Tina Bergmann
Hammered Dulcimer
Tina Bergmann is a highly accomplished hammered dulcimer player who has earned critical acclaim and recognition for her performances, workshops, and private lessons. She was praised by folk icon Pete Seeger as “the best hammered dulcimer player I’ve heard in my life.” Tina's musical roots go back four generations, as she began learning the mountain dulcimer from her mother at the age of eight and was mentored in the hammered dulcimer by renowned builder and performer Loy Swiger, who hailed from West Virginia.
Tina has a talent for both performance and teaching, and has shared her gifts with audiences across the United States and abroad. She has performed solo, as a duo with her husband, bassist Bryan Thomas, with her stringband Hu$hmoney, and as a member of Apollo’s Fire, Cleveland’s world-renowned Baroque Orchestra.
Tina has been a cornerstone of Apollo's Fire's folk-baroque crossover program since 1995. Creative director Jeannette Sorrell discovered Tina's talent at the Kent State Folk Festival in 1994 and was inspired to create a yearly concert series. This program has since earned two major Masters in American Music grants from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Tina has performed extensively throughout the United States, including a mainstage appearance at the 58th Annual Ojai Music Festival in California, and mainstage performances at Chautauqua Gatherings in Boulder, Colorado, and Chautauqua, New York. She has also performed overseas in England, Germany, and Ireland. Tina has recorded several albums, including Come to the River and Sugarloaf Mountain, which debuted in the Billboard Top 10 Classical list, with Sugarloaf Mountain receiving an Emmy nomination. She has shared the stage with numerous notable musicians, including David Greenberg, Chris Norman, La Nef, Meredith Hall, Mark Cudek, Ronn McFarlane, Mindy Rosenfeld, William Coulter, and Tomáseen Foley.