The contra dance trio Wry Bred engages in joyful musical conversations with driving rhythms and exuberant harmonies. With Julie Sorcek on flute and saxophone, Mickey Koth on fiddle, and Robert Messore on guitar, Wry Bred sensitively supports dancers and callers alike. The band was founded in 2009 and has been playing at dances, concerts, private parties, and other events ever since. They’ve developed a growing reputation and won the respect and admiration of dancers and music lovers throughout the area and beyond. The members of Wry Bred each bring years of experience as dancers and musicians. Wry Bred has played for contra dances in Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, and Massachusetts and, in 2011, with dance caller Bill Fischer, went on tour to North Carolina and Tennessee. Click here for a list of representative dances and performances. Past band members include Case, Dan Hocott on bass, Jono Finger on mandolin, and Louis Audette on bass. Guest musicians have included Beth Bradley on guitar, John Kalinowski on concertina and accordion, and Bill Walach on mandolin.
Julie Sorcek	has been playing flute since she was ten years old, and has been off and running ever since. She added piccolo in college, and has had extensive experience playing with high school and college symphonic bands, and in the late '80s and early '90s with the Danbury Community Orchestra. She also plays saxophone and occasionally bodhran and recently began lessons on the fiddle. She is a founding member of Wry Bred. Among Julie's other bands are The Reel Thing, a western Connecticut-based group specializing in contra dances, authentic 18th-century colonial dances and concerts, traditional dance workshops for children and adults, and family or community barn dances, and Fairfield Crossing, a concert band that performs traditional and contemporary Irish/Scottish, Appalachian, bluegrass, New England, and French Canadian tunes along with their own original vocal and instrumental pieces for some additional flavor. She also performs with the folk trio Chicks 'n Sync, comprised of the ladies of Fairfield Crossing. Additionally, Julie has been a guest artist at contra dances with Jane Rothfield and her band Jane's Gang, and with Donna Hébert and her band Groovemama. During the school year, Julie is the concert band director at Immaculate High School in Danbury, CT, as well as soloist and evening music leader at the First Congregational Church of Bethel.
Mickey Koth	was a strictly classical player for the first 40 years of her life. Like Julie, Mickey began playing flute at age ten. As a music education major in college, she learned all the instruments, except double bass and tuba. Her favorites were the bassoon and trombone. Deciding that she didn't want to spend her career teaching clarinet embouchure to sullen 6th graders, she followed the time honored tradition to avoid facing the real world: she went to graduate school, in the process acquiring two masters degrees, one in music history and one in music librarianship. Flute was her main instrument through graduate school, but she also played (but never practiced) viola. (And you wonder why there are so many viola jokes?) Along the way, she also picked up recorder and viola da gamba, two Renaissance instruments, and played with various early music groups, including the Yale Collegium Musicum. At age 39, she started contra dancing and loved the music so much, she rented a violin for her 40th birthday and soon began studying with bluegrass fiddler and dobro player Stacy Phillips. Before the end of her first year playing, she had joined a pick-up band. She and John Kalinowski were the founding members of the contra dance and concert band Wild Notes. With her husband contra dance caller Bill Fischer she performs with Out On A Whim , a band of ever-changing membership that plays for family dances and contra dances as well as for special events.
Robert Messore	plays guitar in Wry Bred. has passionately devoted himself to the guitar for 30+ years. Voted Best Instrumentalist in a New Haven Advocate readers’ poll, Robert has been called the Heart of the New Haven Folk Scene for his vital and many-faceted contributions as solo performer, side man, recording artist, teacher and concert presenter (working on several concert series and the Connecticut Folk Festival). He also plays guitar and bass with soul/rock group, The Chrissy Gardner Band, and presents a weekly program called Toddler Tunes, which is the largest children’s sing-along in CT! (Read a lovely article about Robert in the The Daily Nutmeg!)
Beth Bradley	plays guitar as a guest musician in Wry Bred. As with Julie and Mickey, Beth's first instrument was flute. She began her professional music career in 1974 and has played in folk, rock, and Celtic bands for private events, ceremonies, coffee houses, and fund raisers. A vocalist and multi-instrumentalist, she also plays flute, whistle, mandolin, mandola, bouzouki, banjo, and dulcimer (both Appalachian style and hammer). Beth also performs with The Dini Band. Additionally, she is a graphic artist, continuing a tradition going back to her great grandmother.	Past members of Wry Bred	Case Sanderlin, guitar Dan Hocott, bass Jono Finger, mandolin Louis Audette, bass
List of representative Wry Bred gigs Contra dances Contra dance series in Connecticut:    Hartford Contra Dance, Wethersfield, CT    Mystic Contra Dance, Mystic, CT    New Haven Contra Dance, Branford CT    Quiet Corner Contra Dance, Storrs CT    Wallingford contra dance, Wallingford, CT Contra dance series a bit further afield:    Worcester Contra Dance, Worcester, MA    Hudson Valley Contra Dance, Poughkeepsie NY    Swingin' Tern Contra Dance, East Hanover NJ Southern tour, 2011, contra dances in:    Contra dance, Jonesborough TN    Old Farmer's Ball Contra Dance, Asheville NC    Contra dance, Winston-Salem NC    Contra dance, Charlotte NC    Contra dance, Durham NC Other dances    Dances at Yale University Forestry School and Law School    Dance at the annual Friends of East Rock Park Oktoberfest    Dance at the annual East Rock Festival Special performance:    In June, 2012, Wry Bred played for a dance as part of the Mystic Sea Music Festival and was invited to play aboard the Amistad. Regular monthly performance:    Wry Bred performs the first Tuesday of every month at The Outer Space in Hamden CT

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