Pat SchroderPat began playing the guitar at an early age and was heavily influenced by the local folk and old time music scene which flourished in Iowa City in the 1970s. She joined her first bluegrass band, the Skunk River Ramblers, shortly after graduation from high school. Although that band was short-lived, she found herself a year later playing old time music with the Johnson County String Band and developed a special fondness for that genre. While a graduate student at the University of Iowa, Pat decided to take up the ‘double bass’ in earnest and spent several years playing in various local and regional orchestras and theater ensembles. Pat feels that she has now ‘come home to roost’ with Acoustic Mayhem, where she can combine her love of traditional music (and chicken metaphors) with her love of the bass.
Rick Dehn, is a talented multi-instrumentalist, accomplished on fiddle, mandolin, and guitar. Rick was a regular part of the North Sierra, California, music scene playing and recording with both the "Stony Creek" and "Fiddlesticks." . His ragtime and swing fiddle tunes were vital to both bands' sounds, and are a wonderful addition to what we do. Rick asked if he could sit in with us for picnic we were playing June 1999, and we wouldn't let him leave. Rick grew up on a farm in western Iowa and is currently the Associate Director of the Physician's Assistant Program at the University of Iowa.
Margaret Brumm has been working as a fiddler for over 22 years. Her musical abilities are evident in a variety of ways. In 1994 she received an Iowa Arts Council mini-grant for advanced square dance fiddling and dance calling. She has conducted workshops at elementary schools on folk fiddling as well as dancing. Both of these skills have been incorporated into Acoustic Mayhem educational performances. Margaret is a trained Suzuki method violin teacher who has both adults and children as students. Margaret was a long-time music teacher for the Iowa City Montessori School, infusing her knowledge of folk music into many activities. Margaret says, "I love to see children going round and round to 'Old Joe Clark' or hopping up to 'Uncle Joe!'"
Loren Brumm got his musical start as part of the Brumm Family Singers in Osage, Iowa. Along with his nine brothers and sisters, Loren would sing for community festivals, and were well known for their Christmas caroling throughout town. Since that time he has been actively involved in a number of traditional music groups, helping to organize shape note singers, and round robin concerts. Loren has studied classical guitar and music theory at the University of Iowa. Besides providing a solid rhythm guitar, Loren will frequently play lead solos. Loren's background in theory also has lead him to become the arranger of most tunes the band plays. While performing most often on guitar he will also pick up the washboard, mandolin, wash-tub bass, and other instruments, especially at children's concerts.
Mike Haverkamp is a versatile folk musician who performs, primarily on banjo, but also on a variety of instruments including: guitar, autoharp, dulcimer, banjo-uke, mandolin, and harmonica. As a member of both the Iowa and Missouri Arts Councils' Residency Rosters he has performed at numerous schools, conducting workshops in song writing, how to play the autoharp, building instruments from recycled objects, and making connections between historical time periods and music. In 1996 Mike served as part of the 12 member interdisciplinary Iowa Sesquicentennial Touring Arts Team. In 1997 he was selected as the Ginsburg Resident Artist, building over 1,000 one-string instruments with 4th grade students in the Iowa City Community School District. Mike first got interested in playing banjo after hearing long time friend, and Acoustic Mayhem partner Mike Kanellis play in 1980. His ever growing collection of banjos includes four 5-string models, a tenor, a banjo-uke, and a banjo-mandolin. He most frequently performs on a re-necked 1927 Vega Whyte Laydie, and a 1920's Gibson archtop.
Emeritus Members:
Mike played bass for Acoustic Mayhem from 1994-2001. Dr. Mike grew up with folk and bluegrass music. His father, Dave Kanellis, was a mandolin player who performed as a soloist and leader of the Kanellis Strings, throughout the midwest. Mike first started performing on bass in folk groups when he was in junior high school in Worthington, Minnesota. In high school and college he continued to play bass and guitar in both bluegrass and rock bands. While in dental school he started on the banjo and quickly became proficient as a bluegrass style player. Mike taught banjo for West Music store in Iowa City for four years. He is currently chair of the department of Pediatric Dentistry at the University of Iowa's Dental College, which necessitated his going to part time status with the band.
John Kennedy
John Kennedy was Acoustic Mayhem's original bass player. He holds a masters degree in bass performance from the University of Michigan. John performed on Andre Previn's farewell tour with the Detroit Symphony including two nights at Carnegie Hall. He also spent five years each with the Honolulu and Sante Fe Symphonies before going back and receiving a teaching endorsement. After teaching strings in the Iowa City Community Schools he now is a strings teacher for the Detroit MI public school district. When he comes back to Iowa City he still gets together to play with his former partners. Acoustic Mayhem spent a week with John at the Chelsea MI schools in 1995, and with the Detroit schools in 1997.