Eleanor Mayerfeld is the 2011 Frontenac Old Time Music Fiddle Champion, the youngest winner ever. She also performs with Sonora Strings, the touring violin ensemble of Suzuki Strings of Madison, and recently toured with them in Puerto Rico. She studies classical violin with Maria Rosa Germain, and fiddling with Shauncey Ali. She is a a ninth grader at West High School in Madison, Wisconsin. 

Eleanor was born in Ames, Iowa, and has lived in Dunedin, New Zealand and in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England.

Born in Providence, Rhode Island, Mike Bell cut his musical teeth with the Outhouse Shouters, a family string band with his two brothers, his father, and an older cousin. Since then, he has played in many groups, most notably the Barn Owl Band, with whom he recorded three albums and appeared on the National Public Radio Show A Prairie Home Companion. Mike is a composer and his folk tunes have been recorded by many folk artists. Lately he has been writing for and performing with the Madison class-grass group Graminy, while continuing his classical composition.

For his day job, Mike is a Professor of Community and Environmental Sociology at the University of Wisconsin, and the author or editor of eight books, three of which have won national awards. His main research specialty is environmental sociology. You can read more about his day job, and also about his classical composition, HERE.