt and cook, and how to drive. She would sing him blues, ballads, Cajun lullabies and tell him folk stories. As Toretear approached the end of her life Jerron began to ask her more about herself, where she came from and who she knew. He was able to coax her to teach him the Creole French that she had not spoken since the early 1940s. When he was 12 years old an interest in mechanics led him to wonder how violins produced sound, so his loving Aunt LaShunder bought him a fiddle. That started him down the road of music, for it helped him find a love for bluegrass and early country music. Associations with mentor Brad Kay and his buddy Frank Fairfield have reinforced his love of the music on 78s and cylinders, and his respect for those bygone but still vital media themselves. He loves his music and his musical friends very much and brings to his listeners a vivid recreation of music as it was, and a strong hint of where it is headed.
Tim Porter is a mandolinist of wide-ranging musical interests, deeply rooted in the blues, jazz, Celtic, Indian, and worship genres, all of which connect with Tim's heritage. He performs with The Contemporary Ensemble in New York, and has performed with other groups at various venues around New York City, including an ensemble of the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music. He has performed in Europe, most notably at the annual Festi Jazz Festivals in Saint Cezaire, France in 2008 and 2009. He was an original member of The Common Ground on the Hill Black String Band, which has performed both at Common Ground in Maryland and at the Old Songs Festival in upstate New York. Tim has performed with acclaimed mandolin virtuoso, Barry Mitterhoff, and many other musicians including jazz greats, Roni Ben-Hur, Santi Dibriano, Bill Wurtzel, and Steve Williams, blues and folk musicians, Mike Baytop, Guy Davis, Earl White, and Sparky and Rhonda Rucker, and Celtic vocalist, Kerrin Kennedy Perkins. He has taught jazz mandolin, been on the faculty of CGOTH, and instructed other mandolin workshops. He served for five years as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of WBGO Newark Public Radio, the jazz station serving the New York metropolitan area, and is also a member of the Board of Governors of the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music in New York, and the Board of Directors of the Old Town School of Folk Music In Chicago. Tim is also an attorney focusing on international law matters.
Maggie Powell earned her Bachelor's degrees in Psychology and Theatre from McDaniel College in 2011. She works at the Amazing Kids Club Autism Program in Hanover, PA, teaching drama to all age-groups across the autism spectrum. She also helps direct a drama group for the Carroll County Therapeutic Recreation Council.
Laurie Precht, founder of Carroll Rhythms, has been organizing community drum circles in Carroll County since 2001. In addition to teaching drumming in Westminster, she works with at-risk youth in Baltimore County in a program named “Drum Leadership.” She has extensively studied drum circle facilitation with Arthur Hull, the internationally recognized father of the drum circle movement. She has also studied drum technique with Jaqui MacMillan and other area drummers. Laurie believes that rhythm can be a springboard for finding common ground. As a wise friend once taught her, it’s not about the music. It’s about the people. www.carrollrhythms.com
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