Cultures at Risk Presenter Biographies

Elizabeth Laprelle

Appalachian folk songs

 

Seventeen-year-old Elizabeth LaPrelle has been performing Appalachian ballads and old-time songs, and winning prizes for her singing at fiddlers’ conventions, since she was eleven. Her magnificent voice, her respect for the songs, and her authentic mountain sound and style brought her to the attention of first Ginnie Hawker and then Sheila Kay Adams. She has been featured as a ballad singer at the West Virginia State Folk Festival in Glenville and the Friends of Old-Time Music and Dance Fall Fling in Fayetteville, West Virginia.

Raised in Rural Retreat, Virginia, Elizabeth learned from singing with her family, who taught her various singing styles and encouraged her to sing their own favourite American folk music. Fiddler’s conventions gave her a chance to perform for mountain audiences who encouraged her interest in the traditional music of her region.

At the age of 16, Elizabeth was chosen by the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress as the first recipient of an award from the Henry Reed Fund for Folk Artists. She was asked to perform on Garrison Keillor’s “A Prairie Home Companion” NPR radio show, broadcast from Norfolk, Virginia, in April 2005.