Biography
Ellen Stekert's contributions extend well beyond performing folk songs or amassing collections of them, activities she pursued throughout a career spanning more than five decades and marked by repeated shifts between scholarly environments and musical pursuits. She entered the world in New York City during 1935 and spent her formative years in Great Neck, located on Long Island, where an attraction to folk music along with other inherited customs centered on narratives and viewpoints took hold during her teenage period. As an undergraduate concentrating in philosophy at Cornell University, she took up singing herself, thereby engaging directly with the musical practices under her academic scrutiny, which led to a 1956 release of traditional folk material alongside Milt Okun issued by the Riverside imprint under the title Traditional American Love Songs. Her path next led her to become a dedicated gatherer and documenter of folk songs, resulting in numerous publications addressing both musical topics and a range of scholarly fields. Among her efforts in preservation was the assembly of authentic tunes that formed the basis for multiple recordings, one of which was Songs of a New York Lumberjack, appearing in 1958 via Folkways Records. Her academic appointments included a position at the University of Minnesota, where she attained the status of professor emerita.
Albums