Mary Ann Johnston - I was born and raised in and around the small town of Chester, West Virginia, which is situated on the banks of the beautiful Ohio River. My husband, Jack, and I now live on what was once part of his family farm in a house that was built in 1812 and are fortunate to have our children and grandchildren all within a quarter mile of us. From my earliest memory, I have had songs running around in my head my every waking moment. Jack says I am the only one he has ever met that, no matter what someone says, it reminds me of a song. That is why I first picked up an autoharp, I needed to learn to accompany myself instead of always relying on someone else. I bought my first 'harp while in the hospital recuperating from hip surgery. I had taken my lap dulcimer to the hospital with me and one of the kitchen staff, seeing it, told me about this "instrument" her daughter had under the bed at home. She brought "it" in, I fell in love, and I left the hospital with an autoharp. Both Ivan Stiles and Charles Whitmer tried their best to teach me to play during several trips to the Augusta Workshops in Elkins, WV. I still treasure the many friends I made in those classes. I had previously edited the Profiles column in AQ for about 7 years before launching this latest adventure. I am an avid teapot collector (1550 pots) and am also embroiled in writing a book about my collection. On June 25, 2005, it was my honor to be inducted into the Autoharp Hall of Fame.

Karen Daniels - After taking piano lessons from her childhood until her second year in college, she decided she wanted something less structured. She discovered the mountain dulcimer at Silver Dollar City in Branson, Missouri and was immediately taken with its simplicity. Later, she discovered the hammered dulcimer and decided it, too, offered freedom from structure. She found an autoharp at a flea market, bought it, strummed it a few times and thought, "Ho, hum. Boring," and put it under the bed. Then, she heard Bryan Bowers and began to realize the full potential of the 'harp. On that momentous day, she remembers thinking,"Oh, how cute. We'll come down out of the mountains and hear this guy play his cute little autoharp." The word "cute" has never applied since that day. A friend was her first teacher and then, she took classes from Tom Schroeder and she was hooked. She bought a new OS 'harp, but it needed some work, so husband, Chuck, fixed it. That was the beginning of his new hobby of repairing and restoring 'harps. Now, he also plays. Her first entry into the competition at Walnut Valley was "just for the experience", but a few years later that experience turned into a great experience when she was crowned as the 1997 International Champion at that very same festival. She also won the Texas State Championship in 1997. What a year! Karen is active with the Ozark Folk Center in Mt. View, AR and teaches autoharp in the public schools there.

Stew Schneider - Nearly 30 years ago, a dulcimer player who rejoices in the name of Randy Jack Nuckols, approached me on stage where I was playing guitar and opined, in the nicest way imaginable, that I was quite possibly the worst guitar player then on planet earth. He loaned me a black OS 15 bar, showed me "Gold Watch and Chain", and told me to stand at the back of the stage and try not to annoy the musicians. Over the next twenty some years, I played 'harp sporadically, periodically buying new ones, including one I think came from Goose Acres (though it had no label) then selling them in disgust ( I got $75 for it). There was just something missing. I finally determined that the something was an electronic tuner. Makes all the difference in the world when the 'harp is in tune.

I heard of Goose Acres and drove all the way to Cleveland where I ordered my first custom 'harp. After I got it, I ran into an Orthey, and lost my mind. I sold a kidney, rented the family room out to a group from Argentina for dance nights and bought a Carter Gold GDA. Over the past 5 years or so, I've played more 'harp than I did in the preceding 20. I now play with the Foot In The Air String Band, as desperate a group of cut-throats as you could find, and have annoyed audiences as far away as Ireland.

In real life, I'm the Commonwealth's Attorney for the 32nd Judicial Circuit of Kentucky. Ain't THAT a hoot?

Bob Woodcock - My musical roots run deep. My father's father was Welsh and had that nation's love of singing.My father was also an enthusiastic singer and a very good mouth harp player. My mother's mother, born in the Portugese Azores, loved country music and played the slide guitar for a time. I first remember being fascinated by traditional music as a child listening to the Sunday morning country church services on the am radio. I clearly remember hearing "Anchored In Love" any number of times.I got my first real guitar at age 15, during the Great Folk Scare of the 60s. For some years, I did the folk thing, with some country thrown in. In the late 60s I was heavy into rural blues. I was in the Navy for a few years, and then in the radioactive reserves.I found myself in Lancaster,Pa with a guitar, banjo and mandolin, playing to the walls of my house. So, I put an ad in the paper announcing the first meeting of the Lancaster County Folksong and Fiddler's Society. That was over 20 years ago and they are still an active, vibrant organization.I am a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist, and once while working in a Philly emergency room as a fill-in nurse, I heard this gnome-like ER doc sinnging "Dark Town Strutters Ball". "Hmmm" says I, "we'd better check this out", we did and Gil Palley and I have been best friends ever since. He took my old 15 bar OS and redid the bars into something that made sense and I added the 'harp to my list of poorly-played instruments. Drew Smith inspired me to begin playing fiddle tunes and I still play primarily thumb-lead style. I consider the autoharp community to be one of the warmest, friendliest and most talented bunch of musicians around. They have enriched my musical life beyond measure.

Judy Pagter - Judie and her husband, Carl, are members of "Country Ham", a popular bluegrass and gospel band. Together they have more than a dozen recordings to their credit. Judie's vivacious personality shines through in her songs and complements her energetic 'harpistry. In addition to her skill on the autoharp, Judie is an accomplished songwriter whose works include the theme song for the Mountain Laurel Autoharp Gathering, "Where the Mountain Laurel Blooms." She is a real country girl who lives on and works a farm near Stanardsville, VA.

Tina Louise Barr - Autoharp virtuoso Tina Louise Barr is a ground-breaking leader in her field, demonstrating her innovations in a variety of musical styles. A native Californian, Tina's musical influences range anywhere from Mother Maybelle Carter to Johnny Cash, Bob Wills, the Beach Boys, David Grisman or Sam Bush; or anywhere from Irish jigs and reels to Cape Breton fiddle tunes.

Tina's precise melody and spirited rhythmic textures on the autoharp have won national recognition. The autoharp's traditional role is unleashed by her unique articulation, exploring new frontiers for the instrument.

Tina has been a featured performer and instructor at Mountain Laurel Autoharp Gathering and the Willamette Valley Autoharp Gathering. She performs solo, or with her band "Frettin' Around" at music events throughout northern California. She has earned top awards in many music contests, including the International Autoharp Competition.

John Hollandsworth - A native of Christiansburg in southwest Virginia, John has been developing his own autoharp style since childhood. His repertoire includes, but is not limited to - traditional Appalachian, old-time and Celtic music. Since the early 1980s, John has been performing, competing, and leading workshops with autoharp. He was the first winner of the Mountain Laurel Autoharp Championship in 1991, was a finalist in his only visit to Winfield in 1989, and has won the competition at Galax Old Time Fiddler's Convention three times, including the all-around best performer honors. John has performed and/or taught at the Mountain Laurel Autoharp Gathering, Augusta Heritage Workshops in Elkins, West Virginia, the Summer Solstice Festival in California, Autoharp Jamboree at the Ozark Folk Center in Mt. View, Arkansas, Wisconsin Stringalong, Cranberry Dulcimer Gathering in Binghamton, New York, Summerfest in Missouri, and Winston-Salem (NC) Dulcimer Festival, among other regional events and private concerts. John and his wife, Kathie, perform together as a duo, and also with the old-time band, Mountain Fling, with Ed Ogle and Jim Lloyd. John is now making custom autoharps,using the name Blue Ridge Instruments.

Ivan Stiles - Ivan is known in autoharp circles across the country as an autoharpist of unique ability; not just as a performer, but also as a recording artist, instructor, author, and co-founder and co-editor of Autoharp Quarterly magazine from 1988 until 1997. He performs nationwide at fairs, festivals, coffeehouses, colleges and clubs. In addition to the autoharp, he plays the Appalachian dulcimer, bowed psaltery, musical saw and hurdy-gurdy. His bowed psaltery playing incorporates the use of two bows at one time, allowing him to play harmony along with the melody. He has given concerts and workshops since 1980 at such places as Walnut Valley Festival, Mountain Laurel Autoharp Gathering, the Willamette Valley Autoharp Gathering, the Cranberry Dulcimer Gathering, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Stringalong Weekend, the California Traditional Music Society Summer Solstice, the Augusta Heritage Arts Workshops, the Philadelphia Folk Festival, the Swannanoa Gathering, the Brandywine Mountain Music Convention, the John C. Campbell Folk School, and the Ozark Folk Center. He has two recordings; Rounding Pickering Bend, released in 1986 and Pickin' On The Porch, released in 1992. He also has authored a book, Jigs and Reels ForThe Autoharp. Stiles is also included on Music From Autoharp Quarterly Vol.1,2 and 3 and on a children's recording produced by Sally Weaver of Sally's Music circle. He is program director for the Mountain Laurel Autoharp Gathering in Newport, Pennsylvania. He won first place in the 1991 International Autoharp Competition, the 1987 World Autoharp Championship, and the 1985 Great Lakes Regional Autoharp Championship. Additionally, he has been a six-time finalist in the International Autoharp Championship, taking third place twice and second place once. He was also a nominee in the autoharp catagory of the National Music Performer Awards in 1992.

Mary Umbarger - Mary lives with her husband, Paul, in Harmony, North Carolina where she owns a custom drapery shop, plays piano at her church, and teaches both piano and autoharp. She is a member of the Front Porch Strings band with whom she recorded "As You Like It" in '93 and "Christmas As You Like It" in December '98. She also has a solo album, "So Many Tunes, So Little Time", recorded in '98. She has presented workshops in a variety of venues and has won a number of trophies for her playing skills. Together with the other members of Front Porch Strings, she made a trip to Ireland in 1998 where she was warmly received and given the honor of opening the O'Carolan Festival, She has written the P.S. column since its inception. Nothing pleases Mary more than her association with the autoharp community. To quote Mary, "Music is a golden thread that delicately weaves its beauty through the tapestry of our lives. Come weave with me."

Mary J. Park - Mary lives in Ripon, Wisconsin twenty miles from her home town of Fond du Lac, where her parents still live in her girlhood home. She taught elementary school in Georgia and South Carolina from 1970 to 1976. Since then she has taught grades one, two, three and four in Ripon.

Mary has always been interested in music. She started studying flute in the third grade and during the sixties often sang folk songs and played the baritone ukelele with her mother. She got her first Oscar Schmidt chromatic 'harp in the late 1970s. It was a Christmas present which she had requested. She thought she would use it at school. Well, to make a long story short, it soon ended up in the closet. She found that the worst part was tuning it (she hadn't discovered the electronic tuner yet) and she got sick of strumming (she didn't know about melody playing). Then she met Ann Schmid, who organizes the Stringalong music camps in Wisconsin. Ann demonstrated playing melody and Mary was hooked. She pulled her autoharp out of the closet, invested in an electronic tuner and went to her first Summer Stringalong in the summer of 1994. By the time she went she had tried her hand at a little melody picking, so she signed up for an intermediate class with Charles Whitmer. The rest is history. Since then she has attended many Stringalongs and other music festivals and has learned from many great teachers.

She now owns a Fladmark D-G-C diatonic and an Orthey chromatic. She loves old time music and a lot of the old folk favorites. Mary has formed a musical group with her parents, called Ageless Harmony. Mary usually sings lead while playing either an autoharp or a mountain dulcimer. Her mother sings harmony and plays the guitar. Her father plays the washtub bass and can sometimes be coaxed into singing along. Mary has also written autoharp and dulcimer arrangements for many songs and is now composing her own music. Mary started teaching beginner students on autoharp and mountain dulcimer in 1997. She is also very active with the Fondy Acoustic Music Alliance which fosters acoustic music opportunities of all kinds in her area.

Linda Huber - This "Pigeon Hills 'Harper" can be found driving a school bus, bird watching or perhaps machine knitting or sewing. Linda has a standing engagement at several area retirement homes, coffeehouses and ladies club luncheons. Linda comes from a music education background (BA, Lebanon Valley College '59). Her first exposure to the autoharp was in college. She used the autoharp in her first job as an itinerant elementary music teacher, but was still using the table top, cross-handed playing style.

Years later someone in her family came across an address for a woman named Eileen Roys who "knew something about autoharps." After an exchange of letters with Eileen, Linda was on her way to the Mountain Laurel Autoharp Gathering in 1993. There she purchased an Orthey 'harp, the first of several custom 'harps. Since then she has taken classes at Swannanoa, Augusta Heritage Arts, Common Ground and, of course, all the MLAGs since that first one.

Although Linda plays several instruments, she feels that with the autoharp she is really making music, not just playing notes. Her tastes run from classical to country, but her passion is Old Time music. She plays them all equally well on either diatonic or chromatic 'harps. Linda teaches three age groups of gifted children at a private school and regularly offers courses for autoharp through local community education programs. Motivated by her natural desire to teach, as well as fresh memories of struggling in solitude to learn the autoharp, in 1994 Linda founded the Angel Strings autoharp club.The club enjoys musical discussions on everything from instrument maintenance to fancy licks and playing styles and occasionally joins Linda for area concerts.

Karla Armstrong - Karla found her first autoharp about five years ago in the passenger seat of the family car - a surprise gift from her husband, Mark. Through a series of strange (and obviously Divinely ordained)circumstances, she hooked up with Linda Huber and the Angel Strings Autoharp Club and was off and running. She is the 2000 Mountain Laurel Autoharp Champion and placed second in the International Championship in Winfield, Kansas the same year. Karla holds a Bachelor's Degree in Russian, but her main occupation these days is home- schooling her two sons, Aaron and Benjamin. Family and music are important to her, but her greatest passion is the Lord Jesus Christ. She teaches Sunday School and her local church has become a regular playing venue and outlet for her mysterious attraction to unusual stringed instruments – in addition to chromatic and diatonic autoharp, Karla also plays bowed psaltery and hammered dulcimer. Originally from Baltimore, Karla and her family currently make their home in Hanover, Pennsylvania.

Drew Smith - Drew Smith is the 1997 winner of the Mountain Laurel Autoharp championship and has won the top prize at the International Championship in both 1984 and 2000. He also has won the National Championship. In addition he won the First Place blue ribbon at the Galax Old Time Fiddlers Convention in Galax, Virginia where he regularly leads an autoharp workshop. Drew has given autoharp workshops at most of the major festivals and folk clubs in the northeast plus Augusta Heritage Arts in Elkins, West Virginia and at the Swannanoa Gathering in Asheville, North Carolina.

He has performed with Roger Sprung and the Progressive Bluegrassers for over twenty years and during the summer months, while on tour, he performs with his group, Ben Borscht and the Beats, at the Appalachian Stringband Festival at Clifftop, West Virginia and locally with his group, Triple Play.

His musical interests cover practically all the bases, with tunes from many countries, and music from this country from the 1800s up to the present.

Verla Boyd - Galveston, IN. Parents can do wonderful things for their children. I was blessed with parents who gave me the opportunity to take piano, organ and clarinet lessons. I truly think God for this heritage of music that was given to me and for where it has taken me. My sister Brenda and I played the organ and piano for our church as teenagers. We are still very much involved in our church's music program. I presently play with the Glory Band Gospel Band and the Hoosier String Players, a local string folk music group.

I received a Home Spun catalog in the mail in the mid 90s, and purchased an OS Autoharp from them. I purchased a Bryan Bowers video and this video introduced me to Cyberpluckers, Autoharp Quarterly and the Autoharp Clearinghouse. I attended my first event at Gray's Lake and took a master workshop with Bryan Bowers. My first interactive lesson was with Heidi Cerrigione. I then began taking lessons with Les Gustafson-Zook, who also lives in Indiana. They both encouraged me to attend MLAG and other autoharp festivals/gatherings. This had opened up a whole new wonderful musical life experience for me.

This past spring, I was visiting my daughter in Cleveland. Kathleen is an elementary school music teacher. She showed me some of her Children's Folk Music books that she was teaching her students. We discussed this and she has agreed to partner with me for the Children's Corner. This is all about family involvement. We will present songs that parent and child can learn together.

Kathleen Bassett - Kathleen Bassett is a general music teacher at Grant Elementary School in Lakewood, Ohio. With a bachelor's degree in Music Education and a Master's degree in piano performance, she has recently completed her Kodaly certification. As president of the North Coast Kodaly Association, she is committed to teaching music through the use of folk repertoire. She lives in Cleveland with her husband and two dogs.

Lucille Reilly - Lucille Reilly never intended to play diatonic autoharp, despite her fascinated introduction to it in 1987. This diehard hammered dulcimatrix planned to stick with the dulcimer, or so she thought. No one was as surprised as she was when she purchased her first GDA diatonic autoharp in 1990, and then became the first to win both the Mountain Laurel Autoharp Championship and the International Autoharp Championship in the same year (1995 ? whew!) And, if that isn't enough, in 1997 she went on to become National Hammered Dulcimer Champion. (Is the fiddle next?)

The Dulcimer Lady® and Melodious Accord Fellow is a graduate of Westminster Choir College. Lucille's long list of performance venues include The Academy of Music, Philadelphia; the Governor's Mansion, Denver; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City; Ozark Folk Center, Mountain View, AR; City Stages, Birmingham, AL; United Methodist Council of Bishops; Westminster Choir College; The Philadelphia Folk Festival; Sore Fingers Summer School, Kingham, England; The Southern Belles Autoharp Workshop, Young Harris, GA; Mountain Laurel Autoharp Gathering, Newport, PA; Original Dulcimer Players Club, Evart, MI; New Jersey Council on the Arts; Old Faithful Inn, Yellowstone National Park; and on numerous concert series. As an instructor, she is dedicated to teaching both autoharp and dulcimer players alike how to sing through their instruments by increasing their technical facility as well as an awareness for the feel of music in playing and listening.

Lucille is gradually producing a monograph series for beyond-beginning players of diatonic autoharp (two have been released thus far, with one of them prepped for Braille conversion, the first of its kind in autoharpdom) and is also writing a diatonic autoharp instruction book. She has produced one CD and arranged several choral works with dulcimer or autoharp as accompaniment.

In whatever spare time she has left, Lucille weaves, bakes bread, hikes and is hailed as the finest pizza chef in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Georgia and England.

Cathy Britell - I became interested in the autoharp after I bought one for my husband at a second-hand store and was charmed by the sweet sound it made. Like almost everyone else, I converted to a "serious autoharper" after I first heard Bryan Bowers play in Seattle. Since then, I've had an ever-growing love affair with this wonderful little instrument. I play in an old-time dance band called the "Hot Lattes", and also do occasional concerts with other musical friends, teach students, and do workshops. In my "day job" I'm a physician who specializes in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, and because of my interest in musical ergonomics, they asked me to be "Medical Editor" of this magazine, whatever that means. I think I'm supposed to bandage up the wounds of the other staff when they don't get along so well.

Jack Johnston - Jack Johnston is the only non-musical member of the staff. He and Mary Ann have shared most things since they were married in 1949 and AQ is no exception. Jack is kept busy making the daily trip to the post office (along with his trusty Lhaso Apso sidekick, Andy) and serving as warehouseman for the MarketPlace. Since it falls to him to load, unload, and set things up at festivals he says he is the "roadie." He also serves as proofreader. Sometimes he even has time for some of his own hobbies which include amateur radio, reading, and collecting belt buckles.