Ada Palmer is the director and primary composer for Sassafrass, a folk and filk group performing primarily original multi-part a cappella music with all women's voices, though the group occasionally experiments with instruments and male members. Ada's compositions for Sassafrass range from two to six part harmony, and mix the styles Renaissance and modern folk music. The group has released four CDs, Solitary Dancer and Firebrand, Eclectic I: Concertino 2009, and Eclectic II: Prophecies and Lies, containing twenty-two of Ada's original compositions; these recordings can be sampled and ordered through our web site as well as through iTunes, Bandcamp and CDBaby. Ada is currently working on music for a Norse mythology themed song cycle project, Sundown. Sassafrass usually performs at East Coast venues, especially filk gatherings and science fiction conventions.
Ada has studied instrumental music including violin, piano, mandolin, guitar, recorder and various medieval instruments. She completed the Peabody music theory program at Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts, and took advanced music theory courses at Simon's Rock College of Bard. She has sung in numerous vocal groups, including the Bryn Mawr Renaissance Choir, which focused on original and unpublished fourteenth through sixteenth century pieces. She also studies the history of Medieval and Renaissance music, and delivered a guest lecture on the subject in a course on the History of Medieval England at Harvard University in fall 2008.