~Deborah Justice~ Scholar, Teacher, Musician

Upcoming

May 6, 2026, 6-7pm, Goddard School of Macungie

Do Music (not screentime) with your Littles. Come learn how to have screen-free fun with yout kids while making music and moving your body!

June 13, 2026, 1-4:30, Greens and grains, Quakertown, PA

A fun acoustic music fest, ourdoors and family-friendly. My set’s time is TBD!

Sept 20, 2026, times tbd, Berks fiddle fest

Hammered Dulcimer workshop, Clawhammer Banjo workshop!

Nov 6-7, 2026, Nutmeg dulcimer festival, Milford, CT

Hard to believe I helped found this fest 23 years ago…I’ll be back teaching multiple classes this year!

MAY 14, 2027, 7:30 PM bird-in-hand stringband at Kutztown Folk Music Society, Kutztown, PA

We fly again! St. Paul’s UCC, 47 S. Whiteoak St, Kutztown, PA 1953, Please park and enter at the rear of the church at the alley. Doors open @ 6:30 PM. Performances begin at 7:30 pm.  Donation - $10.00 Seniors, Military & Students - $8.00 Children 12 & under - free  No food or drink is available. For more information, contact: Keith - at 484.336.9639

Bio

Deborah Justice began playing folk music over 25 years ago. After childhood piano, Deborah discovered the hammered dulcimer, which she now teaches in private lessons and at regional festivals. While performing Irish, Eastern European, Arabic, and klezmer musics at the PA Renaissance Faire, Deborah learned to play guitar and within a few years quicky discovered old-time music. When she moved to Syracuse, NY in 2013, she got started on clawhammer banjo. Deborah has degrees in ethnomusicology (BA through PhD), throws axes as a hobby, and traces her Scots-Irish roots right back to Clan Menzies in the Highlands!

recent past performances

Friends of Stewart Park Benefit at Kilpatrick’s Irish Pub -Wintersquabee at Stone Cat Cafe -The Scalehouse - Barry Family Cellars - Fleur de Lis Brew Works- Americana Vineyards - Monks on the Commons - MapleFest at WellSpring Forest Farm -Finger Lakes Celtic Festival - Allegheny Celtic Fest - Rochester Contra Dance - Binghamton Porchfest - Dundee Scottish Festival - FLX Oktoberfest - Ithaca Porchfest - Trumansburg Conservatory Contra Dance - Nutmeg Dulcimer Festival - Contra Dance at Slow Lane - Cornell Elves Blanket Bee - Tioga County Contra Dance - Celtic Christmas at The Heart Light Center - Danby Town Hall Concert Series - Music and Meditation at the Tatkon Center, Cornell University - Hector Wine Company, Hector, NY - Six Mile Creek Winery - Sheldrake Point Winery - Bottomless Brewing - PA German Cutural Heritage Center in Kutztown, PA

Hammered DuLcimer-Banjo-Guitar

I've been teaching folks to play for over 20 years.

Whether you've got a graduate degree in some other instrument or can't read a lick of musical notation, I can help!

I enjoy working with beginners just as much as with advanced folks, so don't be shy!

Note: I recently moved from Ithaca, NY to Wyomissing, PA!

Deborah Justice and David Deacon are NY transplants from Southern Pennsylvania, NEar the small country town of Bird-in-Hand, PA.

We sing and play music from a mix of historically-based traditions, focusing on the roots of American Old-Time. We use instruments from fiddle, banjo, and guitar to hammered dulcimer. 

In the 1820s, before we had the genres of music that make up American folk music today, a man got on his horse in rural Pennsylvania and took a trip — south to the Carolinas, west to Tennessee, and back.

When he returned, he had a wife…and a sketchbook full of stories and tunes.

Thomas Wilson drew us a literal picture—in shape notes and staves—of what the only-recently-united states of America sounded like.

Almost every current American music genre has roots that tangle their way back to tunes like these…European-derived reels, jigs, and strathspeys; popular urban show tunes of the day; sacred songs, and tunes that clearly expand beyond their European roots with subtle backbeats and rhythmic variations that begin to show the African influence on the music of the American South.

with music that ranges from driving dance tunes to songs about daily life and love to the bittersweet partings of immigration, the sinking valley project provides a unique and touching glimpse of America’s musical heritage.

Want us to come play for you?