Molly Mason is an American musician and composer and performs as a duo Jay & Molly with her husband

Jay Ungar Jay Ungar (born November 14, 1946) is an American folk musician and composer. Life and career Ungar was born in the Bronx, New York City. He frequented Greenwich Village music venues during his formative period in the 1960s. In the late 1960s, ...

. Jay's composition,

Ashokan Farewell "Ashokan Farewell" is a piece of music composed by the American folk musician Jay Ungar in 1982. For many years it served as a goodnight or farewell waltz at the annual Ashokan Fiddle & Dance Camps run by Ungar and his wife Molly Mason, who ga ...

, became the title theme of Ken Burns' The Civil War on PBS. The soundtrack won a Grammy and Ashokan Farewell was nominated for an Emmy. Mason grew up in

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

state. She plays traditional American

fiddle A fiddle is a bowed string musical instrument, most often a violin. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including classical music. Although in many cases violins and fiddles are essentially synonymous, th ...

and

acoustic bass guitar The acoustic bass guitar (sometimes shortened to acoustic bass or initialized ABG) is a bass instrument with a hollow wooden body similar to, though usually larger than a steel-string acoustic guitar. Like the traditional electric bass guitar a ...

. She is married to Jay Ungar, whom she had first met during the 1970s. Jay & Molly continue to perform as a duo, with their band, ''Swingology'', and as the ''Jay Ungar and Molly Mason Family Band'' with Jay's daughter

Ruth Ungar Ruth Ungar Merenda was born February 19, 1976, in Mount Kisco, New York. She is a singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who plays fiddle, ukulele and guitar. She is the daughter of fiddler/composer Jay Ungar and singer Lyn Hardy and a gra ...

(her mother is Lyn Hardy) and Ruthy's husband Michael Merenda. In 1992, Ungar and Mason provided the soundtrack to the acclaimed documentary film '' Brother's Keeper'', released as a music CD entitled ''Waltzing with You'' (1998). They have contributed soundtracks to several of Ken Burns documentaries. They have performed on

Great Performances ''Great Performances'' is a television anthology series dedicated to the performing arts; the banner has been used to televise theatrical performances such as plays, musicals, opera, ballet, concerts, as well as occasional documentaries. It is pr ...

A Prairie Home Companion ''A Prairie Home Companion'' is a weekly radio variety show created and hosted by Garrison Keillor that aired live from 1974 to 2016. In 2016, musician Chris Thile took over as host, and the successor show was eventually renamed ''Live from He ...

All Things Considered ''All Things Considered'' (''ATC'') is the flagship news program on the American network National Public Radio (NPR). It was the first news program on NPR, premiering on May 3, 1971. It is broadcast live on NPR affiliated stations in the United ...

.All Things Considered interview
jayandmolly.com They've had the honor of performing at the White House for two sitting Presidents. In 2006, they headlined the

Northwest Folklife Festival Northwest Folklife is an independent 501(c)(3) arts organization that celebrates the multigenerational arts, cultures, and traditions of a global Pacific Northwest. The Northwest Folklife Festival is an annual festival of ethnic, folk, and tradit ...

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

References

Catskill Cultural Center Saved, and Renewed, Thanks to a Fiddler’s Tune
By Dennis Gaffney. The New York Times. May 12, 2013

External links

Jay Ungar & Molly Mason

Folk Alley Sessions: Ashokan Farewell
Kent State University, Ohio, 2011.
Jay Ungar (fiddle) & Molly Mason (guitar, piano) - Ashokan
Fiddle Hell Online Jam #27 July 12, 2020 American folk musicians American fiddlers American women composers 21st-century American composers Angel Records artists Year of birth missing (living people) Living people 21st-century American women musicians 21st-century American violinists 21st-century women composers {{US-music-bio-stub