Kortney Adams is a native of St. Louis, MO, but has been working as an actor, director, and teaching artist in Boston since 2002. Before becoming a theater artist, Kortney was a practicing environmental engineer, and holds BS and MS degrees from Washington University and MIT. In addition to performing on professional stages throughout New England, Kortney has also appeared in numerous films, television and radio spots, and educational videos. In recent years, Kortney’s performed in CST’s Young Nerds of Color, Ada and the Engine, Harriet Jacobs, and From Orchids to Octopi. Kortney was formerly Artistic Director of Deana’s Educational Theater Company, Associate Director of Education for Wheelock Family Theatre, and Associate Director for City Stage Co. of Boston, where she co-directed the professional performances on KidStage at the Boston Children’s Museum. She is also the Managing Director of Theatre Espresso, which uses Theatre in Education to introduce young people to issues of social justice and the law.

David Coffin is a firm believer in not doing anything full-time. While he’s been on the Revels stage since 1980 and performed as Master of Ceremonies since 1990, he also presents two very interactive School Enrichment Programs with Revels: The History of the Recorder and A Maritime Voyage in Song. March through November, David can also be found on the Boston Harbor, narrating harbor history and running the crew onboard the high-speed stunt boat, Codzilla. Working with kids is a passion for David, so taking over 10,000 inner-city kids out to the Harbor Islands every summer since 2000 through Save the Harbor/Save the Bay has been a nice way to round out his year.

During the pandemic David created over 600 videos on TikTok trying to teach young people what a real sea chantey is: i.e. NOT WELLERMAN! A byproduct of these videos is the digital album The Sound of Time, a series of “one take” songs requested by followers on the app. David has also produced a series of virtual concerts, one of which became a digital album; A Revels Hymn Sing. David has several other solo CD’s to his credit and was also featured in the Amazon Prime movie Blow the Man Down as the Singing Fisherman.

In his years with Revels, including 10 years standing behind Jack Langstaff and 33 years spent trying to fill his enormous shoes, David learned an awful lot about performing from Jack. He also owes a huge debt of gratitude to Paddy Swanson for giving him his various onstage roles and for preserving and honoring “the part that Jack built.” He also wants to give Paddy a sizable thank you for putting up with him for so many years!

Born and raised in New Bedford, Massachusetts, “Candida Rose” Baptista is a 2nd generation American-born Cape Verdean. She is a vocalist, song-writer, entertainer, music and cultural educator, as well as a mother and grandmother.

Her 10-song debut CD entitled “KabuMerikana: The Sum of Me”, combines her Cape Verdean musical roots with her American (primarily jazz) influences, a mixture she calls “KabuJazz”. She is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth where she graduated “Summa Cum Laude” with a Bachelor of Arts – Music Degree, specializing in African-American/World music performance, with a minor in African-American Studies.

In addition, she recently graduated from UMASS Boston with a Masters of Science Degree in Transnational, Cultural, and Community Studies (now known as Critical Ethnic and Community Studies). As a working performer, in addition to her work with various jazz, R&B, and Cape Verdean musical groups, through her company Golden Rose Music, Candida spends her days traveling the SouthCoast region of Massachusetts and Rhode Island as a Life Enrichment Entertainer singing for Nursing Home, Assisted Living and Adult Day Care facilities, as well as for various senior groups and associations. It is said that she captivates her audiences and stirs them with a uniquely compelling voice that combines the overtones and undertones of jazz, rhythm and blues, and gospel with just the right touch of international spice.

Aidan Parkinson is an award-winning Irish playwright and actor, who, over the years, has put on his plays in bars, backyards, prisons, libraries, museums, trade union halls and the odd, random street corner. He has lived in North Africa, France, England, Spain and Santa Fe, New Mexico. Of his recent plays, ‘Bloodshed, Screaming and Monsters,’ won a Pen Award in Dublin in November 2019, and ‘Maura Dunne’ earned accolades from the Abbey Theatre in Dublin which referred to it as ‘a gripping tale … that offers a message of hope and connection in times of great adversity.’ He has recently taken to writing dramatic stories, two of which you will be hearing tonight. He lives with his family in West Roxbury.

Jackie O’Riley spent her formative dance years in the Irish set dancing community in Boston, MA.  Over the past 20 years, she has ardently sought out old-style or traditional step dancing, sean-nós dance, and set dancing and is now a respected performer and teacher, with a unique repertoire that includes older steps she’s collected from masters and field footage, and original material she’s composed.  

Jackie performs and teaches in the US, Canada, and Ireland, was an original member of the touring sean-nós dance show Atlantic Steps, and in 2018 performed at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin as part of Na Píobairí Uilleann’s production, “The Sound of Ireland”.  She founded, directs, and teaches O’Riley Irish Dance, a unique, non-competitive dance program for kids and teens now in its 14th year, is the co-recipient of a 2017 and 2022 grant for choreographers through the Boston Foundation, and a co-recipient of a Mass Cultural Council Fellowship in Choreography in 2021.

In 2019 she co-released a debut, first-of-its-kind visual album, From the Floor.  Above all, she believes in prioritizing musicality in dancing, being a part of the wider musical and traditional community, and maintaining the joy that drew her to the tradition in the first place.

Athéna-Gwendolyn Baptiste, They|Them|Theirs is a Trinidadian-American musician, actor and stage manager in the Greater Boston area. Some of their stage management credits include Breath and Imagination, The Cake (Lyric Stage Company of Boston), A Christmas Carol, Angels in America: Millennium Approaches (Central Square Theater), Diaspora, A Raisin in the Sun (New Repertory Theatre), King Hedley II (Actor Shakespeare Project). Other non-performance credits include, Ain’t Misbehavin’, (Central Square Theater, Greater Boston Stage Company, the Front Porch Arts Collective), Twilight: Los Angeles 1992 (American Repertory Theater). Performance credits include: Madame White Snake (Opera Boston), Midwinter Revels: Feast of Fools (Angel, Chorus, Dancer).

Debra Wise (Revels Artistic Director) co-founded Underground Railway Theater in Oberlin, Ohio; from 1978-2008, URT toured original works in the collaborative spirit of the Underground Railroad to venues ranging from Lincoln Center. to schools, to Symphony Hall, including Sanctuary-The Spirit of Harriet Tubman, Home is Where, InTOXICating, and Christopher Columbus Follies; with the Boston Symphony, Firebird, Creation of the World, and Tempest. As URT’s Artistic Director, she created performances for non-traditional venues in the area, including Museum of Science, MIT Museum, Mary Baker Eddy Library, the MFA, and on the streets of Cambridge. After founding Central Square Theater with Nora Theatre Company in 2008, Wise co-founded Catalyst Collaborative@MIT, CST’s science theater partnership. She led partnerships with Mount Auburn Cemetery and the National Park Service (Roots of Liberty–The Haitian Revolution and the American Civil War). Productions Wise helmed have won Elliot Norton awards, including Vanity Fair; black odyssey boston; The Convert, and Constellations. Acting appearances at CST have included Angels in America, Half-Life of Marie Curie, Homebody, Copenhagen, Einstein’s Dreams, Arabian Nights; other stages include Commonwealth Shakespeare, New Rep, Speakeasy, Boston Playwrights, and the Public in NYC (The Haggadah, designed by Julie Taymor). She has adapted for the stage works by Dickens, Grace Paley, Lewis Carroll, and Gregory Maguire. She developed the Art Works for Schools curriculum with Harvard’s Project Zero, the DeCordova Museum, and area schools. Wise left her CST Artistic Director position in 2022 to invite diverse leadership; she continues as CoChair of the CC@MIT Advisory Committee. She consults with the Oberlin-Wellington Rescue Theater Project (www.owrproject.org); co-authored a digital book on URT’s history (www.URTheaterEbook.com); and her third audiobook, The Witch of Maracoor by Gregory Maguire, was released this fall.

Elijah Botkin (Revels Music Director), a Boston-based conductor, arranger, choral educator, and performer, was named Revels’ Music Director in December of 2021. He graduated from Northeastern University in 2015 with bachelor’s degrees in Music History & Analysis and Mathematics. While at Northeastern, Elijah founded and directed the Northeastern Madrigal Singers, served as President and Assistant Conductor for the NU Choral Society, and sang with and arranged for the award-winning a cappella group Distilled Harmony.

Elijah’s work on Distilled Harmony’s quarterfinal-winning performance set won the distinction of Outstanding Arrangement from the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella. His arrangement of “Nothing Feels Like You” by Little Mix also won a CARA (Contemporary A Cappella Recording Award) for Best Mixed Collegiate Song. In 2014, Elijah was granted the Gideon Klein Award in order to write his composition The Closed Town, which was premiered by the Northeastern University Chamber Choir in April 2015.

In addition to his role with Revels, Elijah continues to direct the NU Madrigal Singers and was recently named the Interim Music Director of the Reading Community Singers for Spring 2023. He is also a frequent performer with a variety of professional ensembles in the Boston area, with recent and upcoming performances including appearances with Carduus and the Renaissonics at New England Conservatory’s First Mondays concert series, with the Nightingale Vocal Ensemble for their concert, Avian Menagerie, and with the NU Madrigal Singers for their Tenth-Year Anniversary Concert in April.

Patrick “Paddy” Swanson (Revels Senior Artistic Consultant) began his career in London as an actor at the Arts Theatre in the West End. In 1969, following a European tour with the La MaMa Plexus Troupe, he moved to New York and received his world theater education as a resident actor at La MaMa E.T.C. His numerous directing projects include opera, ensemble pieces, music-theater, and circus. He was a founding stage director of Circus Flora and the Artistic Director of Revels. Paddy taught acting and improvisation at the London Academy of Dramatic Art (L.A.M.D.A.), the London Drama Centre, and the Tisch School of the Arts at N.Y.U. He served as artistic director of the Castle Hill Festival in Ipswich, Massachusetts, directing and co-producing opera and theater works, including the premieres of Julie Taymor’s Liberty Taken and Peter Sellars’ production of Cosi fan tutte. He directed the Boston Camerata in Tristan and Iseult at the Spoleto USA festival and Shirley Valentine at the Alley Theatre, Houston and the Charles Playhouse, as well as numerous other productions in the U.K. and Europe. His Actor’s Shakespeare Project production of Shakespeare’s King Lear with Alvin Epstein was nominated for three 2006 Elliot Norton awards and subsequently transferred Off-Broadway. Paddy’s most recent acting role was as Father Jack in Brian Friel’s Dancing at Lughnasa at Gloucester Stage. He currently researches, writes, and directs all Cambridge Revels scripts and serves as consultant to the other eight Revels production companies performing throughout the United States. He is delighted to be co-directing this year’s Midwinter Revels with his brilliant colleague and conspirator, Debra Wise.

Joey Abarta has spent more than half his life traveling, teaching, and performing music on the uilleann pipes. Originally from California, he first received instruction on the pipes from Dubliner Pat D’Arcy, a founding member of the Southern California Uilleann Pipers Club.

        In August of 2009, Joey’s accomplished playing won him a second place title worldwide at the Fleadh Cheoil na hEireann. In the fall of 2014 Joey won first prize at the An tOireachtas, becoming the the first American uilleann piper to do so since 1969. In 2015 Joey was honored to be a recipient of a traditional arts apprenticeship from the Massachusetts Cultural Council meaning he was awarded a grant to teach his art to the next generation. This year Joey was awarded an Artist Fellowship in the Traditional Arts from the Massachusetts Cultural Council meaning he was recognized as a bearer and conduit of a cultural tradition by his peers and the state of Massachusetts.

Currently based in Boston, Joey divides his attention between performance, teaching, and recording. In addition to performing solo, he performs with his wife, old-style step dancer Jaclyn O’Riley, Nathan Gourley of “Life is all Checkered”, and has toured with Mick Moloney and the group The Green Fields of America. He is currently the acting President of the Boston Pipers Club (1908-present) and through the club organizes uilleann piping workshops and concerts for its members and public. Joey is also the president of The Patrick J. Touhey Memorial Weekend which is an annual festival focusing on historical presentations and workshops based around early American piping styles and pipers. In 2018 Joey was invited by Na Píobairí Uilleann to represent piping in America by performing for the president of Ireland at the Abbey Theater in Dublin Ireland. The concert was a part of the country’s celebration of uilleann piping being recognized as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO.

Austin Comerford (Tuba) received his Bachelor of Music from The Boston Conservatory and his Master of Music from University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. His primary teachers are Steven Campbell and Kenneth Amis and he has completed additional studies with notable brass players such as Mike Roylance, Roger Bobo, Craig Knox, Larry Isaacson, and Sasha Johnson.

Mr. Comerford works at New England Conservatory as the Assistant Director of Enrollment and also maintains an active performance and teaching schedule in the Boston area. He is the instructor of tuba and euphonium at Bridgewater State University and for Weston Public Schools. As a teacher, Mr. Comerford has worked with a wide variety of students ranging from ages 9-55 and has presented master classes and clinics at high schools and colleges throughout New England and Minnesota. While pursuing his masters degree, he worked as an elementary and middle school band director and had the great pleasure of starting many students down their path in music. Many of Mr. Comerford’s students have achieved top marks at solo & ensemble competitions and have been accepted to music schools and conservatories around the country.

Mr. Comerford has performed with numerous orchestras, wind ensembles, brass bands, brass quintets, and more throughout New England and Minnesota and enjoys the opportunity to perform for audiences in these varied settings. When not playing tuba, he is an active baker, biker, and swimmer.

Tom Duprey (Trumpet) has been freelancing as a trumpet player in the Boston area since the mid-1980s. His jazz friends say he’s a classical player, and his classical friends say he’s a jazzer with a good tone. Tom feels that he’s a “generalist” –  a Jack of all Trades – who noodles his way through the trumpet!

Tom has performed and recorded with pit orchestras; jazz bands; symphony orchestras; and rock, Latin and R&B bands, playing with the likes of Johnny Mathis, Dionne Warwick, Tommy Tune, Robert Goulet, Serj Tankian, Madeleine Peyroux, Amanda Palmer, the Scottish indie-pop band Belle & Sebastian, and with his buddy David Hawthorne’s band Time Ghost on their release Reading For Cigar Makers. His longest-running gig has been playing with the band TickleJuice, led by friend and fellow NEC grad James Merenda, for over fifteen years. And near and dear to his heart, Tom has been blessed to play on many Revels productions and recordings, starting around 1999 as the sub for the now-defunct descant trumpet part up in the balcony of the amazing Sanders Theatre.

Abe Finch (Percussion) is a Boston-area freelance percussionist and music educator. He has performed with the Boston Lyric Opera, Royal Ballet, Boston Landmarks Orchestra, Portland Symphony, Dinosaur Annex, Pro Arte Chamber Ensemble, Chorus Pro Musica, New England Percussion Ensemble, Boston Brass Ensemble, and many more classical, jazz, and theater organizations. Abe was the featured percussionist in the world premiere of James Kallembach’s Audubon at Jordan Hall, performing with Chorus Pro Musica under the direction of Jamie Kirsch and making “salient work of Kallembach’s involved percussion writing” (Jonathan Blumhofer, Boston

Classical Review).

Abe provided percussion for Chorus Pro Musica’s performance of The Little Match Girl Passion by David Lang, creating a tapestry of sound using iOS integration and Ableton Live software to capture, process, and transform acoustic sound with ethereal effects. Abe also played the solo percussion role in the world premiere of Songs for the Earth by Rebecca Sachs at Tufts University. 

Abe has performed with Revels since 2003, appearing in numerous Christmas and Midwinter Revels and on seven Revels CD releases. He also coached a group of his own students in the Revels production of Benjamin Britten’s Noye’s Flood. 

Abe composes original works for percussion, including thematic pieces for children, advanced percussion ensemble repertoire, and arrangements for steel drum ensemble. He currently teaches percussion at Salem State University, where he is director of the small ensemble program. His other teaching positions include Phillips Academy, Groton School, Groton Hill Music, and Northern Essex Community College.

Greg Gettel (Trumpet) is a versatile trumpet player and teacher who has spent over 25 years in the local music scene. After attending Oberlin Conservatory and New England Conservatory, he toured in South Africa, Zimbabwe, England, and performed at the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland. Greg has also served as a guest coach at the SHOBI College of Music in Japan. Locally, he has appeared with many ensembles throughout New England including Boston Ballet, Emmanuel Music, Harvard Baroque, Portland Symphony, Plymouth Philharmonic, Opera Boston, Odyssey Opera, the American Repertory Theater, the Family Folk Chorale, and Midwinter Revels. Greg appears annually in A Merry Music Hall Christmas at the Methuen Memorial Music Hall. He has also played in the Trinity United Methodist’s Boar’s Head Festival in Springfield, MA for over 20 years. He was a student of Tim Morrison, Byron Pearson, and Louis Ranger. Currently, he teaches for Lexington Community Education and The Waldorf School of Lexington. Raised by musicians in rural Vermont, Greg can often be found outdoors with his wife, two kids, and their dog.

Liz Hanley is a Brooklyn based singer and fiddle player across many genres.

Growing up in Boston into an Irish Hungarian American family, Liz Hanley learned traditional fiddle tunes from her father/fiddle player Andy Hanley, songs and stories from her grandparents Martin Hanley, Rita McNamara and Ray Nagy and family friends Brian and Lindsay O’Donovan. She attended the New England Conservatory Preparatory school where she studied under Blanka Bednarz and then Eric Rosenblith. She has toured globally with Mick Moloney and the Green Fields of America, as well as prog folk rock ensemble Frogbelly and Symphony and chamber rock band Emanuel and the Fear.

Hanley spent many years living between Brooklyn, NY and Sheffield, England, immersed in the both city’s rich folk music scenes and collecting songs and tunes. Today she can be found mostly playing around NYC in the Irish traditional seisiún scene.

Hanley’s debut album “The Ecstasy of St Cecilia” was hailed “a gentle work of beauty” by FolkWorld. Hanley’s sophomore album will be arriving in 2024. Both records feature long time collaborators and friends Jefferson Hamer and Eamon O’Leary of the Murphy Beds.

Now a familiar face in the boutique guitar world, Lindsay Straw is a guitarist, singer, and Irish bouzouki player whose work can be seen and heard in videos and podcasts from Carter Vintage Guitars, The North American Guitar, and The Music Emporium. Prior to becoming a resource for guitar players and collectors through her informative videos and interviews with luthiers, she released several traditional folk albums—two solo, and one with her Irish band The Ivy Leaf—and gigged full-time playing for concerts, festivals, and events throughout New England and beyond.

A singer first and foremost, she’s delved heavily into the songs and vocal styles of the Scottish and Irish Traveller communities, taking age-old folk ballads and making them her own with her signature intricate fingerstyle guitar and winding bouzouki arrangements. Her song choices highlight universally shared feelings while often focusing on women’s experiences, and gravitate towards the dark and modal.

Though she grew up in Montana and Wyoming, Lindsay found her musical home within the Celtic and folk scenes of Boston after graduating from Berklee College of Music. Through various collaborations along the Americana to Celtic spectrum, she combines inspiration from her fellow musicians with the influences of her folk revival heroes.

Philip Swanson (Trombone) has had a wide-ranging career as a trombonist, pianist, composer, organist, and teacher. He received a Doctor of Musical Arts from New England Conservatory, a Master of Music from the Eastman School of Music, and did his undergraduate study at Oberlin Conservatory and the University of Miami.

As a trombonist he has performed with the Miami Philharmonic, where he served as principal for five years, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Boston Pops, Opera Boston, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Boston Ballet Orchestra, and numerous other orchestral and chamber ensembles. He has performed with many small group and big band jazz ensembles including Chamber Jazz, which he founded with guitarist Anthony Weller, and The Bob Nieske 10. He has also collaborated with the poet J.D. Scrimgeour, Director of Creative Writing at Salem State University, forming the group “Confluence” which combines Scrimgeour’s poetry with Swanson’s music. Swanson is a Professor of Music at Salem State University, where he teaches music theory, composition, trombone, and piano. Since 1991, he has been Music Director of the First Congregational Church of Rockport, where he serves as organist and choir director.

Swanson has written and published numerous works in both instrumental and vocal genres. He can be heard on a wide range of recordings including several jazz group recordings, two solo piano recordings, an album with J.D. Scrimgeour of poetry and music, two CDs with brass and organ, seven CDs with the Cambridge Revels, and performances with larger ensembles including the Boston Pops and John Williams. For more information on his compositions, recordings, and current performances, please visit www.swansonmusic.com

Jeff Adelberg celebrates his 13th year designing for Revels! A Boston-based designer, he is responsible for over 300 productions in New England and beyond. Recent work includes Million Dollar Quartet Christmas (Capital Repertory Theatre, Albany NY), El Matrimonio Secreto (Florida Grand Opera),  Topdog/Underdog and Describe the Night (The Gamm Theatre, RI), Heroes of the Fourth Turning and People Places and Things (Speakeasy Stage), and Ain’t Misbehavin’ (Central Square Theatre). Jeff has won four Eliott Norton Awards and four Independent Reviewers of New England (IRNE) Awards for his designs. He attended the University of Connecticut and teaches at Harvard University and Boston College. A member of IATSE/USA-829, Jeff lives in Holliston, Massachusetts with wife Tess and daughter Jo. www.jeffadelberg.com Instagram: @jdadelberg

Bill Winn has toured all over the world working with many of music’s top acts such as Whitney Houston, Herbie Hancock, and Joni Mitchell. He has designed and implemented sound for the DC Jazz Festival, 2004–2014; Barbara Streisand Live at Shrine Auditorium; 2000 DNC; and the Thelonious Monk Jazz Competition, 1987 to the present. His television-broadcast sound and mixing work has included the 2017 Emmy Award-nominated Front Row Boston (WGBH featuring Sean Lennon and Les Claypool), The United Nation’s International Jazz Day at the White House (ABC, 2016), and the White House Tribute to Thelonious Monk (2008). Bill has been working with Revels since 1995. He met Revels founder Jack Langstaff and former music director George Emlen while working on several Revels recordings with John Newton of Soundmirror. In 1999, Revels sound designer Berred Ouellette passed on the task of creating the Revels sound to Bill, who has been sitting at the board in orchestra row V every December since.

Heidi Hermiller has been designing Revels costumes for 30+ years and loves each exciting new challenge! Along with the Revels, Heidi has designed the Harvard Hasty Pudding (now with actual women in the cast!), but wherever she is in Cambridge, Heidi loves the craziness, research, and outright joy of designing costumes for director Paddy Swanson, including Sanders statues brought to life, pirates, dragons, trolls, killer fish, dancing crabs, tiny ballerinas, incredible singers, beautiful dancers… anything to make Midwinter Revels magic burst to life! She would especially like to thank her husband John for his love, patience, and understanding when asked to climb up the ladder and hand down the Jingly Jesters… no, not the sparkly jester or the French Jester… or the Velvet Jester…etc.

Jeremy Barnett is a Detroit-based scenic designer and professor of theatre at Oakland University in Southeast Michigan. Boston credits include work for Opera Boston, Boston Midsummer Opera, The Opera Institute at Boston University, Mssng Lnks Inc., Gloucester Stage Company, and Stoneham Theatre Company. Jeremy has assisted designers on productions at The Lyric Opera of Chicago, The New York Philharmonic, The Pasadena Playhouse, Pittsburgh Public Theatre, Arena Stage, The Shakespeare Theatre in Washington D.C., Philadelphia Theatre Company, and Huntington Theatre Company. He holds an MFA in Scenic Design from Boston University and a BFA from Carnegie Mellon University, and has studied fine art in Ukraine, Italy, and Zimbabwe. Jeremy co-founded Amarant Design Collective, an installation art organization that produces site-specific work in repurposed spaces in and around Detroit.