Cheryl Prashker Leads NERFA Board of Directors

The board of directors of the Northeast Regional Folk Alliance (NERFA) elected a new slate of officers while meeting during the organization’s recent annual conference at the Hudson Valley Resort in Kerhonkson, New York.

Cheryl Prashker, a percussionist with the Celtic group RUNA, who also has performed with such artists as Pat Wictor, Jonathan Edwards, Full Frontal Folk and CC Railroad, was elected president. AcousticMusicScene.com’s Michael Kornfeld, a communications & public relations strategist and an officer of the Folk Music Society of Huntington (NY), is the organization’s new vice president. Ramona LaBarre, who is affiliated with Godfrey Daniels and the Celtic Cultural Alliance in Bethlehem, PA, is the new treasurer. Rounding out the board are directors Robert Corwin (Images of Folk Music photographer), Neale Eckstein (Fox Run Concerts and Recording Studio), John Fuzek (songwriter/Hear in Rhode Island), Terry Mutchler (Mountain Top Productions), Kathy Sands-Boehmer (Me & Thee Coffeehouse and vice president of the Boston Area Coffeehouse Association), and Dianne Tankle, (NERFA’s longtime conference coordinator and an active member of the Philadelphia Folksong Society).

“I am humbled, as well as very excited, to have been elected president,” says Prashker. “Everyone I have worked with over the last 10 years, and am lucky enough to call friend, I met at NERFA [conferences} or because of NERFA.”

Acknowledging that the organization has been known primarily for its popular annual conference, Prashker notes that the board will seek to build on the spirit and community that makes the conference so special. “We hope to make NERFA an all-year-long home for all of us,” she says, looking forward to the possibilities of adding future day-long conferences elsewhere in the region and an enhanced role for NERFA and the other regional chapters within Folk Alliance International, its parent organization. NERFA’s website will be transformed into a more useful tool and resource for our members to use throughout the year, replete with useful links and information about NERFA’s presence on social networks, she adds.

A nonprofit organization for those professionally engaged in traditional, contemporary and multicultural folk music, NERFA seeks to strengthen and advance organizational and individual initiatives through education, networking, advocacy, and professional and field development. Its annual fall conference draws nearly 700 performers, presenters, promoters and others for three jam-packed days and nights of juried and guerilla music showcases, informative panel discussions and workshops, an exhibit hall, community meals, and lots of informal conversation, networking and late-night jamming. More information can be found at www.nerfa.org.