Eleanor

Eleanor Mayerfeld is a seventh grader at Hamilton Middle School in Madison, Wisconsin.  She has acted and sung in three MadCAP musicals, and can sometimes be seen busking on Madison's State Street, during the summer months.  She also performs with Sonora Strings, the violin ensemble for older children of Suzuki Strings of Madison.  She studies classical violin with Maria Rosa Germain, and fiddling with Shauncey Ali.

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

Mike

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 also been focusing on 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 seven 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.