In honour of the endorsement we received from Mandolin Cafe, this year instrument workshop will be dedicated to Mandolin.

Hosting the workshop is Dan Beimborn. Originally from Milwaukee, Wisconsin in the U.S.A., Dan has been a frequent fixture in American folk and Irish music communities since the late 1980s. In the 1990s, he helped organize the digitization of O'Neill's Music of Ireland in ABC format. This was the beginning of a long involvement in many internet groups promoting Irish Music on Mandolin, bouzoukis, and tenor guitars.

Mandolin players may recognize him as the creator and founder of The Mandolin Archive, a digital archive of thousands of vintage Gibson Mandolins that inspires luthiers and collectors all over the world. He's also been one of the driving forces behind the Mandolin Cafe, helping to keep the lights on and the conversations flowing by managing the technical nuts and bolts that help hold it all together.

His first solo recording "Shatter The Calm" was released in 2002. He followed up with "Torch and Fire" in 2006. On both recordings he explored American, Bluegrass, and Old-Timey melodies with contributions from many well known Irish-American and Bluegrass players such as Tim O'Brien, Zan McLeod, Chipper Thompson, and Craig Harbauer. In recent years, he's appeared as a contributor to several other projects, including the recently completed "Tobar Gan Trá" by Pádraig Mac Aodhgáin.