August 7-8, 2009
Festival Musicians
The Richmond Blueberry Fiddle Festival is widely known as an all-day musical event for the whole family. Without our musicians, how much fiddling would there be?
Among our most important benefactors, generous musicians from all over New England donate their time to share their old-time, celtic, and bluegrass talents. If you speak with any of our performers, please let them know how much you appreciate their support of Richmond's annual festival.
The Fiddle Contest will provide lots of opportunity for surprise entertainment in addition to our scheduled performers. And there is always plenty of room for "jam" sessions . . .
2009 Musicians:
From The Boston Museum of Fine Arts to the renowned Fiddler's Grove Festival in Union Grove, North Carolina, from the shores of Lake Michigan to the oldest bluegrass festival in Canada, from sidewalk cafes to coffee houses and formal concerts, audiences delight in the eclectic mix of music Spirit Fiddle performs, and in their natural sense of humor on stage. Since its first appearance twelve years ago, Spirit Fiddle has given over seven hundred performances, produced more than twenty TV shows, and recorded six full-length albums. Visit spiritfiddle.com for sound clips and more information.
After studying classical violin as a child, and giving solo violin recitals in Boston's Brown Hall and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Master Fiddler Robin Warren took first place prizes in numerous fiddle contests in North Carolina and New England. She was the first fiddler ever to win the coveted Fiddler of the Festival title during three different years at Fiddler's Grove in North Carolina. For this, she was granted the title of Master Fiddler. She is also one of several fiddlers featured in the 1994 PBS Special entitled "Fiddler's Grove, a Celebration of Old-Time Music". She has appeared on more than two-dozen albums and collections.
Brian Clancey brings a lifetime of experience (from Renaissance lute to bluegrass) to his sensitive guitar arrangements of Spirit Fiddle tunes. Brian is known throughout the Boston area as an outstanding rhythm player, and he is a popular backup guitar player at contests and festivals throughout New England.
Come to the festival on August 8 and enjoy listening to Spirit Fiddle yourself!
The Blueberry Jammers will perform several times during the festival. The group is composed of the more advanced fiddling elementary and high school students of Immaculate Heart of Mary School (Richmond, NH). IHM is a very small school and all the students f
rom fifth grade through high school learn to play an instrument. Whether they have just started the once-a-week group lessons this year or have been playing for five or six years, these students will sing, dance, and play a variety of old-time American music for your entertainment. For a couple of the performances, they will join forces with The Future Famous Fiddlers (the elementary school choir - grades 1-4 - and beginning fiddlers). The littlest ones always
steal the show!
Other groups we hope to see again:
The Well-Tuned Trio is growing into a larger group with the young Smarts joining in. From Fitzwilliam and Troy, they specialize in Irish and old-time music, but, then again, you never know when a little bluegrass or blues will creep in. Guitars, mandolins, tin whistles, fiddle, bodhran, and concertina combined with classic lyrics for a delightful show.
The 3rd Sunday Fiddlers will be coming from from Sandown, NH. Directed by Beverly Manning and backed up on the piano keyboard by her husband, Rick, this group of musicians (many of them taking private lessons from Mrs. Manning) meets monthly and perform at various New Hamshire activities. Besides fiddles, the 3rd Sunday Fiddlers include violas, celos, and a hammer dulcimer. Mrs. Manning, a trained classical violinist now teaching the fiddle to more than thirty students, says that her motto is: "Just 'cuz it says fiddle music, it doesn't apply to just fiddles!"
