Michael Kornfeld
Kornfeld is also president of the Folk Music Society of Huntington, a nonprofit presenting organization on suburban Log Island, New York, and forged a locally heralded partnership between FMSH and LI’s Cinema Arts Centre. He also coordinates the annual Huntington Folk Festival that is presented each summer in partnership with the Huntington Arts Council. An award-winning strategic communications and public relations professional, Kornfeld launched AcousticMusicScene.com, an online publication for the folk, roots and singer-songwriter communities, in January 2007. He arranges and hosts artist showcases and song swaps under its banner during various music conferences and festivals.
For the 12th consecutive year at the NERFA Conference that drew some 730 people, Kornfeld hosted a popular AcousticMusicScene.com Midnight Hoot featuring several singing folk DJs and 40 independent recording artists/acts from throughout the U.S. and Canada, as well as an O Canada celebration featuring nearly 20 Canadian artists/acts. He also moderated a panel discussion on online presence for artists and offered some one-on-one mentoring during the conference.
Led by Kornfeld, current and past board members paid tribute to Dianne Tankle, NERFA’s founder and conference director since its inception, who stepped down from her leadership role following 24 years at the helm of the conference. “My board colleagues and I are grateful to Dianne for all of her efforts on behalf of our organization and community over the years,” wrote Kornfeld in a letter published in the printed conference program & directory. “She and her team have devoted countless hours and put considerable thought into conscientiously designing our conference to help [attendees] forge connections and build community, while also providing learning opportunities that can help enhance [their] professional and personal lives.”
Named as interim conference director for 2019 is Courtney Rodland, who has been assisting NERFA with social media, served as associate director for the 2018 NERFA Conference and coordinated its mentoring program. A new NERFA logo was also unveiled during the conference.
Re-elected as NERFA board officers, along with Kornfeld, were secretary Ethan Baird of Pesky J. Nixon and Tribal Mischief Productions and treasurer Justin Nordell, executive director of the Philadelphia Folksong Society. The board’s new vice president is Barbara Shiller, co-president of CT Folk, who succeeds Kathy Sands-Boehmer of the Me & Thee Coffeehouse in Marblehead, MA, who opted not to seek re-election to the nine-member board.
NERFA’s volunteer board of directors has been engaged in efforts to make it more of a year-round organization in order to best meet the needs and serve the interests of Folk Alliance International members in its region. The Mid-Winter FolkFest at Club Passim in Cambridge, MA that was also streamed online via Concert Window in late January is an examples of this. So, too, are the NERFA Presents Young Folk showcases that have bee presented over the past several summers in partnership with a few music festivals in the U.S. and Canada, as well as several NERFA Showcase concerts co-presented with several venues and presenting organizations in the region. A Spring FolkFest, another one-day online music festival emanating from Club Passim; is slated for Saturday, March 23, from 12-4 p.m. EST. Coordinated by Sands-Boehmer, it will feature a number of artists who had official juried showcases during the recent NERFA conference and who have never played the famed Harvard Square folk club.
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