Evie Ladin and Sophie Wellington

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Sophie is a Boston-based musician who draws inspiration from old time fiddling, percussive dance, and jazz improvisation. Raised in Staunton, VA by concert pianist Lynne Mackey and old time musician and dance caller Bill Wellington, her childhood was steeped in shared music and movement. Contra dances, choirs, music festivals and camps shaped her curiosity and inspired her to pursue music professionally. In 2021, she earned her bachelor’s degree from Berklee College of Music. She majored in Professional Music with concentrations in vocal jazz performance and the American Roots Music Program.

Sophie’s education set the stage for an integration of musical influences. Since graduating, Sophie recorded and released her debut solo record Roving Jewel. This collection of fiddle tunes, dancing duets, and vocal jazz standards marks a new phase of her musicianship. Improvisation is at the heart of her relationship with sound and space. By using this spontaneous element to interpret rhythm, harmony, and melody, she engages the listener – and the music itself – in a conversation.

In the summer of 2022, Sophie toured around the eastern United States attending festivals and camps as a guest teaching artist and performer. She was a featured guest artist for the Heifetz Hootenanny, their traditional music concert series. She taught dance, string band arrangement techniques and stylistic repertory at Powers String Traditions Camp in Belmont, MA, worked as a staff musician at Augusta Heritage Center’s Old Time and Blues Week in Elkins, WV, and attended Earful of Fiddle Music and Dance Camp in Rodney, MI as a full scholarship recipient. She gave a workshop at Ethno USA on improvisational approaches when integrating old time fiddle and percussive dance as a solo performer.

Evie Ladin

—NO DEPRESSION

Banjo player, singer, songwriter, percussive-dancer, choreographer and square-dance caller, Evie has always been surrounded by music – credit to her upbringing as daughter of an international folk dance teacher, and an old-time folk music devotee, she grew up thinking that playing music, dancing, singing with others was what people do. Though entrenched in the traditional cultural arts of Appalachia, her home was in New York City, Baltimore, now Oakland – in cities, not mountains. But tradition bearers came through and played in her living room, with weekends spent at music festivals and house parties. Evie’s performances, recordings and teaching reconnect Appalachian music/dance with other African-Diaspora traditions, and have been heard from A Prairie Home Companion to Lincoln Center, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass to Celtic Connections. Evie tours internationally with Keith Terry and her Evie Ladin Band; and has produced numerous albums and instructional DVDs.