Contest | Place | Year |
---|---|---|
National Mountain Dulcimer Championship | First | 2008 |
Winfield,2008 was Nina’s first time attending a festival of this type and also her first competition. She has been playing mountain dulcimer only since 2004, but before that was always involved in music, including piano, violin, choral music, and classical string ensembles. Her dulcimer adventure began when she noticed a poster advertising a festival to be given by the Dulcimer Association of Albany (NY), the club near her hometown. She went to the festival, bought her first dulcimer, and quickly became “hooked”, especially with fingerpicking and the “softer side” of dulcimer playing. Former Winfield champions Linda Brockinton and Sue Carpenter encouraged her to enter the competition, and she’s glad she did, although it was difficult to get time off from her “day job”, teaching college biology.