Arkaitz Miner, violin
Teresa Jareño, alboka, dance
Caitlin Romtvedt, violin
David Romtvedt, accordion

Arkaitz Miner is a violinist, mandolinist, and guitarist with a background in traditional, European classical, and contemporary music.  His musical sensibility derives from the close relationship he has with the traditional music of the Basque Country.   Collaborative work with prominent trikitixa based music groups such as Tapia eta Leturia, Imuntzo eta Beloki, and Alaitz eta Maider has served to shape his repertoire in terms of current Basque music, most importantly with the dance repertoire that he has reinterpreted using the violin.

He works in both live and studio settings with contemporary Basque songwriters such as Ruper Ordoriko, Mikel Markez, and Joseba Tapia and regularly plays for community events and dances.  As a mandolinist he’s performed with the symphonic orchestras of Euskadi and of Bilbo and with groups and individuals including Berri Txarrak, Gorka Zurbizu, Ken Zazpi, Diego Vasallo, Alex Ubago, and Sol Band.  With Juan Arriola and in collaboration with Alasdair Fraser and Natalie Hass, he has released the CD Hariari Tiraka, featuring traditional Basque tunes played on twin fiddles. Arkaitz has led fiddle workshops at various folk festivals including Fiddle Tunes in the US and Crisol de Cuerda in Spain.  In Canada he’s performed in BC at the Victoria Folk Festival and in Québec at Festival Mémoires et Racines.  He currently teaches violin at Soinuenea Herri Musika Eskola in Oiartzun, Gipuzkoa.

Arkaitz will be accompanied by Teresa Jareño Querejeta, from Donostia, who completed her clarinet studies at the Professional Conservatory of Santiago de Compostela. Although her training began mainly around classical music, her curiosity for improvisation and traditional music from different parts of the world led her to dive deeper into traditional Basque music, and she began to play the alboka with Haritz Ezeiza. Today she combines her artistic career with teaching. Since 2021, she has taught the alboka in Soinuenea Herri Musikaren Txokoa and Zumarte Musika Eskola of Usurbil. In her career she has collaborated with various artists in musical and multidisciplinary projects (Oreka Tx, Kukai, Sarrabete, Compañía Pieles, Xabi “Jabato” Lopez, EIJO…) and she is currently a member of the groups Besaide and Emari.

Caitlin Belem Romtvedt grew up in a house full of music in Northern Wyoming. She fell in love with the fiddle at a young age and started playing, both through private lessons and with her parents. Later, through school, friends and family, she began to play alto saxophone and guitar. Since then, she has had the incredibly good fortune to live, study, and play music in Brazil, Cuba, the Basque Country, Ohio, New York, and Seattle. Caitlin has played with the groups Maracujá, Ospa!, At Five, Sunpie and the Louisiana Sunspots, Modern Bygones, The Fireants, Arrabita Taldea, and JunTaJo. She has experience teaching music, social dance, Capoeira Angola, and Spanish in university and school settings as well as various music festivals, camps, residencies, and workshops. Currently, she is a PhD candidate in ethnomusicology at the University of California, Berkeley and a member of GAIT, the social change research group at the University of the Basque Country. Her research deals with the intersections of music, dance, and language use in the Basque Country.

David Romtvedt is a musician and writer. He worked for many years as the coordinator of the children’s band lab at the Festival of American Fiddle Tunes. In fact, he managed the event in 1987, bringing Joe and Odell Thompson, Tiny Moore, and the Horseflies to the festival. He’s been on staff at the Puget Sound Guitar Workshop, the Sierra Swing Dance Week, and at Dos Encuentros, a festival bringing together traditional musics of Mexico, Canada, and the United States. He lives in Buffalo, Wyoming and performs dance music of the Americas with the Fireants who have released two CDs– Bury My Clothes and Ants on Ice.

As a writer, his books include poetry (Moon, How Many Horses, and Certainty), fiction (Free and Compulsory for All and Crossing Wyoming), and nonfiction (Windmill: Essays from Four Mile Ranch). David served as the poet laureate of Wyoming from 2003 to 2011. The recipient of a Wyoming Governor’s Arts Award, he has also been awarded fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Wyoming Arts Council, among others.