All But Gone

Sarah Jarosz is a gifted multi-instrumentalist (mandolin, octave mandolin, guitar, banjo), an expressive vocalist, and an accomplished songwriter. Still in her 20s, this New England Conservatory of Music grad has already carved out a solid niche where contemporary folk, Americana, and roots music intersect. She has been nominated for multiple Grammys, including two for her album Build Me Up From Bones. A new recording - Undercurrent - was recently released on Sugar Hill Records

About 15 years ago, a boring semester in college led Rachel Manke to make one of her best-ever decisions: to buy a ukulele. Since then, she has been playing, singing, and performing with the versatile little instrument. She even uses it in her professional life as a Lutheran pastor in the Boston area, where she teaches adults and children in the community to play and perform too.

With bands like Bill Monroe's Blue Grass Boys, Sea Train, Muleskinner, Old & In the Way, and The Free Mexican Air Force, singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Peter Rowan has certainly put his stamp on music of the past half century. He has recorded dozens and dozens of albums - as part of various groups and also as a solo performer. The most recent recording from this Grammy winner is 2014's Dharma Blues (Omnivore).

Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Sara Bareilles is known to millions for her chart-toppers "Love Song," "Brave," and other hits. Recently, she wrote the music and lyrics for Waitress, a musical adaptation of the 2007 film. The play will have its premiere on August 2 at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Her first book, a collection of essays titled Sounds Like Me: My Life (so far) in Song, will be published this fall by Simon & Schuster.

Nadia DiGiallonardo wears many hats: pianist, composer, arranger, singer. Her recent credits include work on the Broadway revivals of Hair and Pippin, and she's currently serving as music director and conductor for Waitress - a musical stage version of the 2007 film, opening August 2 at the American Repertory Theater at Harvard. Nadia and her siblings - Daniela and Christine - sing together as the DiGiallonardo Sisters. Their debut album, Shout Sister Shout, was recorded with Rob Fisher live at the Virginia Arts Festival.

Garrison Keillor was born in 1942 in Anoka, Minnesota. He went to work for Minnesota Public Radio in 1969, and on July 6, 1974, he hosted the first broadcast of A Prairie Home Companion in St. Paul. He is the host of The Writer's Almanac and the editor of the Good Poems series of anthologies from Viking.

Richard Dworsky Keyboardist, composer, and arranger Richard Dworsky is APHC's music director. He leads the band, composes themes, improvises script underscores, and collaborates with such diverse guests as Yo-Yo Ma, James Taylor, Brad Paisley, Kristin Chenoweth, and Sheryl Crow. He has released many recordings of original material and has provided music for documentaries on HBO and PBS. Jonathan Dresel Jonathan Dresel's interest in percussion has taken him from a first-place trophy at his first big drum competition (he was all of eight years old) to a degree from the University of Miami's Frost School of Music to a five-night-a-week gig with the house band on ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live. He has also performed with Joe Walsh, Carole King, Sheryl Crow, LeAnn Rimes, Kenny Rogers, and many more. Larry Kohut Bassist Larry Kohut has played on dozens of albums and many film scores, as well as performing with jazz artists such as Patricia Barber, Mel Torme, Vincent Colaiuta, and Tony Bennett. In addition, he is an adjunct faculty member at Columbia College Chicago, where he teaches acoustic and electric bass. Richard Kriehn When Richard Kriehn turned 10, his mom bought him a mandolin; at 19, he'd won the Buck White International Mandolin Contest. He went on to play with the Nashville Mandolin Ensemble and bluegrass group 1946. On the classical side, he has performed with numerous orchestras and was principal second violin for the Washington/Idaho Symphony. Chris Siebold Bluegrass to big band jazz, Chris Siebold knows his way around a guitar - or a bunch of other instruments, for that matter. Based in Chicago, he draws from a deep well of influences and styles, and has put his talents to work in ensembles such as Howard Levy's Acoustic Express and Kick the Cat. In 2010, he formed the band Psycles, whose album Live at Martyrs' was released the following year.

One minute he's mild-mannered Tim Russell; the next he's George Bush or Julia Child or Barack Obama. We've yet to stump this man of many voices. Says fellow APHC actor Sue Scott, "He does a better Ira Glass than Ira Glass." A well-known Twin Cities radio personality and voice actor, Tim appeared in the Robert Altman film A Prairie Home Companion and the Coen brothers' A Serious Man. Tim has also been reviewing films professionally for over 10 years.

On APHC, Sue Scott plays everything from ditzy teenagers to Guy Noir stunners to leathery crones who've smoked one pack of Camel straights too many. The Tucson, Arizona, native is well known for her extensive commercial and voice-over work on radio and television, as well as stage and movie roles, including the part of "Donna" in Robert Altman's A Prairie Home Companion.

Sound effects man Fred Newman is an actor, writer, musician, and sound designer for film and TV. Turns out, no one is more surprised than Fred that he's made a career out of doing what he used to do behind the teacher's back -crossing his eyes, making sounds, and doing voices. He readily admits that, growing up, he was unceremoniously removed from several classrooms, "once by my bottom lip."