Allen Hopkins - Rochester Music Coalition

**Description**
Traditional and contemporary folk music, including blues, bluegrass, Celtic, klezmer, old-timey, pop, and many other elements. Strong emphasis on participation, involvement, and the historical and social context of the music. Many instruments, styles, and approaches to the music.

**Roster**
Allen plays guitar, banjo, mandolins of all sizes, harmonica, Appalachian dulcimer, Autoharp, Dobro, National slide guitar, ukulele, English concertina, and miscellaneous instruments from Jew's harp to kalimba to tiple. He has performed throughout New York and the Northeast, including folk festivals, folk camps and weekends, colleges, schools, libraries, clubs, coffeehouses, and concerts. He is a member of several bands and folk groups. He works extensively with special audiences, seniors, and children.

**Influences**
Allen has performed folk music for more than 30 years in the Rochester area. Strongly influenced by the "folk revival" of the '60's, he presents accessible, listenable, and singable music, often directed toward specific themes or genres. "American Roots Music" from a variety of backgrounds.

**History**
Allen is a founder and a current director of the Golden Link Folk Singing Society of Rochester, and a founder and past director of ArtsReach, an agency bringing the arts to special audiences. He is a former director of the Arts & Cultural Council. He is affiliated with the Monroe County and Pioneer Library Systems, Monroe County BOCES, Young Audiences Rochester. He has taught at Hochstein School, and is a program auditor for the NY State Council on the Arts. Since 1976 he has coordinated the Flint Hill Folk program at Genesee Country Village.