Fiddle Classes

Fiddle classes are scheduled in the morning and early afternoon and allow participants to study the various styles taught by each instructor. All tunes are taught by ear, and class divisions, ranging from advanced to those who have never played before, are based on students’ rate of learning by ear.

Alasdair Fraser is recognized throughout the world as one of the finest fiddle players Scotland has ever produced; [his] name is synonymous with the vibrant cultural renaissance which is transforming the Scottish musical scene." —Scots Magazine

Renowned performer and master teacher of the rich fiddling tradition of Scotland, Alasdair inspires us to higher and deeper levels of self-expression within an embracing community of listeners, learners and like-minded folk. The variety and expressivity of Alasdair's playing is evident in his numerous recordings—from intimate fiddle/guitar duets, to a more contemporary interpretation of tradition, to high energy original tunes with his Skyedance band. Recent, highly acclaimed albums include "Legacy of the Scottish Fiddle, Vols. 1 and 2," and "Fire and Grace, " which was named Scots Trad Album of the Year for 2004. In Alasdair's class, you will learn a variety of Scottish tune types and how to use special bowings, ornaments and a rhythmic drive to make the tunes come alive.

Maura Shawn Scanlin currently makes her home in Somerville, MA. In 2019, she completed her Masters Degree in Violin Performance at the Yale School of Music, where she studied with Ani Kavafian; previously, she earned her Bachelors Degree at the New England Conservatory. Maura’s classical music collaborations with various ensembles have led her to many international competitions.

Maura performs and tours regularly with duo project Rakish, with guitarist Conor Hearn.  She has toured and shared the stage with Seamus Egan, Maeve Gilchrist, Hanneke Cassel, and Karan Casey, among others. Maura is a two-time U.S. National Scottish Fiddling Champion, and a winner of the Glenfiddich Fiddle Championship in Perthshire, Scotland. 

Maura can be found on faculty at various music camps including Sierra Fiddle Camp, Folk College, Boston States Fiddle Camp, Hanneke Cassel’s Pure Dead Fiddle Weekend, Jink & Diddle School of Scottish Fiddling, the Heartbeat Music Project, and Up With Music’s Summer Strings. Through her collaborations and performances, Maura hopes to cultivate appreciation for both traditional and innovative live acoustic music.

Elias Alexander is a multi-instrumentalist, producer, and songwriter. Wielding bagpipes, fiddle, guitar, whistles, and keyboards, Elias weaves melodies from the Scottish and American traditions with catchy beats and original songs that discuss themes of alienation, belonging, and queerness.

Elias grew up in Ashland, Oregon, where he studied pipes and fiddle from a young age. Moving to the east coast in 2009, he made a name for himself as one of the foremost exponents of traditional Scottish music in America, touring with numerous groups and playing many of the top Celtic festivals including Celtic Connections and Celtic Colours. He currently tours as the pipes and whistle player with Scottish legends Old Blind Dogs in North America.

Slow Class

Meghan Perdue

Internationally acclaimed violinist Meghan Perdue has been an active member of the music industry as a sought-after performer and accomplished teacher since 2006. She holds her Bachelor of Music degree in Commercial Violin Performance from Belmont University and a Masters Degree in Commercial Violin Performance with a focus in Violin Pedagogy also from Belmont University.

Fluent in a broad range of styles including classical, Celtic, Scandinavian, jazz, bluegrass, and more, Meghan's versatility as a musician distinguishes her as a current resident of Nashville, TN, where she works as a performing and recording performer and teacher. Meghan is a faculty member in the Belmont University School of Music and in the Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt University. Additionally, she is currently studying to receive an Ed.D. in Education Leadership from Lipscomb University.

Fiddle Kids

Caroline McCaskey started her musical journey as a fiddler, and has toured the U.S. as a member of contra dance band Stringfire! In 2019 she won the U.S. National Scottish Fiddle Competition. She has also taught for many years at Fiddlekids Day Camp.

She completed her Master of Music in Viola Performance at Lamont School of Music, earning the Recital of Distinction the first violist in 17 years to do so. Aalong with her string quartet she also won Lamont’s 2012 chamber music competition. In 2009, Caroline was also a winner of University of the Pacific’s concerto competition, playing the first movement of the Walton concerto.

Caroline plays cello internationally as a substitute member of Scottish dance band Reel of Seven, and has been on staff teaching cello at Rocky Mountain Fiddle Camp.

Adult beginners

Janette Duncan has benefited from both classical violin training and a fiddling heritage. Her grandfather was a fiddler and her dad a guitar player. Janette’s own fiddling has been particularly influenced and inspired by Bengt Johnson and Alasdair Fraser. She has herself inspired a great many players through her performances—as a member of the Bi-Coastal International Dance Band, Dockside and other ensembles—and her teaching, including beginning string classes in schools, a community college course she teaches on “Celtic Session Tunes,” and private instruction at home in Sonoma County, California. Her students are encouraged to learn to read and write music but also play the fiddle by “ear and heart.”

Janette will teach the basic beginning fiddle class for adults who have little or no experience with the instrument.

Ergonomics

Zoe Schlussel: trained in Body Mapping, musician ergonomics, and with years of experience with mental health, Zoe has helped numerous students recover from and prevent playing-related injury. All instruments, all levels, and even non musicians welcome. We can all benefit from more understanding about how to move in a healthy way to reduced pain and injury and increase freedom and ease.

Cello Classes

Natalie Haas is in the vanguard of young cellists pushing the envelope of the cello while simultaneously carrying it back into the fold of traditional Celtic music. She has graced the performances and recordings of many renowned fiddlers, particularly Alasdair Fraser, with whom she has been performing in the US and Europe for several years. Since she began teaching at Celtic Connections in Glasgow and VOM in 2002, various music camps and festivals have been eager to engage her. Her recent album with Alasdair, "Fire and Grace," was named Scots Trad Music Album of the Year for 2004. Natalie's powerful and rhythmic playing make it easy to understand why Alasdair says, "In18th century Scotland, the fiddle and cello were the dance band of choice." In Natalie's class you will learn bowing techniques, ornamentation, bass lines and rhythmic techniques to suit the style and mood of a variety of music, including the tunes the fiddlers are learning.

Daniel Delaney is a creative cellist, educator, and composer. His performances have taken him around the world as a band leader, sideman, and solo singer/songwriter.

Crucial influences as he grew up were AC-DC, Pink Floyd, The Beatles, Phish, Miles Davis, Led Zeppelin, Frank Sinatra, Billy Joel, and "more than a little Huey Lewis and the News." "But," he continues, "You'll certainly hear the decades-long impact of endless Popper etudes, Piatti caprices, late night practice of Dvorak and Elgar concertos, and the deep love/hate of the J.S. Bach Suites. Just don't get yourself confused - those guys were making rock music in their own days and in their own ways."

Erin Esses hails from Southern California where she plays and teaches in a variety of different settings and styles. From Celtic to Bluegrass, Rock and Roll to Classical, and Folk to Funk, Erin enjoys it all. Classically trained, she is a graduate of UC Irvine, where she also began dabbling in all kinds of improvisation. Erin is a member of the celtic, old-time cello duo Dusty Bows, and also plays and sings in the folky bluegrass band Gone Wayside. Of her teaching philosophy, she says, "I focus on uplifting and empowering my students to follow their musical passion and listen to their heart. My teaching style caters to both individual and group settings."

Katie Le Sesne is a musician and string educator from Noblesville, Indiana. With a degree in Music Education from Ball State University, Ms. Le Sesne finds her professional home in public school music education. She currently serves as the Orchestra Director at Noblesville West Middle School, where she teaches 6th-8th grade Orchestra. Ms. Le Sesne has been an active member of the American String Teachers Association  since 2011, and was named as the 2015 recipient of the Indiana ASTA Chapter's New Teacher of the year Award.

As a musician, Katie has studied cello and violin classically  She has performed with East Central Indiana Chamber Orchestra, Elkhart County Symphony Orchestra, Deoc Ensemble, various pit orchestras, and in many chamber ensembles. While playing chamber music and in the pit, presents some of her favorite kinds of playing, Katie also has found a passion for folk music through involvement in the New Harmony Music Festival, Sierra Fiddle Camp, and jam sessions local and abroad.

Guitar

Conor Hearn teaches a wide variety of guitar topics, with a focus on rhythmic accompaniment in traditional music styles. His vast teaching experience includesworking with large groups of all ages and skill levels at camps and festivals, like the Swannanoa Gathering and Alasdair Fraser's Sierra Fiddle Camp, as well as teaching one-off lessons on a particular subject, and having regular students over the course of several years.

Eamon Sefton is a multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter based out of Boston, MA. He is rooted in a wide variety of different musical styles ranging from rock to pop to traditional Celtic. Specializing in Irish and Scottish style guitar, he has established himself as one of the most highly sought after accompanists in the Boston area. His percussive rhythm and innovative use of harmony, as well as deep understanding of traditional tunes distinguish him as a truly unique and stand-out musician.

A Berklee College of Music Alumnus, Eamon has performed and taught all over the US with an array of different musicians. He has been a featured performer numerous times on Brian O'Donovan's "A Celtic Sojourn." He has shared the stage with many prominent Celtic musicians including Hanneke Cassel, Jamie Laval, John Doyle, Galen Fraser, and many others. Eamon teaches regularly at a variety of music programs all across the US.

Piano

Neil Pearlman: Multi-instrumentalist, stepdancer and host of podcast TradCafe, Neil Pearlman is a vital and distinctive voice in contemporary traditional music. Described as “a tremendous pianist” on BBC Radio Scotland and “a force to be reckoned with” by WGBH’s Brian O’Donovan, Neil is recognized in many Celtic music circles for his unique approach to the piano. Rooted in traditional Cape Breton piano styles, he adds jazz harmony and the syncopations of funk, Cuban, and Brazilian dance music to create a unique and infectious sound. It was this innovative style that led legendary Cape Breton fiddler Jerry Holland to say “watching Neil’s hands on the piano was like watching two spiders on crack!”

Today Neil's musical projects run the gamut from deeply traditional to refreshingly contemporary. He collaborates regularly with fiddlers Katie McNally, Alden Robinson, Galen Fraser, and Ed Pearlman. He also performs with the larger Afro-Celtic Funk band Soulsha and the quartet Fàrsan, mixing Gaelic song, stepdance, fiddle and pipes.

Dance

Summer McCall is a multi-genre musician and teacher whose primary focus is traditional celtic cello and fiddle.  She's in demand as a performer and instructor and has been featured at some of the premier music camps and festivals throughout the country such as Alasdair Fraser’s Sierra Fiddle Camp, Lark Camp and the KVMR Celtic festival for cello, fiddle and Scottish ceilidh dance calling.

Summer studied Cello Performance with a minor in Spanish at Humboldt State University in Arcata, CA. In 2010 she attended the Berklee College of Music five week Summer Program for folk cello, where she studied with professors such as John McGann and Mimi Rabson. Recently she co-created Ministry of Folk—a virtual music community platform developed to unite and support some of the greatest musicians in the traditional Folk scene today with events, services, and means of connection. 

Ensemble

Cullen "Cujo" Luper is a San Francisco-based multi-instrumentalist, performer, composer, & teacher whose interests range from Bach to Basie, Gow to Gershwin, Rameau to Reinhardt, & Fritz Kreisler to Fraser. It all started with Suzuki violin, classical piano, San Francisco Early Music Society camps, San Francisco Scottish Fiddlers, Alasdair Fraser’s Music Camps, contradances, busking with my brother on the streets of San Francisco, & touring Ireland & Scotland. What did I learn? GROOVE! Got to GROOVE! 

Fast forward to now, I am studying Applied Composition and Technology at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. In other words, composing video game and movie music and all the producing and audio tech stuff.  I am honored to play violin and piano weekly with Paul Mehling’s Le Jazz Hot, and be the violin alternate for the Hot Club of San Francisco. Whenever I get the chance I play with my fiddle camp buddies/heroes at festivals, weddings, dances, & gigs.

Song

Paper Wings (Wila Frank and Emily Mann)

Long-time friends and collaborators Emily Mann and Wila Frank, known together as Paper Wings, dream up warm, pastoral folk songs suited to wandering through a forest or field, quiet contemplation, and long winding journeys. Furnished with delicate banjo and spellbinding harmonies so close you often can’t tell their voices apart, Frank & Mann deliver dynamic performances emboldened by the strength of their sincere songwriting.

Both with roots in rural parts of the West Coast, Mann & Frank eventually found their way to Nashville where they recorded their debut album Paper Wings in 2017, and sophomore album Clementine which came out in 2019. In 2020 the duo toured as openers for for Avi Kaplan’s ‘I’ll Get By’ tour.

Special Guest

Giovanni Kiyingi is a Ugandan folk and fusion/Afro-beats singer-songwriter and world music artist. He is known for his skills as a multi-instrumentalist who plays the local Ugandan fiddle (endingidi), akogo,adungu, guitar, harmonica, flute, djembe, calabash, congas, drums, and maracas, among others. His skills as a multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, and performer have won him invitations to perform at major music festivals and cooperative events in Uganda and around the world. He was one of the Ugandan artists chosen to welcome Pope Francis to Uganda at Kololo on November 27, 2015.

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