Deborah Van Kleef
Deborah Van Kleef has been a ROAM teaching artist since 1999. She authored some of the organization’s earliest successful grant applications, and developed curriculum for its residency programs. In 2000, she and ROAM founder and Executive Director Kevin Richards received the Northeast Ohio Live Award of Achievement for creating the educational outreach programs associated with the North American Folk Alliance conference held in Cleveland that year. She teaches beginning guitar and ukulele at the Fairmount School of Music, and at the Ruffing Montessori School summer program, Summer Ruffing It.
She has performed, promoted, written and taught American folk and roots music for over 25 years. She has appeared at concerts, festivals, libraries, schools, coffeehouses, conferences and special events throughout northeast Ohio, as well as in New York, Washington, DC and California. Deborah was featured on WCPN's award-winning documentary, "Woody Guthrie: Hard Travelin'," which has aired on over 160 public radio stations nationwide. Pete Seeger premiered her song, "The Great Fast Food Strike" at the historic Carnegie Hall concert marking the 50th anniversary of Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. She released her first recording, "Work in Progress," in 2008.
Growing up in Cleveland’s Old Brooklyn and later Cleveland Heights, Deborah was introduced to folk and roots music through recordings as a very young child.
She studied flute with members of the Cleveland Orchestra, and at York University in Toronto, where she received a B.A. in English literature. She began presenting music in the classroom as a parent volunteer at Fairfax Elementary School in Cleveland Heights. In addition to hands-on experience, she has participated in workshops and professional development programs offered by Young Audiences of Northeast Ohio, the North American Folk Alliance and the Children’s Music Network.
Deborah is a member of the American Federation of Musicians, Locals 4 and 1000, the North American Folk Music Alliance, the Children’s Music Network, and Sing Out!
