The Artists

Darol Anger

Fiddler, composer, producer and educator, Darol Anger is at home in a number of musical genres, some of which he helped to invent. Exceptional among modern fiddlers for his versatility and depth, Anger has helped drive the evolution of the contemporary string band through his involvement with numerous pathbreaking ensembles such as his Republic Of Strings, the Turtle Island String Quartet, the David Grisman Quintet, Montreux, his Duo with Mike Marshall, and others. He has performed and taught all over the world with musicians such as Dr. Billy Taylor, Bela Fleck, Bill Evans, Edgar Meyer, Bill Frisell, Tony Rice, Tim O’Brien, Anonymous 4, Marin Alsop and the Cabrillo Orchestra, the Detroit Symphony, Mark O’Connor, and Stephane Grappelli.

Today Darol can be heard on NPR’s “Car Talk” theme every week, along with Earl Scruggs, David Grisman and Tony Rice. He was also the violinist on the phenomenally popular Sim City computer games. In addition to performing all over the world, he has recorded and produced scores of important recordings since 1977, is a MacDowell and UCross Fellow, and has received numerous composers’ residencies and grants. He has been a featured soloist on dozens of recordings and motion picture soundtracks. He is an Associate Professor at the prestigious Berklee School of music. He recently began an ambitious online Fiddle School at ArtistWorks.com. His website is www.darolanger.com.

Liz Carroll

The newest Liz Carroll news is the February, 2016, release of a new collaborative album, produced as companion music to a recent exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago – “Ireland: Crossroads of Art and Design, 1690-1840 – The Music.” A mix of period music and new compositions by Liz, the other artists include Liz Knowles, Kieran O’Hare, Tríona Ní Dhomhnaill, and Catriona McKay. Released in February, 2016, Daniel Neeley of the Irish Echo praised it, saying “It is a breathtaking companion piece… a spectacular album. It features a beautiful mixture of old and new music from one of the most elite gatherings of musicians.”

Liz Carroll has had a remarkable century. Her 2009 recording with John Doyle, Double Play, was nominated for a 2010 Grammy, making Liz the first American-born artist nominated for playing Irish music – ever! On St. Patrick’s Day 2009, Liz traveled to Washington, D.C., to play for fellow Chicagoan, President Obama, at the annual St. Patrick’s Day luncheon. In 2005, she became a member of String Sisters, a sextet of fiddlers from America, Ireland, the Shetland Islands and Norway. Their 2009 Live album was shortlisted for a Grammy. And Liz’s first duet album with John Doyle, In Play, caused Sing Out! Magazine’s Rob Weir to exclaim “Liz Carroll recordings induce joy and admiration that exhaust this reviewer’s feeble descriptors.”

Previous to that were two solo albums, Lake Effect and Lost in the Loop, which used Liz’s hometown of Chicago as the influence for an extraordinary outpouring of new compositions. The 2000 Lost in the Loop album led the Irish Echo to proclaim her the Traditional Musician of the Year.

All that has come this century, but in the last came a National Heritage Award Fellowship in 1994, which honored Liz as a “Master Traditional Artist who has contributed to the shaping of our artistic traditions and to preserving the cultural diversity of the United States.” A mouthful, to be sure, but such national recognition stood on her winning the 1975 All-Ireland Senior Fiddle Championship to Mayor Daley proclaiming September 18, 1999 as “Liz Carroll Day” in Chicago.

2010 brought the publication of Liz’s first book of compositions, “Collected.” It’s a compilation of Liz’s musical past, as well as a promise for the future – a past and future honored in 2011 with Ireland’s most revered traditional music prize, the Cumadóir TG4 (Composer of the Year!).

Liz’s recent solo album, On the Offbeat, was released at www.lizcarroll.com and it’s there and everywhere right now.

Hanneke Cassel

Engaging, Boston-based fiddler Hanneke Cassel is a performer, teacher and composer whose career spans over two decades. Her style fuses influences from the Isle of Skye and Cape Breton Island with Americana grooves and musical innovations, creating a cutting-edge acoustic sound that retains the integrity and spirit of the Scottish tradition. Hanneke’s music is a blend of the contemporary and traditional, described by the Boston Globe as “exuberant and rhythmic, somehow wild and innocent, delivered with captivating melodic clarity and an irresistible playfulness.”

A prolific composer, Hanneke writes music from personal experiences of love and loss as well as to commemorate the joys and sorrows in the lives of loved ones. Hanneke’s latest release, Trip to Walden Pond, features traditional Scottish and Cape Breton tunes and seventeen new pieces composed in the Scottish idiom. While her lively style is very much evident, this new album carries a deep, soulful sound with songs of celebration and farewell. Produced by Finnish musician Antti Järvelä (FRIGG, JPP, Baltic Crossing), the album showcases long-time musical collaborators cellist Mike Block, guitarists Keith Murphy and Christopher Lewis, fiddler/violist Jeremy Kittel, and pianist Dave Wiesler. Antti Järvelä contributes guitar and piano to a couple of tracks and piper Samppa Saarinen is featured on the uilleann pipes. Trip to Walden Pond, similar to Hanneke’s five previous albums, offers mellifluous arrangements of traditional fiddle music and original tunes that evoke humor and heart. This latest album also includes several compositions penned by Hanneke as commissions to benefit Many Hopes, a children’s education nonprofit based in Kenya that she avidly supports.

A native of Port Orford, Oregon, Hanneke started out as a Texas-style fiddler and went on to win the 1997 U.S. National Scottish Fiddle Championship, which awarded her the opportunity to study with Alasdair Fraser and introduced her to fiddle camps and the folk community — both of which continue to play an integral role in her life. Hanneke teaches regularly at Fraser’s Valley of the Moon and Sierra Fiddle Camps, the Mike Block String Camp (run by her husband, acclaimed cellist Mike Block), Harald Haugaard’s International Fiddle School, and the Boston Harbor Scottish Fiddle School. She has served as a guest instructor in the American Roots department at Berklee College of Music, where she received her Bachelor’s of Music in Violin Performance.

Hanneke is a sought-after performer who has graced stages across North America, Europe, Australia and Asia. She has been featured at Celtic Connections (Glasgow, Scotland), KVMR Celtic Fest (Grass Valley, USA), Milwaukee Irish Fest (Milwaukee, USA), Celtic Colours (Cape Breton, Canada), WGBH Christmas Celtic Sojourn (Boston, USA) and the National Celtic Festival (Port Arlington, Australia). The Hanneke Cassel Band features Mike Block on cello and alternating guitarists Keith Murphy and Christopher Lewis.

Michael Doucet

Deeply influenced by older musicians such as Amédé Ardoin and especially Dennis McGee (who became a friend), Doucet and a group of like-minded friends formed a band in 1975, naming it Coteau. He also formed Beausoleil with Kenneth and Sterling Richard in 1977. With Beausoleil, Doucet blended elements of traditional Cajun music with zydeco, adding hints of jazz, blues, and country. In 2005, Doucet and Beausoleil received a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment of the Arts, and in 2007 were awarded a United States Artists Grant. The band has been nominated many times for Grammy awards, and won for Best Traditional Folk Album with 1997’s L’Amour Ou La Folie.

Doucet has performed frequently in concert and on record in a trio, the Savoy-Doucet Cajun Band, with Marc and Ann Savoy. He has also worked with Bruce Molsky, Darol Anger, and Rushad Eggleston as Fiddlers 4, and recorded several solo albums. Since 1977, Doucet has been involved in education and has been adjunct professor at the University of Southwestern Louisiana in Lafayette. (excerpt from bio by Mark A. Humphrey)

Check out www.beausoleilmusic.com.

Casey Driessen

Casey Driessen has spent his career pushing the boundaries of fiddle music. With the release of his new album, The Singularity, the 34-year old virtuoso proves that the possibilities of one man, one five-string fiddle, and one pedal board are endless.

The Singularity, Driessen’s third record, is a solo album in every sense of the phrase—the only sounds listeners hear are created by the looping of fiddle and voice. It was self-recorded and self-produced at his home studio—which is really more of a laboratory—in between touring with The Flecktones, Tim O’Brien, and Darrell Scott, and opening for the Zac Brown Band. There aren’t even any guest musicians—unless you count Driessen’s daughter, whose in utero heartbeat was the inspiration behind “Heartbeat Kid,” an instrumental (and the subject of his 2012 TEDx Talk) that resonates with any parent who can remember the first time they heard the rapid thump of their child’s heart.

Driessen draws on a number of wide-ranging influences from Tom Waits (an eerie cover of “Murder in the Red Barn” is one of two Singularity songs to feature vocals) to Stevie Wonder to jazz violinist Stuff Smith. He’s particularly drawn to the improvisational elements of bebop, the groove of R&B, and percussion rich global cultures. His “Tanuki Attack” is all percussive fiddle, “a tune without any notes,” he jokes. It was inspired by the sounds made while Driessen experimented with chopping, a percussive bowing technique that only developed in the last 60-some years – a short time when considering the violin’s centuries-old history. Driessen’s continued interest in percussion has also led to the creation of Fiddle/Sticks, an ongoing audio and video project in which he collaborates with drummers like Jamey Haddad, Kenny Malone, and Futureman.

Brittany Haas

Brittany Haas is widely regarded as one of the most influential fiddlers of her generation. Born in Northern California, Brittany grew up honing her craft at string camps nationwide, and developed her unique style of fiddling at the influence of her mentors, Bruce Molsky and Darol Anger. A prodigious youth, Haas began touring with Darol Anger’s Republic of Strings at the age of fourteen. At seventeen, she released her debut, self-titled solo album (produced by Anger). Haas continued to tour and record while simultaneously earning a degree in Evolutionary Biology at Princeton University (where she also minored in Music Performance). It was during her time at Princeton that Brittany was asked to join the seminal “chamber grass” band Crooked Still, with whom she has made four recordings and toured the world.

Haas has always been a much sought-after collaborator and session musician. She has performed on Late Night With David Letterman and Saturday Night Live as part of Steve Martin’s bluegrass band, and features on Martin’s Grammy-winning album “The Crow: New Songs for the 5-String Banjo.” Over the years, she has performed with Bela Fleck, Abigail Washburn, Tony Trischka, Yonder Mountain String Band, The Waybacks, Alasdair Fraser & Natalie Haas (her cellist sister), and more.

Now residing in Nashville, TN, Brittany is currently involved in many exciting projects. Her trio Haas Kowert Tice (featuring bassist Paul Kowert of Punch Brothers and guitarist Jordan Tice) is gearing up to release their follow up album to 2014’s “You Got This” and continues to tour around the country with their original material. In 2015, Haas began touring with the Dave Rawlings Machine (featuring Gillian Welch) and can be found on their latest release “Nashville Obsolete.” In the fall of 2016, Haas will perform as part of the house string band for Prairie Home Companion, hosted by Chris Thile. Her trio Haas Marshall Walsh (featuring Owen Marshall and Joe K. Walsh) recently released their debut E.P., and Brittany also continues to collaborate with Swedish fiddler Lena Jonsson and percussive dancer Nic Gareiss.

In addition to her work as a performer, Haas is an instructor at various string and fiddle camps across the globe, sharing her knowledge and passion in hopes to inspire the next generation of fiddle players.

Natalie MacMaster

Award winning Cape Breton musician, Natalie MacMaster, began her fiddling career at 16 releasing her debut album Four on the Floor. Her musical venture now spans over three decades, completing 11 albums, performing thousands of shows and collaborating with a multitude of world renowned artists.

The most recent album by MacMaster, Cape Breton Girl, has been self-described as a “straight-ahead, traditional record.” The album is filled with an invigorating collection of toe-tapping jigs, reels, and strathspeys that embodies her most cherished values, her family and home, tradition, and faith.

Over MacMaster’s three decades of performing her audience is still left clapping, hollering and screaming for more as she and her band wow them with stylistic diversity without losing the traditional Cape Breton groove. The applause only increases with excitement when she incorporates step dancing into her performance. Although her stage presence is reason enough to see one of her shows, it’s the elegance with the bow, the intricate technique with the fiddle, and the embrace of the Cape Breton tradition that floors her admirers at over 100 shows a year.

The dedicated work ethic Natalie has shown throughout her career has garnered her well deserved recognition throughout the industry. In turn, this has amounted to multiple gold albums, awards from all across North America, as well as an honorary doctorate from St. Thomas University and honorary degrees from Niagara University, NY, and Trent University. She has also received the Arts & Letters Award from the Canadian Association of New York, the honour of being a member of the Order of Canada, and – most recently – receiving an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from the Atlantic school of Theology.

MacMaster’s sought-after talents are in demand by her musical peers, all from a range of genres. She has collaborated with countless artists, including a recording with Yo-yo Ma, which won a Grammy. In turn, Natalie has enlisted the expertise of many world renowned artists to contribute to her own projects throughout the years.

More recently, Natalie’s talents have expanded to include co-writing and publishing the picturesque 161-page coffee table book Natalie MacMaster’s Cape Breton Aire with Pulitzer Prize-winning wordsmith Eileen McNamara and featuring Boston-based Eric Roth’s breathtaking photography.

Mia and Mikael Marin

Two of Sweden’s most established traditional violin players teamed up, and the result was a totally unique duo. Since they are both known as experienced and imaginative second voice players, (Mikael in the trio Väsen, Mia in trios NID and MP3) they are uncommonly responsive. Something that can be heard in their arrangements, improvisations and compositions. Their repertoire is a mix of traditional tunes and original compositions. Mikael’s creative sound world put together with Mia’s fulminent playing equals musical fireworks without parallell. Their second album ”Småfolket” was nominated for the prestigious Manifest award in 2011. (An award for important albums from small record labels.) Their third album “Skuggspel” was released in the summer of 2013, and was immediately a favourite with the media. The last album “Tiden” was released at Ransäterstämman in June 2016 in a crowded concert venue and has also gotten really great reviews. All four albums have received the quality sign “Lira likes” in the earlier mentioned magazine.

They are called master fiddlers as well as inspired teachers. They teach regularly at music colleges, schools and workshops in Sweden and around the world. Sometimes alone, other times together with dance teachers or other music teachers. Mikael also plays in the bands Väsen, Timber, Bowing 9 and Rotvälta. He is also in charge of traditional ensemble education at the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm. Mia plays with MP3, NID, Bowing 9, Lena Willemark, Ulrika Bodén Band and Sofia Karlsson Band. She teaches very often at workshops around the world and is also a violin teacher at Malungs folkhögskola and Eric Sahlström Institutet in Uppland.

Rodney Miller

Rodney Miller was designated a “Master Fiddler” in 1983 by the National Endowment for the Arts. He is widely considered to be the foremost exponent of New England style fiddling, a uniquely American blend of French Canadian and Celtic influences. Over the past 35 years, he has toured the U.S., British Isles, Australia and Denmark, performed and taught at hundreds of music and dance festivals, and recorded over ten fiddle albums.

In 1999, Rodney represented the state of New Hampshire, playing traditional fiddle music at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington, D.C. He has also appeared on Garrison Keillor’s National Public Radio show “A Prairie Home Companion,” performed live with the Twyla Tharp Modern Dance Company, performed at the Lincoln Center in New York, and was recorded on the album Songs and Sounds of the Sea for the National Geographic Society.

Rodney’s most recent recording (2014), Stringrays, recorded with Max Newman on guitar and Stuart Kenney on upright bass/ 5 string clawhammer banjo, is now available on my CD order page and through CDBaby.

Rodney Miller is pleased to announce his appointment by NH Gov. Hassan and the Executive Council as the new ‘Artist Laureate of NH’, effective Mar. 2014 through Mar. 2016.”

Bruce Molsky

He’s a self-described “street kid” from the Bronx who bailed on college and big city life for a cold-water cabin in Virginia in the 1970s. His mission? To soak up the passion that was dramatically upending his parent’s life plan for him – authentic Appalachian mountain music – at the feet of its legendary pioneers, old masters who are now long gone.

Today, Bruce Molsky is one of the most revered “multi-hyphenated career” ambassadors for America’s old-time mountain music. For decades, he’s been a globetrotting performer, ethnomusicologist and educator, a recording artist with an expansive discography including seven solo albums, well over a dozen collaborations and two Grammy-nominations. He’s also the classic “musician’s musician” – a man who’s received high praise from diverse fans and collaborators like Linda Ronstadt, Mark Knopfler, Celtic giants Donal Lunny and Andy Irvine, jazzer Bill Frisell and dobro master Jerry Douglas, a true country gentleman by way of the Big Apple aptly dubbed “the Rembrandt of Appalachian fiddlers” by virtuoso violinist and sometimes bandmate Darol Anger.

Molsky digs deep to transport audiences to another time and place, with his authentic feel for and the unearthing of almost-forgotten rarities from the Southern Appalachian songbook. His foils are not only his well-regarded fiddle work, but banjo, guitar and his distinctly resonant vocals. From tiny folk taverns in the British Isles to huge festival stages to his ongoing workshops at the renowned Berklee College of Music, Molsky seduces audiences with a combination of rhythmic and melodic virtuosity and relaxed conversational wit – a uniquely humanistic, downhome approach that can make Carnegie Hall feel like a front porch or parlor jam session.

Laura Risk

Originally from California, Laura grew up in the thriving San Francisco Scottish fiddle scene, learning her craft from master fiddler Alasdair Fraser. Upon moving to Boston in 1996, Laura joined American roots band Cordelia’s Dad. By 2001, Laura had moved to Montreal to continue her successful recording and concert career. Laura’s imaginatively expressive interpretations of Scottish, Irish, Cape Breton, and Quebecois fiddle music have garnered international acclaim. “A virtuoso fiddler. Her fluency in fiddle styles from Cape Breton to Appalachia is remarkable,” raves The Boston Globe, while Folk Roots (U.K.) calls her playing “technically excellent and highly expressive.” Says Grammy-winning filmmaker Ken Burns, “Laura Risk’s fiddle is a revelation and achingly beautiful.” Visit Laura’s website: www.laurarisk.com.