Cara Cormier
Cara Cormier recently joined the San Diego Folk Heritage board to assist with booking new and returning artists. Cara grew up on a small farm in Kansas singing folk songs, four-part acapella hymns, and musical theatre soundtracks. Now based in San Diego, Cara performs regularly at local venues, jams, song circles, and open mic events. Her first album, Kansas Stories, came out in 2023, and her second album, Mennonite Gone Bad, will be released in the fall of 2025. In her non-music time, Cara works as a nonprofit lawyer in the areas of immigration and public defense.
Marilyn McPhie
Marilyn McPhie first became acquainted with San Diego Folk Heritage when she attended a Folk Heritage Festival back in 1990. She has organized the storytelling strand for the Sam Hinton Festival for many years, and serves as a storytelling representative on the SDFH Board. She has been a professional teller since 1985, performing at schools, libraries, bookstores, museums, corporate and private events, and festivals locally, nationally, and even internationally, including the Exchange Place of the National Storytelling Festival and the TEDx stage. She has collaborated with musicians from a classical pianist to a bagpiper to a full orchestra; with art museums and galleries for exhibits from William Wegman photography to ancient Chinese art to modern book arts; with a dance troupe for a performance on peace strategies. In addition to being on the board of San Diego Folk Heritage, she is the past Pacific Region Director for the National Storytelling Network and the President of the Storytellers of San Diego.
Art Meyers
Art Meyers is SDFH’s long-time Treasurer/Bookkeeper and Membership Chair. Other than two three-year “sabbaticals,” he has served on the Board for 31 years. He is proud to be part of a group of dedicated people who make acoustic music and dance come alive for both artists and their audience.
Living in San Diego since 1975, Art was raised in suburban New Jersey, about an hour drive to mid-town New York City. During the folk revival of the 1960s, regular trips to Greenwich Village folk clubs and mid-town jazz hang-outs were the norm. During that time, he discovered Pete Seeger (known to kids as Mr. “Peterson” at summer camps along the Hudson River), who he later met one-on-one in San Diego, the Weavers, Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie, and then Earl Scruggs and bluegrass.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, while playing banjo, he spent two years as part of the original Thursday jam group that became Emma’s Gut-Bucket band, which is still in operation today as part of the San Diego Bluegrass Club.
JT Moring booked the Folk Heritage concert series from 2014 through 2025. He is a songwriter, performing musician, storyteller, festival Master of Ceremonies, and writer for the San Diego Troubadour magazine. His earliest musical memory is his Texan Dad singing cowboy and hillbilly songs, followed by “She Loves You, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah” on his transistor radio. He gets great pleasure in continuing the tradition of presenting well-loved performers to the Folk Heritage audience, and meanwhile bringing in fresh sounds such as Dustbowl Revival, Billy Strings, and Dirty Cello. These days, he is an underqualified webmaster and overqualified troublemaker-at-large.
www.jtmoring.com
Andrea Ning
Over twenty years ago, a friend invited Andrea Ning to the New England Folk Festival (NEFFA) and exposed her to the joys of contra dance. Walking into NEFFA was a life-changing experience as she saw the community delight that sharing music and movement can build. After years of watching, she finally tried it and hasn't stopped since. Joining the contra community also led Andrea to other styles of community dance and music-making including English Country dance, international folk and social dance, and group singing. She also resumed playing flute and piano
after years away.
In 2022, Andrea moved to the San Diego area from Massachusetts and wanted to build new community connections. Finding the local dances was an obvious next step. But these dances are small and need all the volunteer support they can get to survive. So Andrea began helping and, that same year, was invited to represent SDFH’s contra dance committee on the SDFH Board.
Abby Polin
Abby Polin began volunteering at SDFH concerts in 1990, primarily selling tickets, refreshments, and performers’ recordings. After the 1992 SDFH Festival, she took over the volunteer coordinator position. In 1995, she joined the SDFH board, while continuing to coordinate volunteers and organize Folk Notes mailing parties. She thoroughly enjoyed all of it, but during a difficult time in her life, in late 1998, she reluctantly resigned from all her SDFH volunteer work. She continued to attend as many SDFH events as she could over the next several years. In early 2013, Abby took over the Folk Notes proofreader position, which had been vacant for far too long. To paraphrase several musicians, she said, “I proofread because I care”. She also began helping with the quarterly Folk Notes mailings. When the planning began for the SDFH 30th anniversary celebration in Fall 2017, Abby jumped in to assist, and after a nineteen-year hiatus, she rejoined the board. She suggested inviting the co-founders of SDFH, Pearl Wolfe and Bill Goldsmith, to attend the anniversary festivities, and she helped make that event a success. Shortly after rejoining the board, she took over the job of secretary, keeping the minutes of the board’s monthly meetings. In January 2023, Abby came full-circle and took over the volunteer coordinator position again. She makes sure that all concerts and festivals are staffed with volunteers and she is grateful to all the dedicated volunteers who support live acoustic music. Although she is not a musician, she feels a commitment to support musicians however she can for as long as she can. The SDFH community has become a significantly important part of her life.