Artist-in-Residence Series
About the Series
The Florida Folklife Program features Florida's outstanding traditional artists in residence in Tallahassee each fall. Residencies consist of free public performances, school presentations and master classes designed to bring folk and traditional arts into the classroom and to broader audiences. Funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, the series began in 2012.
In partnership with the FSU Center for Music of the Americas and local schools, the series has featured master artists such as Afro-Cuban batá drummer and National Heritage Fellow Ezequiel Torres, Paco & Celia Fonta of Siempre Flamenco, Florida Folk Heritage Award-winning steel pannist Michael Kernahan, Sacred Steel ensemble The Lee Boys, Puerto Rican plena group Plena Es, bomba group Taller Balancé, Florida Folk Heritage Award winning duo Harmonic Motion, Lili Forbes performing music from St. Maarten, and the award winning Ukrainian Dancers of Miami.
2025 Artist in Residence Concert
Matthew Sabatella and the Rambling String Band
Matthew Sabatella is a multi-instrumentalist who uses traditional American folk music to bring to life the story of America’s past, present, and future. He is frontman of The Rambling String Band, where he sings lead vocals and plays guitar, banjo, and mountain dulcimer, along with Jack Stamates on fiddle, Chris DeAngelis on bass fiddle and vocals, and Sean Edelson on mandolin, guitar, and vocals. The band specializes in traditional folk songs, including fiddle tunes, old-time country, bluegrass, Appalachian music, ragtime, blues, spirituals, railroad and cowboy songs, work songs, sea shanties, reels, breakdowns, ballads, and more.
The Rambling String Band has created three albums of American folk standards, The Ballad of America series, which curates American folk music around vignettes from American history. Volume 1, Over A Wide And Fruitful Land, features songs from the various occupational folk groups who moved the country across the continent in the early days of the nation; America Singing, volume 2, features the most famous folk standards which would become the building blocks of American popular music; volume 3, Songs in the Life of Abraham Lincoln memorializes the life of the nation’s 16th president by performing the music he cherished. Their flagship performance entitled “A Celebration of America’s Music: From Plymouth Rock to Rock & Roll” is a 90-minute multimedia showcase which narrativizes the history and evolution of American music.
Matthew earned first place in the 2019 Florida Folk Festival Old-Time Banjo Competition and the 2023 Florida Old-Time Music Championship’s Old-Time Banjo and Singing competitions. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Music from University of Miami, a Masters of Arts in History from Florida International University, and is the founder and president of Ballad of America, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with a mission to preserve and celebrate music from America’s diverse cultural history, and serves as Vice President of the Southeast regional chapter of Folk Alliance International (SERFA) where he serves on the Roots & Sources committee.
To Participate
To participate as a partner or featured artist email [email protected].
