Experience Red Hot Strings
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
Matt Munisteri
Matt Munisteri is a critically acclaimed guitarist, singer, and songwriter known for his mastery of American roots music, jazz, and blues. As Artistic Director of the Red Hot Strings program, Matt brings together leading string players from various genres to offer a broad exploration of string music. His teaching focuses on the fusion of traditional forms with innovative playing techniques, encouraging students to push musical boundaries.
2025 Artist Faculty
David Grisman
Special Topic
David Grisman emerged as a mandolin visionary from New York City’s Greenwich Village folk scene in the early 1960s. He first played with local bluegrass bands and then professionally with the Even Dozen Jug Band, Red Allen and the Kentuckians and Earth Opera. He became a record producer and session player on recordings with Tom Paxton, Judy Collins, James Taylor, Linda Ronstadt and many others.…
Zoe Guigueno
Upright Bass
Zoe Guigueno (GIG-an-oh) is a bassist and songwriter headquartered in New York City. While jazz trained, she can also often be found playing klezmer, Americana, or indie-rock. She has performed with Steve Martin, busked in a pink gorilla costume, and played upright bass while whitewater rafting. Her most recent solo album, We Were Radar Stations, came out on Fiddlehead Records in October 2022.
Tyler Jackson
Tenor Banjo
Tyler Jackson is a world renown tenor banjoist and upright bassist. Under the tutelage of Buddy Griffin, Tyler quickly learned the ukulele, tenor banjo, and electric bass. Tyler went on to study the double bass at the University of North Texas under Lynn Seaton and began to fine-tune his skills as a professional bassist.
Dennis Lichtman
Mandolin
Dennis Lichtman is a multi-instrumentalist (clarinet, mandolin, fiddle, and more) who has
been living, performing, composing, and teaching in New York City since 2002. He is a
Selmer Paris Artist as an endorser of their Signature Clarinet. His music was recently
used in director David Simon’s The Plot Against America (HBO) and he has appeared this
year as a clarinetist on Succession (HBO) and The Blacklist (NBC).…
Mikiya Matsuda
Steel Guitar
Mikiya Matsuda is a steel guitarist and sometimes string bassist living in San Francisco, CA. He is the leader of the Alcatraz Islanders, a swing-era Hawaiian group, and a regular sideman with various traditional jazz and western swing dance bands in the Bay Area.
Matt Munisteri
Artistic Director, Red Hot Strings
Guitarist, singer, songwriter, and Brooklyn native Matt Munisteri grew up with early interest in American folk music that led him from finger-style Country and Ragtime guitar, through Blues, to Tin Pan Alley and Jazz. His own compositions, and lauded guitar playing, accurately reflect this life-long immersion in the history of American Popular Song; linking rural and urban, long-gone with contemporary.
Maxwell Poulos
Mandolin
Maxwell Poulos is a New Orleans-based, internationally recognized multi-instrumentalist performer and music teacher. Specializing in mandolin and banjo, Maxwell began his training in California and then spent several years busking professionally in New Orleans’ city streets and night clubs, integrating himself into a rich and diverse array of musical styles including jug band, ragtime, jazz and little-known catalogue of traditional Italian mandolin music.…
Molly Reeves
Guitar
Raconteur of song Molly Reeves is a performer and adorer of early 20th-century American music. Molly is known globally for her enigmatic approach to rhythm guitar and her ability to invoke the idiomatic tone and language of 1920s and 30s acoustic guitar players. A crooner by nature, her dynamic and warm vocal stylings echo popular singers and storytellers of yesteryear.…
Whit Smith
Guitar
Whit Smith is a guitarist, singer, songwriter and founding member of the highly acclaimed Western swing trio, The Hot Club of Cowtown. He is known by guitarists for his driving rhythmic style, and for his ability to move through chord progressions employing endlessly creative variety harmonies. After nearly 30 years of vigorous touring, performing and recording, Whit has arrived at a style that pays clear homage to a variety of influential guitarists from the 1930’s and 40’s, while serving as the perfect vehicle for his own bracingly original ideas.…
Jeremy Wakefield
Faculty
Jeremy Wakefield is more like Speedy West fused with Jerry Byrd. And a little bit of Noel Boggs.” Those are the words used by Wayne Hancock to describe Jeremy Wakefield’s playing, and he isn’t far from the truth. Throw in a big dash of Joaquin Murphey and Jeremy’s own unique sensibilities and you’ve got one of the world’s best non-pedal steel guitarists.
Workshop Descriptions
In-person instruction ranges from Hot Jazz to Western Swing, Rags to Beguines, for guitar, banjo, mandolin, violin, steel guitar, and upright bass. There is no audition to register. You will have your choice of four daily one-hour class sessions on Thursday and Friday,
Class Descriptions will be posed here as they come in.
Costs
Centrum has a variety of ways to be able to attend our workshops even if you’re on a budget. If you need financial assistance, Centrum has a robust scholarship program awarded on a first-come, first-served; and as-needed basis.
Costs
- Tuition: $520. (non-refundable deposit to hold your place $100)
- Tuition Under-18: $420. (non-refundable deposit to hold your place $100)
- Room & board: $540.
- Meals only: $265.
- Airport shuttle (optional): $120. round trip or $60. one way
Workshop tuition includes admission to everything including great seats at the public performance. Your meal ticket is good for three meals per day starting with dinner May 14 ending with breakfast on May 18.
To get the best musical community experience, we encourage you to stay in either a quiet dorm room in Building 225, or a jam dorm room for those who wish to keep the music going. Both options have private rooms and shared bathrooms. All rooms come with linens, blankets, and towels, but you should plan on bringing soap and personal toiletry items.
FAQ
Scholarships
Apply online as you register. Please note that except in rare cases, scholarships are available for tuition only. Centrum requires a $50 deposit of scholarship applicants, which is fully refundable before April 4, 2025 if you are unable to attend. If you are interested in volunteering, or a work trade position, please contact Mary Hilts at mhilts@centrum.org.Cancellation/Refund Policy
Full payment is due by April 4, 2025. If your full payment is not made by April 4, 2025, your registration will be canceled; $100 of your deposit is nonrefundable.
Any fee that includes a room: no refunds available after April 4, 2025.
Meals
If you have purchased a meal plan, meals are served at Fort Worden Commons. The first meal is dinner on Wednesday, May 14; the last meal is breakfast on Sunday, May 18, 2025.
Red Hot Strings shuttle schedule:
Arrive – Wednesday, May 14, 2025, pick-up at SeaTac airport, 2:00pm, Pacific Time.
Depart – Sunday, May 18, 2025, depart Centrum at Port Townsend, 9:00am sharp, Pacific Time.
If we haven’t answered all of the questions you may have, please contact Mary Hilts at 360-385-3102, x116, or mhilts@centrum (dot) org.
Newcomers
There is no age or skill restriction however, to get the most out of the intensive, one should be familiar with your instrument and be able to move about at a good clip.
Workshops are created for guitar, tenor banjo, mandolin, violin, steel guitar, and upright bass players.
Kids & Teens
Most of our workshops are family events, and we welcome musicians of all ages and abilities to participate. Our programming has annually evolved to meet the needs of very young musicians, and we devote considerable resources to this end.
Info for Parents of Under-18 Participants
If under 18 and participating in the workshop, a parent or guardian over 21 years old must register and accompany the minor. If the parent or guardian is not participating in the workshop, there is a registration type for guardian with no cost. However, if the minor is staying on campus in the dorm, the parent or guardian will need to also stay on campus in the dorm, and there are costs associated with those accommodations.
Schedule
You have your choice of four daily one-hour class sessions on Thursday and Friday. Ensembles practice in the late afternoons. In the evenings, artist faculty present special topics and performances. Toward or on the weekend, ensembles perform, and on Saturday evening, artist faculty present a public performance. Playing music together happens in between everything else, sometimes replacing sleep.
Here is how you’ll spend your time:
Wednesday, May 14
4–5:30pm – Check-in, Centrum office
6–7:30pm – Dinner
7:30pm – Orientation in Wheeler Theater, followed by sign-up for ensembles in Building 204
Thursday & Friday, May 15-16
Four one-hour class sessions.
Followed by faculty-led ensembles,
Saturday, May 17
Special Events and
Artist faculty public performance
Every evening
Faculty presentations and jam sessions,
PERFORMANCES
Shine Your Light: Meet Anna Brones, Artist Behind Centrum’s End-of-Year Campaign
SHINE YOUR LIGHT: A YEAR END GIVING CAMPAIGN FOR CENTRUM
Rhiannon Giddens releases timely recording of “SWANNANOA TUNNEL/STEEL-DRIVING MAN”
SHINE YOUR LIGHT: A YEAR END GIVING CAMPAIGN FOR CENTRUM
Join the Centrum Circle!
