Ellen Ford: About the Artist

Ellen Ford is a folk life artist and educator who travels the country creating programs that remind us of our past and encouraging audiences to honor their own stories, songs and games.

She is the author of a children's picture book, The Day Mom Stopped the Bus, a musician extraordinaire on the hammered dulcimer, a folk dancer specializing in historic games and marches, and a storyteller.

Ellen Ford is an Ohio State University alumna with a degree in Music Education, Masters in Adult Education and post-graduate courses in drama, dance and children's literature. A rich background in counseling and special education makes Ellen particularly sensitive to her audience.

While performing with the Boston Symphony as a member of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, Ellen also studied at the Boston Conservatory of Music. She taught vocal and instrumental music for several years in Ohio, Boston and Germany. In her leisure she began to collect the music, dances and stories that enhance her program.

Ellen is a member of the Ohio Village Singers, a 19th century repertory company specializing in the music, dance and theatre of the Civil War. She and Priscilla Hewetson, another member of the company, perform as a hammered dulcimer-violin/fiddle duo around Central Ohio.

In 2005, Ellen was accepted as an Ohio/Kennedy Center Artist as Educator, a program that extends professional development and other Kennedy Center resources through a state-based distribution system.