The UTC Fiddle Fest is a new venture into American folk music for the Department of Performing Arts at UTC. The public is invited to join award-winning fiddlers Jim Wood and John Boulware, and guitarist, and wife of Mr. Wood, Inge Wood, for a day-long festival learning about and playing American fiddle tunes and folk music in an informal orchestra setting with musical arrangements of the tunes made by Mr. Wood.
The Fiddle Fest Orchestra is open to violin, viola, cello, and guitar players at intermediate to advanced levels, grades nine-12 and adults.
Reading music fluently is required. Mr. Wood will teach the orchestra about playing fiddle music and will share solo spots with his pupil, Mr. Boulware. Sandy Morris will conduct the orchestra. Pre-registration is available at
www.utcmusic.org, then click the button for UTC Fiddle Festival.
Participants will gather at 9:30 a.m. this Saturday at the UTC Fine Arts Center Roland Hayes Concert Hall, and begin rehearsal on the fiddle music at 10 a.m. Following a lunch break, Mr. Wood will lead a clinic on an interesting aspect of folk music, then more rehearsal. The Festival will conclude with a public free concert at 5 p.m. in Roland Hayes Concert Hall.
Mr. Wood has won over 160 first prizes in folk music competitions, including at least seven fiddle championships. Mr. Boulware is also a Tennessee state champion in fiddling. Along with Ms. Wood, all three of these clinicians are multi-instrumentalists. Orchestra director Ms. Morris is well-known in the region for her work with the Chattanooga Symphony Youth Orchestra, as well as her teaching at the Center for Creative Arts high school and her work as a clinician and adjudicator. She was honored by the Tennessee Governor’s School for the Arts. She also leads the UTC Cadek Community Orchestra.
A participant of last year’s Fiddle Fest said, “This festival was so much fun. (It) was so good that it made the hair on my arms stand up. It reminded me of the music I heard as a kid sitting on the porch.” His granddaughter was playing in the fiddle orchestra that evening.
This Fiddle Fest is sponsored by Dr. Jonathan McNair, the Ruth S. Holmberg Professor of American Music; and the UTC Department of Performing Arts, Division of Music.