Who am I

Inspired by bonds of kinship forged through music, Cellist, composer, and teacher Sammy Wetstein found his love for music traveling between multigenerational folk music workshops and festivals in search of a musical community to call home. His journey led him to pursue a degree in folk and jazz string performance at Berklee College of Music, where he became versed in a variety of styles, performing, recording, and teaching throughout the worlds of classical, jazz, and traditional Celtic, New England, Bluegrass and Old time fiddle music.

 

As a multi instrumentalist fluent in playing accordion, guitar, mandolin, bass, violin, and viola, he has appeared at venues such as the Newport Folk Festival, Grey Fox Bluegrass festival, and The Smithsonian.  He has served as faculty at camps and workshops such as Maine Fiddle Camp, The Swannanoa Gathering, The Ashokan Center, Fiddle Hell, Pinewoods, and the IBMA Kids on Bluegrass Program.

​

Sammy has appeared alongside artists such as the Grammy winning 8 Bit Big Band, jazz icons Joe Lovano and Kenny Barron, renown string players including Eugene Friesen, Darol Anger, Mike Marshall and Jason Anick, and toured with trailblazing folk artists Jake Bount and Nic Gareiss. Advocating for furthering the role of the cello in traditional music, he has been featured on Bluegrass Today and Sirius XM Bluegrass Junction. In 2024 his new acoustic quartet Catfish in the Sky was a winner of the Freshgrass band competition, and his Celtic trio was voted one of the top 5 Celtic bands of 2022 by Irish and Celtic music podcast.

 

Sammy plays music in hopes to bring others together, and in his teaching he works to encourage string players of all ages and backgrounds to find freedom in their music, explore global music styles, and play music as a means to exist in community while better understanding oneself..