Lee and Julian Shepherd are staples of English Country Dance music and often can be found performing with many bands with their finely tuned repertoire. Barbara Seppeler also anchors various bands as well as being a passionate pianist espousing the wonderful attributes of English Country Dance music. In addition to their musical talents, Lee, Julian and Barbara are terrific dancers who are frankly, just fun to have at anyone’s Ball and certainly makes everyone invite list in true Regency etiquette.
As luck would have it, a piano became temporarily abandoned at an event all these aforementioned musicians were attending so Barbara seized the opportunity and took immediate possession of the keyboard. Lee and Julian who rarely travel anywhere without their instruments, fueled the mutiny and jumped up on stage. The Dance Organizers who attempted to reclaim civility could only blurt-out Baa (probably referring to Barbara) as the rowdy (but well-mannered) patrons of the dance who mistakenly thought that the Baa herd over the PA system was the crowd’s cue to bleat like sheep egging on this newly formed group - Baa and the Shepherds.
We may be stuck with the name; Baa and the Shepherds but you are the beneficiary of wonderful music that spans the facets of English Country Dance. If you do attend a Ball we are performing at, please refrain from sheepish behavior and avoid grazing on the Governor's lawn (we would like to remain on his A-list).
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Barbara Seppeler is a graduate of the Crane School of Music, (SUNY Potsdam) with a Bachelor of Music, and a Master of Music Ed from SUNY Fredonia. She has taught vocal and general music to all grades in both public and private schools. She is currently a private piano instructor, a choral director, a composer, and an English Country Dance pianist. Barbara has taken classes and studied privately with Jacqueline Schwab. She toured the New England States and Canada with callers Val Medve and Dan Seppeler with the 2013 BVD tour as both an ECD solo pianist or with local musicians and twice had the opportunity to perform with Peter Barnes and Mary Lea. Her band, Serendipity, will be playing in the Dance Flurry this February and Barb will be playing both solo ECD and with the band NoteWorthy at NEFFA this year.
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Shepherd and Ewe is composed of Julian Shepherd, cello, and Lee Shepherd, piano and violin. The duo plays elegant and exuberant music from the classical and English folk tradition. Julian, a biology professor at Binghamton University, is an expert in birds and bugs, flora and fauna. Lee is a retired newspaper feature writer. The duo plays for fund-raisers, fairs, festivals, coffeehouses, dances, weddings and parties. |
