Mark O'Connor Fiddle Camp Memoirs

• October 1995
• September 1996
• October 1997
• August 1998

• Claude Williams played guitar with Count Basie in the '30s.When he left Basie he went back to playing the violin and has been around the jazz scene ever since. Claude's one of those people you always find out something cool about. Like this year, he let it slip that he and Lester Young were roomates. Claude's 90 years old and still swings like crazy.
• Rachel Barton was this year's (97 & 98) classical violinist on the staff. She is incredible! She plays impossible-sounding pieces without sacrificing the emotional intensity that is so essential to good fiddling.
• Darol Anger has been around the "new acoustic music" scene since he was with David Grisman in the '70's. He was a founding member of the Turtle Island String Quartet. He also knows his way around the bluegrass scene pretty well.
• Ian Swenson is a gifted chamber player who teaches at a conservatory in San Francisco. He could've been a fish out of water at fiddle camp but he's way too cool for that. His enthusiasm as a teacher and openess to music outside his own idiom made Ian a great asset to the camp.
• Crystal Plohman. A Canadian fiddle champion and purveyor of fine cheese, Crystal had the honor of teaching the beginning fiddlers. I watched her class a couple of times and she gave clear and concise instructions that allowed everyone to keep up. Crystal also puts in a lot of time making sure things happened around the camp, making sure everyone knows what is going on and promoting a festive air in general.
• Buddy Spicher plays country as well as western swing and much more. He considers himself to be best at backing up singers, which he has done on numerous hit records. Buddy is a master of improbable sounding double stops. I found Buddy to be a very engaging and personable fellow, a pleasure to be around. He took a genuine interest in meeting the campers and finding out what we were all about. New! check out Buddy Spicher's Web site!
• Mark O'Connor showed some of the figures he has incorporated into his fiddle concertos. He also played some Texas fiddle tunes and some jazz. He talked a great deal about improvising and put on a wonderful concert one evening. I think the whole theme of Mark's playing now and of his fiddle camp is the crossing of boundaries between different genres of music.
• Fred Carpenter runs The Violin Shop in Nashville and every year brings his wares out to fiddle camp. He does repairs for campers and gives workshops on maintenance. He's quite a player, too. He performed some of his originals and did some twin fiddling with Matt Glaser.
• Jon Cooper has been to camp many times. He is a violinmaker from Maine. During a typical week of camp he completes a violin. The staff "inaugurates" it on the last night. It is then sold as the "camp fiddle" to raise money for scholarships. He has made several of these "camp fiddles" now. Jon gave a talk on violin construction and was happy to let people watch him work.

Be sure to Add your own comments to my camp scrapbook.

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Last updated:Wednesday, 19-Jun-2002 10:02:48 EDT