The Nutmeg Dulcimer Festival returns on Nov. 6-7, celebrating 23 years and bringing together dulcimer players, teachers, performers and music enthusiasts from around the country for two days of workshops, concerts and musical discovery at Mary Taylor Memorial United Methodist Church in Milford.
The festival showcases two different musical instruments, hammered dulcimers and mountain dulcimers, that are usually associated with folk music. The hammered dulcimer is a non-mechanical cousin of the piano, with several dozen strings stretched across a wooden box, so the player can hit the strings with special pencil-sized drumsticks. The mountain dulcimer is an elongated box with a fretboard on its top and typically has three or four strings, placed across the player’s lap, so the player can fret and strum it from above.
“Dulcimers, of both kinds, are among the world’s coolest musical instruments,” says festival chair and co-founder Sam Edelston, who is known in the mountain dulcimer community for his renditions of classic rock and pop songs. “The general public deserves to know dulcimers the way it knows ukuleles, harmonicas and guitars. In fact, we deliberately keep our concert tickets inexpensive to encourage people to check it out. And for people who want to try a dulcimer for the weekend, we’ll have some on hand.”
A hallmark of the festival is its participatory, educational format. The daytime consists mostly of workshops for all levels of players, including beginners. Loaner mountain dulcimers are available, along with a limited number of rental hammered dulcimers.
The festival’s 50 workshops are taught by three featured artists and more than a dozen others who hail from around the Northeast. The 2026 featured artists are Karen Mueller on the mountain dulcimer, Karen Ashbrook on the hammered dulcimer and Sasha Bogdanowitsch on the mountain dulcimer.
The festival will also present two public concerts. Friday evening’s concert at 7:30 p.m. features Bogdanowitsch alongside the workshop instructors, while Saturday evening’s concert at 7 p.m. showcases Karen Mueller on mountain dulcimer and Karen Ashbrook on hammered dulcimer with Sophie Chang.
Both concerts are open to the public, with tickets available through the festival website or at the door. Mary Taylor Memorial United Methodist Church is located at 168 South Broad St. Complete festival information and schedule, including full-festival and daily registration for workshops and concert tickets, is available at NutmegDulcimer.com.