Fiddle Players

10 Great Fiddle Players You Need to Hear

Many famous fiddlers have influenced the history of fiddle playing throughout many generations. All these fiddlers have mastered their skills in music and in playing the fiddle. They’re known not only for their musical abilities but also for their love of playing fiddle and sharing their passion with the world.

For more on this great story…

7 tips for classical violinists to unlock their inner fiddler

Colin Jacobsen from string quartet Brooklyn Rider has some advice for classically trained approaches to folk traditions

Sadly, like many languages and species of animals around the world, many folk traditions around the world are being lost to urbanisation, modernisation, globalisation, etc. The flip side is that those same forces have allowed more of us to know more about a greater diversity of folk music than at any other time.

Obviously, the problem with saying ‘folk’ as a general concept is that it is an impossibly large umbrella to describe a world with as many variations in style as there are languages, dialects and specific accents within languages. So for the purposes of this article, I will generalise ‘folk’ music in this context to mostly refer to Celtic and North American fiddling traditions, though some of these things I feel are applicable to things as diverse as Chinese or Persian folk music, the music of the Roma people, etc.

Here are the 7 tips for classical violinists to unlock their inner fiddler…..

Interview with Stroud fiddler Sam Sweeney…

Nominated four times, and winner in 2015, of Musician Of The Year BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, Sam is a veteran of the mighty Bellowhead, former and inaugural artistic director of the National Folk Youth Ensemble, founder member of the acclaimed instrumental trio Leveret, and a superb instrumentalist at the forefront of the revival in English traditional music. Sam has also recorded and performed with The Full English, Eliza Carthy, Jon Boden & The Remnant Kings, Fay Hield & The Hurricane Party, Emily Portman, Martin Carthy, as well as his own critically acclaimed show Made In The Great War.

https://www.samsweeneymusic.com/

About to release his 2nd solo album, here is an interview with this remarkable fiddler….

MARK SULLIVAN

“A force in the world!” says Grammy nominated fiddler, Liz Carroll.

Among his many awards, Mark Sullivan is a 3-time Canadian Grand Masters Fiddle Champion and is widely regarded as one of the finest fiddlers in North America today.  He is in demand as a spirited performer and continues to collaborate with many of the finest names in traditional music today.

See more of Mark’s incredible work here.

‘Highlight of the quarantine.’ Teen violinist brings joy to neighborhoods amid pandemic.

When people suddenly hear the music, they come out of their homes or stop their bike rides.

They practice social distancing, and wear their masks to listen to a teenager play his violin.

For more than a month, Zach Buttrick, 18, has performed his mini-concerts in neighborhoods all over Miami. He brings people together in joy, as they stand, or sit, apart.

One listener called it the “Highlight of the Quarantine.”

Read more and see a video here.