Stuart Ryerse is a musician and juggler based in the Boston area. He plays piano, recorder, mandolin, guitar, bass guitar, marimba, and harpsichord, in addition to singing, composing, and songwriting. He performs solo variety shows in addition to performing with his bands Heartwood Junction, Lampyridæ, and Running Out of Tuesdays.
Heartwood Junction is an indie folk trio based in Boston and New York comprising Stuart Ryerse (recorder), Cate Byrne (fiddle), and Andrew Shield (guitar), whose style is somewhere between American contemporary folk, Celtic, and bluegrass. All three members sing their original songs in three part harmony, and jam out to up-tempo instrumental tunes.
Lampyridæ is an original works fiddle trio comprising Stuart Ryerse (piano, recorder, mandolin, guitar, voice), Caroline Dressler (fiddle, voice), and Giulia Haible (piano, cello, voice). The trio’s sound combines elements of Celtic music, classical music, counterpoint, and odd rhythms, to create an experience that is scintillating, exciting, and beautiful. Being comprised of multi-instrumentalists, Lampyridæ is uniquely versitile in their instrumentation, and can often be seen switching instruments in the middle of their tunes.
Running Out of Tuesdays is an instrumental Irish music duo comprising Stuart Ryerse (recorder) and Tom Abbott (guitar). Both graduated from New England Conservatory’s Contemporary Improvisation department, where they met and started playing together. The duo’s unique instrumentation, using a modern recorder in place of bagpipes or tin whistle, along with Tom’s background in rock and Stuart’s background in classical music, inevitably brings a fresh new sound to traditional Irish music, and uniquely influences their spunky original tunes.
Stuart has also performed with the Harvard Baroque Chamber Orchestra, the Boston Recorder Orchestra, Renaissonics, and a variety of NEC ensembles including the Middle Eastern, Jewish Music, Interdisciplinary , Songwriters’, and American Roots Ensembles. He was co-music-director for two musicals at Shippensburg University, and has been the accompanist for many others. For a year, he co-created and accompanied fully improvised musicals at the Harrisburg Improv Theater twice per month. He has given many solo private concerts and shows that include piano music, original folk songs, comedy, and juggling.
Stuart is an avid juggler, and can juggle seven balls, or six clubs. As a juggler he is most interested in creating artistic juggling that parallels music by having themes, variations, textures, and development through time.
In his spare time, he enjoys playing board games, hiking, rock climbing, mathematics, stenography, learning and speaking Icelandic, baking, computer programming, drawing, writing poetry, knitting, crocheting, sewing, tennis, basketball, ping-pong, fancy paper airplanes, balancing rocks, sailing, kayaking, and traveling, among many other things.
B.M., Contemporary Improvisation, New England Conservatory