Berklee Blogs

First-hand accounts of the Berklee experience

Tag: fiddle

fiddle

Casey Driessen performs at the Viljandi Folk festival in Estonia

Casey Driessen is the new Contemporary Performance (Production Concentration) Program Director at Berklee’s campus in Valencia, Spain. Casey recently performed at the Viljandi Folk festival in Estonia and shared his thoughts with the local publication Eesti Ekspress:Casey-Driessen-Berklee-Valencia-Estonia-Festival

“I spent last weekend in Viljandi, Estonia, for my first solo gigs since arriving to my new life in Spain and the EU. It was my first time to Estonia and traveling there was similar to flying across the USA. I’m no stranger to long travel, but in this case, residing within the EU now makes getting places like this much more probable—which was a big attraction to moving here. I love music, of course, but more specifically, I love the cultural exchange that happens through music.

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Berklee kicked butt at the Lowell Banjo and Fiddle Contests

John Mailander and Kyle Tuttle play for gold at the 2010 Lowell Banjo and Fiddle Contests

John Mailander and Kyle Tuttle play for gold at the 2010 Lowell Banjo and Fiddle Contests. All photos by Sam Stambler.

Think music-college students can’t play bluegrass? The Berklee crew seriously showed off its chops at the 31st annual Lowell Banjo and Fiddle Contests on Sept. 11 at the Lowell National Historic Park. Students took first place in six of the eight categories. Said top alt-styles fiddler Bronwyn Keith-Hynes, “It was a pretty good day!”

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Transatlantic Seaway takes the roof off the Octagon

No time and no internet to blog from this weekend’s New Hampshire Highland Games—so without further delay, here’s the conclusion of the Transatlantic Seaway Music Collaboration’s Saturday-afternoon set at the Octagon Lodge. This performance is awesome and I would say that even if I weren’t on the Berklee payroll. You should really, really watch it. Kicks into high gear at 1:05.

18 musicians! Visible are Isbel Pendelbury, clarsach; Finlay MacDonald, whistles; Hamish Napier, flute and feet; James MacKenzie, flute; Ainsley Hamill, voice; Hannah Read, Duncan Wickel, Trent Freeman, fiddle; Eric Robertson, mandolin; Courtney Hartman, guitar; Lucas Pool, banjo; and Monica de Vitry, cello. Read more about the collaboration (and more to come).

Berklee meets Scotland at the New Hampshire Highland Games

Berklee alumna Maureen McMullan, part of the Transatlantic Seaway Music Collaboration, performs at Berklee's Don Was tribute in 2009 (admittedly not a very Celtic event). Photo copyright Phil Farnsworth.

According to the color-coded schedule I got from Larry Bethune, VP for student affairs/dean of students, the two dozen? members of the Transatlantic Seaway Music Collaboration have just arrived at Loon Mountain for the New Hampshire Highland Games. It’s the debut of a collaboration between Berklee, the University of Strathclyde, and the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, with support from Glasgow UNESCO City of Music.

The team includes:

6 Fiddle    4 Guitars    2 Pipes   2 Whistle

2 Clarsach    1 Banjo    1 Mandolin

2 Vocals    1 Keyboards   1 Accordion

1 Cello    1 Semi-bodhran

2 Multi-instrumentalists

That has got to be one loud bus.

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