Tu' Penny Uprights are all classically trained musicians who find themselves drawn to the folk and popular dance music of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. Just as composers from Bach to Beethoven and Bartok were inspired by this music and often included it in their symphonies, the Tu' Penny Uprights enjoy playing music that provided a creative engine for much of classical music. The music is lively and energetic--sometimes lyrical and sometimes raucous. People say the dance music "Lifts them off their feet".

        Tu' Penny Uprights consists of three musicians as pictured left to right: Martha Edwards with the fiddle, Kristin Graham who plays keyboard and Paul Wexler with the Clarinet who also plays recorder and the penny whistle. Currently, they are using the resources of the Missouri History Museum Library and Research Center for researching, reconstructing and presenting the music of the Lewis and Clark Era. The band and our Artistic Director have researched the dances and music used at the parties and balls thrown by a St. Louis population eager to meet and entertain Captains Lewis and Clark while they were in St. Louis. The Tu' Penny Uprights have put together a fairly sizable collection of the music which is played for the dancers.