Irene Herrmann and Kaethe Hostetter

Irene Herrmann, mandolin
Kaethe Hostetter, violin

Irene Herrmann has played music all her life, but only after she graduated from music school did she discover the world of non-classical music and started dividing her time between classical piano and cello and traditional music. The world of traditional music opened many doors for her, not only musically, but socially and culturally as well. She has played cello on Joe and Antoinette McKenna’s second album, orchestra bells on the second album of R. Crumb’s Cheap Suit Serenaders, recorded on mandolin with vaudevillian Roy Smeck, and on fiddle with gospel singer Marion Williams. With Paul Hostetter, she formed a string band with friend and traditional Italian mandolinist, Riccardo Tunzi, playing the traditional music that Riccardo taught them, until he passed. Then, continued that tradition in a trio with Italian mandolinist Tony Flores. “Making and sharing all kinds of music with my friends is the greatest joy I know.” It’s worth noting that Irene played in the first band that ever played at Fiddle Tunes, in 1977 with Paul Hostetter and Bertram Levy.

Kaethe’s heritage is intellectual off-grid coastal California soup. Her multi-instrumentalist parents were friends with R. Crumb, Tom Lehrer, Paul Bowles; her midwife was Slime Queen, one of Ken Kesey’s Merry Pranksters. She grows up amongst the tall, tall redwoods, with a revolving door of filmmakers, storytellers, archivists, experimental chefs, her father’s lutherie shop hosting traveling musicians of all ilks. Striking out from the tripped-out half-camping drugs scene of Santa Cruz in the late 90s, Kaethe goes to the most contrasting place she can think of: Boston. There, among other things, she formed a 20-piece marching band that toured New England by bike, until she got the fever for Ethiopia.

She moved there, lived there for 11 years, hanging with all the traditional musicians during the days, shadowing annoyingly the man she deems the best masinko [single-string fiddle] player in the land, just hopping in his car and inviting herself everywhere with him as he zooms around the chaotic streets of Addis, dodging livestock on the way to recording studios and gigs. Gaining her own voice in this scene, she forms QWANQWA, an experimental/traditional ensemble, eventually booking a 60-date debut tour of US, and the release of several albums. Her need for a robust cultural ecosystem prompted her move to her headquarters to New York, where she currently resides, picking up where she left off with friends in the experimental music scene and circus performers.