“Playing with Jane is always a blast. Her distinctive tone and rhythmic sensibilities are totally infectious.” Andrew VanNorstrand

Jane jamming with Andrew VanNorstrand at Old Songs Festival

Jane Rothfield – fiddler, banjo player, tunesmith, teacher and composer – has been playing since early childhood. Her classical beginnings included study at Julliard’s pilot Suzuki children’s program, where she met the founder, Shinchi Suzuki. As a teen, she slipped her classical mooring and headed for other shores, along the way mastering an inspiring repertoire of American and Celtic traditional tunes, with a strong smattering of old-time and Scottish-rooted pieces as the centerpiece. With decades of collecting tunes, she still has left room in her heart for lots of original compositions in the many traditions of the roots music she loves.

Jane performs with Red Hen, a vibrant ‘new’ Old Time Band with hot vocal harmonies and instrumentals (Jane Rothfield, Allan Carr, Linda Schrade and David Kiphuth). She plays dances with a varying collection of musicians called Jane’s Gang. She teaches and performs with Donna Hebert and Max Cohen in Groovemama at Old Songs and Philadelphia Folk Festivals every year. With banjo star Hilarie Burhans and Bernie Nau (piano) playing hot southern style dance music, they are Great Big Taters.  Whenever possible, she also performs with Kentucky banjo/fiddle master Jimmy McCown.

Widely recognized as a gifted teacher of aspiring to advanced fiddlers and banjo players, Jane employs techniques she has honed over years of one-on-one experience. At the jam, Jane packs enough energy into her small frame to keep a roomful of veteran musicians going until it’s time for breakfast. Jane’s new CD of mostly original tunes, a fiddle/banjo masterpiece titled iFiddle, theyBanjo, and the new Red Hen: Crossing release are available here through Nimbit.com‘s direct-to-fan store. Order individual tracks for 99 cents or the whole CD for $10.  Hard copies are also available by online mail order for $15. Look for reissues of Jane’s earlier CDs soon.

When not on the way to a gig, Jane can be found developing broadcast media strategy for clients of her company Rothfield-Daniels Media Services in Albany and Philadelphia and settling into a new Philadelphia area community with Allan and family.