Аbout Us

Ramblin’ Across the Andes: Accessing Culture and Language Through American Folk Music is a project designed by teachers and musicians, Matthew Nelson, Brendan Mulvihill, Erin Johnson and Jordan Stern. The goal of this project is to help students improve their English in a fun and interactive environment, while exposing them to certain aspects of American culture not found in Hollywood films or American pop music. We will be visiting various English language summer camps & schools where we will conduct classes, give presentations, and play concerts of American folk music. We also aim to provide English teachers with educational resources and materials for implementing such curriculum in their own classes & will be presenting teaching workshops as well. On their website you can read about American folk music, find various lesson plans and teaching materials, and read about our experiences on our trip. The ESL Folk Project began in Russia during May & June of 2010.

Brendan Mulvihill

Brendan Mulvihill was born and raised in the Philadelphia area. He began to become familiar with music when his parents sent him to a music preschool, but once he took up mandolin lessons at the age of twelve, Brendan has been deeply involved with playing and composing music. Throughout his school years he taught himself the basics of many different instruments, including guitar, ukulele, bass, and drums. While attending Temple University in Philadelphia, Brendan studied The German language as well as Music Studies while playing in three different musical groups. Now he lives and works in Philadelphia at a translation agency, plays in his band Norwegian Arms, and helps run a Do-It-Yourself music venue.

Brendan has had a lot of experience as a teacher in private ESL and German language schools, at Temple University, and at Tomsk Polytechnic University, where he worked on a Fulbright fellowship.

Brendan likes bikes, typography, documentary films, and eating falafel.

Matthew Nelson

Matthew grew up in the great state of Oklahoma, although he has also spent significant periods of his life in California and Oregon. During his youth he played the drums and spent countless hours with his friends creating cacophonous noise in his basement. His parents were good sports and didn’t complain much.

Matt attended Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon, where he chose a major in Russian language and literature. During his university years he purchased an old banjo on a whim and began strumming it in his free time. After he graduated he moved to Russia where he lived for the last two years, teaching English and American culture as a participant of the Fulbright Program. Today he lives in San Francisco where he teaches English, plays music, reads Russian novels, and plays basketball.

Jordan Stern

Jordan lives in San Francisco where he was born. He has been teaching himself how to play music since he was 13 when he first started playing guitar. Since then he has had fun playing banjo, percussion, and bass. His most recent musical project is a nine person band called Adventure Club, where audience members participate in live performances by playing homemade instruments that Jordan and his friends make.

Jordan has worked in several educational settings as a camp counselor, teacher, and mentor to youth ages 5-19. Currently he runs a youth program at the Bike Kitchen, a non profit that collects old bikes and teaches people how to build their own bike. He also works as a mental health and substance abuse counselor.

Jordan enjoys going on bike adventures with his friends, eating lots of curry, and playing soccer.

Erin Johnson

Erin Johnson is currently a graduate student in the Department of Art Practice at University of California, Berkeley (UCB). She hails from the Southeast and attended college in Asheville, North Carolina at Warren Wilson College, a major hub of Appalachian folk music. While at Warren Wilson she completed her self-designed degree in Art and Community Organizing, specializing the traditional craft of printmaking, papermaking, and bookbinding. She has taught art, art history, and theory in many different settings from community art centers, homeless shelters, K-8 public schools, as well at her alma mater and UCB.

Past Ramblers:

Gillian Grassie

Gillian is an award-winning harpist/singer-songwriter whose music has been featured in film & on radio. She was born in Philadelphia, where she began singing in children’s choirs and later spent several years studying opera. She started taking harp lessons when she was twelve – by fourteen she was making her debut at the Edinburgh International Harp Festival. Gillian began writing original songs while living abroad in Switzerland at fifteen, eventually reinventing herself as a harpist-singer-songwriter, independently releasing two albums, and touring France, Germany, India, Indonesia, China, Russia, Canada, and the United States.

She graduated from Bryn Mawr College with a degree in Comparative Literature and was awarded a 2009-2010 Thomas J. Watson Fellowship which funded her for twelve months of travel with her harp, studying and participating in emerging music scenes throughout Europe and Asia. She has given workshops for the American Harp Society, spoken at school assemblies about her experiences as an independent artist, and participated in the ESL Folk Project: Russia adventure with the Ramblers in 2010. She is excited to be making her first trip to South America! You can listen to her music online at www.gilliangrassie.com