The Music of New England: Jeremiah McLane, Composer, Accordionist, Pianist, and Teacher

Jeremiah McLane was raised in a family with deep ties to both its Scottish heritage and its New Hampshire roots. Traditional New England music and dance were a part of his parents and grandparents’ generations. So it’s no surprise McLane teaches music from the British Isles, Quebec, and Northern Europe — the genres that influenced the music of New England.

His musical education, however, didn’t start with traditional music. After an early education in classical piano, Jeremiah spent his teenage years playing blues and jazz. As a student at Hanover High School, he played in a rock band with Steve Cornell, son of Louis Cornell, one of the co-founders of UVMC.

It wasn’t until his mid-20s that Jeremiah began to immerse himself in the world of traditional Celtic and French music, studying accordion with Jimmy Keene and Frederic Paris. He spent time traveling in Europe, doing field research that laid the groundwork for a master’s degree he received years later from the New England Conservatory.

He returned to New England and made his home in Vermont, teaching traditional music privately through Floating Bridge Music School, founded in 2005, as well as at schools across the Northeast and many summer music camps. McLane joined UVMC in 2013.

“Traditional music is extremely accessible,” McLane said. “It’s the kind of music a community music school like UVMC is made for. I’m committed to teaching people about traditional music as much as I can.”

He explains that traditional music has been learned through oral transmission from one generation to the next. It is generally not taught in schools, which typically offer orchestra and marching band.

“In a classical orchestra, you are playing the same instrument as the person next to you, reading the same score, following a conductor,” he described. “In a traditional music ensemble, different instruments — fiddle, accordion, mandolin, piano, guitar, flute, for example — are playing together, listening and following each other.”

McLane taught a traditional music ensemble at UVMC’s former location on Hanover Street and still teaches the ensemble today at UVMC’s new location on 8 South Park Street. “I have one student back this year who first took my class in 2013,” he said.

Typically there are anywhere from 8 to 14 students. Some semesters McLane will divide the group into smaller ensembles, other times the group meets all together.

“What I am really teaching is ear training,” McLane said, “Students learn to listen to each other as keenly as they listen to themselves, enabling the group to function as a unit.”

More than a decade later, McLane is still sharing his diverse musical background — blues, jazz, Celtic, Québécois, French and other roots influenced music — with others at UVMC.

“UVMC came through the pandemic so successfully and the administrative team, under Ben Van Vliet’s leadership, made the school even stronger than before,” McLane said “It was wonderful how strongly the community has been invested in the school and vice versa.”