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Jay Ungar & Molly Mason
Biography
Best known for his composition, "Ashokan Farewell," the Grammy-winning and Emmy-nominated theme song of Ken Burns' PBS documentary series, The Civil War, Jay Ungar has performed and recorded with mid-60s rock band, Cat Mother and the All Night Newsboys, the Putnam String County Band, Fiddle Fever, The David Bromberg Band and in duos with his wife, Molly Mason, and his ex-wife, Lyn Hardy. The founder of the Fiddle & Dance Workshop at Ashokan, a Catskill Mountain camp, in 1980, Ungar has spearheaded the revival in traditional string band music and dance.

The son of immigrant parents, Ungar grew up listening to traditional Hungarian and Macedonian music. Starting violin lessons at the age of seven, Ungar was soon playing by ear and writing his own melodies. While attending the High School of Music And Art, he was introduced, by friends, to bluegrass and traditional folk music.

In the early '60s, Ungar traveled to North Carolina and Tennessee in search of old timey folk musicians. Upon his return, he became involved with the roots music community in Greenwich Village. A founding member of Cat Mother and the All Night Newsboys, Ungar temporarily left the band before they recorded their first album which included a minor hit, "Good Old Rock and Roll," in 1969.