Ken Kolodner

Called “a world-class instrumentalist” by Sing Out!, the Baltimore-based Ken Kolodner is widely recognized as one of “one of today’s most accomplished, musical hammered dulcimer artists...” (Elderly) and a fine old-time fiddler. After years of touring as a soloist and in ensembles with the ground-breaking world music trio Helicon, Greenfire (with Bullock and Laura Risk), Scottish National Fiddle Champion Elke Baker, and many others, Kolodner has the great pleasure of performing with his son Brad along with Alex Lacquement and Rachel Eddy as The Ken and Brad Kolodner Quartet. The Old Time Herald writes “Father and son have reached that musical telepathy that family members can sometimes achieve. The blend of the hammered dulcimer and banjo is exceptional.” Sing Out! adds “There must be something special to that father-son thing!” In 2019, the quartet won first place among 40 bands from around the globe in the neo-traditional band contest at “Clifftop,” otherwise known as The Appalachian String Band Contest. Among Ken’s many other credits are a featured solo in an Emmy-nominated CBS-TV Christmas special with The Baltimore Choral Arts and The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, over twenty recordings with sales over 150,000 CDs, an “Indie” winner (Helicon’s A Winter Solstice Celebration), a #1 Billboard’s Charting World Music title (Walking Stones), a #4 on Billboard’s Bluegrass Chart (Stony Run) and various books on Appalachian fiddling and the hammered dulcimer.