"'He was really a lot of fun,' ' Why don't we do more of that kind of thing?.' ''The hallways were so crowded I couldn't get to the dining hall.' These were some of the comments from students following your day-long performance. Your talent and drawing power far surpassed our expectations."

- Carthage College

A sidewalk minstrel from Boston with over two decades of performances, Stephen Baird, enchants young and old alike with wonderful stories, poems, jokes, and plenty of songs. His repertoire is seemingly endless, ranging from Irish ditties to ragtime to sing-a longs. With leprechaun charm, he accompanies himself on all manner of instruments; mandolin, banjo,dulcimer, autoharp, kazoo, tambourine, and the fascinating limber jack - a percussion instrument in the form of a wooden puppet toy. Stephen Baird makes a place where people meet and touch each other through art and music.

Stephen Baird, street singer, has toured forty-eight states and Europe, playing on street corners, at fairs, festivals, concerts, coffeehouses and over one hundred college campuses since 1971. Instrumental in legalizing street performing in Boston in 1973, he has since become nationally renowned as an advocate of street performing. He has been featured in Time, Newsweek, People and many other magazines, a PBS-TV documentary, and at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.

Stephen Baird restructured Club Passim, the historic folk music venue in Cambridge, as a nonprofit organization in 1995-1997, co-founded the Bread & Roses Festival in Lawrence in 1986, founded the Folk Arts Network in 1982, published the New England Folk Almanac and Folk Directory from 1982-1996, produced Jamaica Plain Open Studios and was the Executive Director of the Jamaica Plain Arts Council from 1999-2001. He is currently the Executive Director of Community Arts Advocates.

Flexible and versatile, he is equally at home on a concert or coffeehouse stage, emceeing festivals or street performing in nontraditional locations such as student lounges, hallways and outside under the sun.

Programs may consist of a whole or partial day commitment combining street and formal performances. Fees are negotiable depending on travel and length of commitment. Programs can include additional musicians who play concertina, guitar and banjo or a full band with bass and hammered dulcimer players.

• $2,000 for one hour performance
• $500 for additional performance on the same day
• $2,500-4,000 a day for 2-4 hour roving performances
• $3,500-$5,500 for performances with full band
  
  

"But none has honored his roots--or his audience--as fondly as the man street players now call 'the Dean.' Good show."

- People

"What an entertainer! You are indeed the Pied Piper of our Fine Arts Festival. I am not sure whether we will even be able to have another festival without you!"

- Illinois Central College

"Whether he's playing a dulcimer solo of a theme from Beethoven or leading the chorus of the foot-stomping 'Cocaine Blues,' his joy and energy ripple out through the audience like the frequent laughter and applause."

- Icarus (Madison, WI)

"Small, elfish, with remarkable energy and street presence, Baird has an enormous repertoire... crowds inevitably gather around him and he possesses the uncanny ability to turn an otherwise rational crowd of adults into a hand-clapping, singing, foot-stomping, head-nodding mass."

- Boston Globe

Harvard Square, Cambridge, MA

Photo by Black Light Films from Documentary Film "America"

"He obtained some hilarious crowd participation by inviting sing-along and passing out kazoos"

- U.Wisconsin/Oshkosh

Stephen Baird, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 150 dpi JPG bw photo

"Not only was your scheduled performance delightful, but the impromptu entertainment along the registration line brought enjoyment to scores of weary new students."

- Syracuse University

"Baird has a way of transforming the outdoors into his own private theatre."

- Univ. of Wisconsin

 

Stephen Baird at University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire

Guitar, Hammerd Dulcimer, Appalachian Mountain Dulcimer, Banjo, Mandolin