About The Melbourne Scottish Fiddle Club
Musical Director: Judy Turner The Club is a group of fiddle fans meeting monthly to play tunes from Scotland, old and new and the Scottish diaspora. The Club is open to all comers providing they play the fiddle at least a bit, and meets monthly (3rd Sunday of the month) at St Aidans Uniting Church, North Balwyn, Victoria Australia. The second CD "reel cool" was released in October 2002. One of the great things about the club is the putting together of keen amateurs with semi professional and professional players, and the creation of a group which can give concert performances of the highest standard. It has been a great motivator for players of all standards to have the chance to play at Australia's biggest folk festivals and to record with established "names" from the Australian folk scene. This juxtaposition of old and young, beginners and professionals, makes the club something pretty unique in the folk world, we think. Eric Bogle with the Fiddle Club at The Australian National Folk Festival, 2003 |
Click below to download publicity and performance information about the MSFC
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Click on the links below, or scroll down the page Background
I came back from living in Boston (Mass.) in 1995 and one of the things I was very keen to do was get a fiddle club going that would enable me to keep playing the great tunes I had learned with Ed Pearlman and the Boston Scottish Fiddle Club. I liked the idea of a group that was open to everyone, as the Boston group was, but which let kids and adults learn together, whatever their playing standard. I was partly inspired by my experience as a violin teacher in some western suburbs (Melbourne) schools where the ethos was not conducive to kids learning violin, and where I could get better results introducing the students to folk fiddling through a band which did real gigs, the "Incredible Western Region String Band".
The Melbourne Scottish Fiddle Club twelve years later has the following achievements to its name:
Chris Drever from Scottish band Fine Friday joins the Fiddle Club, and Judy on the singing saw, for an amazing recitation of Stairway to Heaven at the 2003 Canberra Festival! The Club is growing steadily and though we are always sad to say goodbye to departing players, we always welcome new ones. We take part each year in the national Scottish Fiddle Rally (thanks to the support of the National Folk festival, held in Canberra, every Easter) and we make application each year to various other festivals. The group will continue to sponsor members' involvement in fiddling workshops and learning opportunities as they come up. It will continue to encourage tune writing and "sideways" learning by giving the good players teaching opportunities. If you have a fiddle and can play a bit, come and join us on the 3rd Sunday of any month from 2pm - 5pm - at St Aidan's in Duggan Street, North Balwyn.
Importing a Fiddle Club to a festival near you I am frequently asked about how to start up a club like ours, and a number of folk festivals and community festivals have included a number of Fiddle Club workshops, teaching sessions and concert performances as part of their programs. Email me for information about how to do this. Basically, the theory is for me to work with a group of local fiddle players and help turn it into a concert performance. Festivals such as The National Folk Festival, Geelong Celtic Festival, Fairbridge Festival have included this in their programs. |
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