The Larkdales
Lark fell in love with some of the old bluegrass gospel tunes, noticed
that few groups sang them anymore, and wanted to share them for the joy
they inspire (without needing to take the words literally!) Our
repertoire includes a cappella and accompanied music that can broadly be
called “Americana”, including bluegrass, old gospel, and country with a
sprinkle of pirate songs and more. We are drawn to music that has heart
and soul and joy and humor and look forward to sharing it with you
soon!
Lark Coryell
Lark is the founder of the Larkdales and sings baritone and tenor (and
yes, sometimes even bass). She has sung with and recorded 3 CDs with
Solstice, an award-winning women’s septet, the San Francisco Symphony
Chorus and the Pacific Mozart Ensemble (now Pacific Edge Voices). With
PME, she recorded several CDs and was a soloist on the Kent
Nagano/Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin Grammy-nominated recording
of Bernstein’s Mass, and performed with Dave Brubeck, Sufjan Stevens,
Sweet Honey in the Rock, and Bobby McFerrin.
Mark Shepherd
Mark Shepherd (tenor vocals and guitar) has been singing acappella for
decades. He met Lark and Dale (the original Larkdales) through an online
ad for gospel/country acappella singers. Before the Larkdales, Mark
co-founded the bay area acappella jazz quintet One Night Stand, and was
also a founding member of the pop/jazz group Just Voices, in Marin
county. Mark has studied singing with bay area teachers Jan
Pedersen-Schiff, Kristen Womack, the Ali Akbar School of Indian music,
and the Freight & Salvage. You can occasionally find Mark at the
Thursday night bluegrass Jam in Corte Madera, or teaching guitar and
playing bluegrass music at Burning Man’s premier bluegrass camp
“Rootpile.”
Jim Kamphoefner
Jim joined the Larkdales in Spring of 2019. He brings a wealth of
experience performing in several classical choruses as well as in
a’cappella jazz groups. He is excited to be exploring the Larkdales
repertoire; watch out for our “man in black.”