Maine Fall Fiddle Fest

The Waldo proudly presents our 2023 Maine Fall Fiddle Fest with Andrew Finn Magill, Lissa Schneckenburger and Liz Knowles. Hosted by Smokey McKeen.

The 2023 Maine Fall Fiddle Fest kicks off on Friday, October 20th.

FRIDAY:

Fiddler’s Jam (Open to the public)
Welcoming local fiddlers, both amateur and professional. All musicians are invited to take the stage for a community jam session hosted by Smokey McKeen.
7-9pm at The Waldo
Fiddle players, both amateur and professional, are invited to take the stage for a community jam session hosted by Smokey McKeen and Ellen Gawler.
$5 suggested donation. Tickets available by clicking this link.
Doors open at 6:30 pm, concessions will be available for purchase.

SATURDAY:

Fiddler’s Workshops (all workshops are 50 minutes.) Open enrollment for workshops with each of the festival’s featured performing artists. Musicians can attend individually or get a discounted rate by buying the All Workshops package. enrollment for workshops with each of the festival’s featured performing artists. Workshops are 50 minutes each. Musicians can attend individually or get a discounted rate by buying the All Worksh package.
- Liz Knowles: Fiddle workshop at Broad Bay Church 12:00 - 12:50 . Register here
- Lissa Schneckenburger: Fiddle workshop at The Waldo Theatre 2:00 - 2:50. Register here
- Andrew Finn Magill: Fiddle workshop at Broad Bay Church 3:00 - 3:50. Register here
- $15 for each workshop, FREE for youth

4 - 5pm - Youth Fiddlers Showcase at Broad Bay Church
- Celebrate young musicians from several local schools at this showcase hosted by Ellen Gawler and featuring Pineland Fiddlers and others. Doors open at 3:30. All levels and ages and welcome!
- $5 donation suggested

7-10pm - Maine Fall FiddleFest Main Stage at The Waldo
- Doors open at 6pm
- Liz Knowles (solo) at 7pm
- Lissa Schenckenberger (duo) at 7:30pm
- INTERMISSION at 8:15pm
- Andrew Finn Magill with Ben Foss (piano) at 8:30pm
- Finale at 9:30pm
- $25 General Admission in advance/$30 DO, $10 for Youth, $40 front row (10). Buy Tickets here

PACKAGES:

Workshop Package: Three workshops for $40

About the Workshops -

Saturday, October 21st - $15 per workshop or $40 for all three; FREE for youth

Liz Knowles: Workshop at Broad Bay Church 12:00 - 12:50

Using Gestures and Shapes to Understand, Practice and Play Irish music. In this workshop, Liz will offer some different ways to think about, play and practice Irish music on the fiddle using gestures and shapes.

Lissa Schneckenburger: Workshop at The Waldo Theatre 2:00 - 2:50

Learning By Ear. For those who have limited experience learning fiddle or another lead instrument by ear, it can really be a challenge to face a new way of learning and playing. Perhaps you're used to reading from music, or you play by ear but find it difficult to pick up new tunes. This gets easier over time, but how do you get started? We’ll go through a series of exercises designed to help strengthen your ears over time and improve your ability to learn tunes on the fly. No experience necessary, all instruments welcome.

Andrew Finn Magill: Workshop at Broad Bay Church 3:00 - 3:50

Channeling the greats: how to incorporate the musical language of the great fiddlers before us into our own musical voice. In this workshop we will talk about differing regional Irish fiddle styles and how to better train our ears so we can absorb as much of the distinct style of a certain fiddler into our own playing as possible. We will talk about how to approach different tunes from different fiddle styles and traditions. Andrew will share with the participants some of his practice techniques for really making sense of someone's way of playing and getting it into your “bones."

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

North Carolina-native violinist/fiddler/educator Andrew Finn Magill grew up studying traditional Irish music, oldtime, bluegrass and swing every summer with the best fiddlers in the world at the Swannanoa Gathering. He is a Fulbright Fellow, South Arts Emerging Traditional Artist, North Carolina Arts Council Fellow, All-Ireland fiddle finalist, and on October 27th will release his third album on Ropeadope Records. He has been featured on MTV-U, PBS, and multiple times on NPR. His 2016 album, "Roots" debuted at number #46 on the folk DJ charts, and he has performed with artists including Rising Appalachia and Grammy nominees John Doyle and Trio Brasileiro. He tours with many artists his own original music quartet. Finn is a guest lecturer at many universities around the country presenting his interactive performance/lecture "The relationships between the fiddling traditions of Ireland, Scotland and the U.S." Andrew will be performing with Ben Foss.

The first year of the pandemic was a deeply creative time for Vermont based fiddler and singer Lissa Schneckenburger. When everything shut down, writing music became an essential outlet. The result was what Schneckenburger jokingly calls “overflowing bucketfuls of music” and enough new material for several albums. The first in the queue, Falling Forward was recorded in Springfield MA with some of the most influential musicians in traditional music today, including producer/ fiddler Katie McNally, pianist Rachel Aucoin, bass player Mali Obomsawin, cellist Natalie Haas, and accordion player Karen Tweed. The tunes range in tone from that of a riotous fiddle party where you imagine floor boards thumping, bow hair flying, and instruments and dancers in every corner, to more somber and introspective music for both meditation and release, all of which feels appropriate in processing our collective experience as a society over the last few years.

Irish traditional music has been a natural landing spot for Liz Knowles–it is music that is continually emerging, uniquely alive in the hands in which it resides, and provides a window into history, time and landscape.

Liz has established herself as a dynamic performer and recording artist as fiddler for Riverdance, member of Cherish the Ladies and The String Sisters, The Martin Hayes Quartet, and with her trio, Open the Door for Three. She’s performed with a wide array of artists–Marcus Roberts, the Bang-on-a-Can Orchestra, Bobby McFerrin, Paula Cole, Steve Reich, Eliot Goldenthal, Rachel Barton, Don Henley, and Tim O’Brien, and was featured artist for the Ireland 100 Festival at the Kennedy Center. She currently serves on the faculty for the New England Conservatory and has an active online teaching schedule of lessons, seminars and presentations throughout the year.