Dee Ban is a musician, teacher, and historian. She combines all three when she takes her autoharp into classrooms. Dee teaches history and other subjects by way of musical intelligence and primary source music. Lively discussions ensue as students encounter differing points of view passionately expressed in music. History comes alive as students learn that there are many voices of the past and they do not always agree. Her topics include: The American Revolution, Lewis and Clark, the Civil War, Black History: Slavery through Civil Rights, Songs of the Slaves, Immigration, the 1904 World’s Fair, 1960’s Civil Rights and Peace Movement, American Women’s History, Missouri History, Voting and Election Rights, Biography in Song, Reading/Library Week, Earth Day and Ecology and more. For more than a decade Dee sung in many venues including: The Missouri History Museum, St Louis County Libraries, National Park Sites, Missouri Botanical Garden, schools, educational conferences, folk life festivals, independent living senior centers, historical societies, and churches. With enough lead-time, Dee is happy to research and prepare new programs. Resume and brochure are available upon request.

Chris Stephens is a multi-instrumentalist like no other. It’s difficult to explain what he does with his instruments – the Arabic Oud, Persian Tar, Indian Sitar, and Chinese Pipa – but however you describe it, he’s crossing musical boundaries and fostering connections between distant traditions. A true master musician and innovator, his music is based on the historic music from the world’s oldest cultures. His specialty is in the family of instruments known as “lutes,” which are the ancestors of the guitar. Chris’ performances are both an homage to these classical traditions and an exploration in contemporary improvisation. His main focus is to share these historic art forms with new audiences and to engage those who are familiar with them by honoring the old traditional styles and compositions. Each concert creates an enchanted musical scenery never to be heard again. Performances can go from melodic and meditative to rhythmic and explosive at any moment creating a rich and unique tapestry of sound that all can enjoy.

OPEN STRINGS EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM: Chris Stephens is a multi-instrumentalist performer and educator with over 20 years of experience as an artist and educator. His music showcase, “Open Strings,” is a unique educational program that allows students to hear and learn about traditional musical instruments from the Middle East and Asia. This captivating performance blends music, history, geography, and language studies. Chris is known for his mastery of a diverse collection of historic stringed instruments from across the globe, including the sitar (India), oud (Middle East), saz (Turkey), tar (Iran), pipa (China), shamisen (Japan), and the American banjo. This program—part performance, part demonstration and participation—gives students a chance to experience some rare and underrepresented forms of music from around the world.