The 7th Annual Door County Nordic FiddleFest is proud to present acclaimed Celtic fiddler Hanneke Cassel and Norwegian multi-instrumentalist Vidar Skrede in Door County for the first time. Don’t miss this rare chance to hear these great artists in an intimate setting at Björklunden Lodge on Friday, August 10, 7:00 p.m.
The venue is situated on the beautiful 425-acre Lawrence University estate off Highway 57, south of Bailey’s Harbor. This year the festival concert will highlight original music, as well as traditional music from Scotland, Cape Breton Island and Scandinavia, and explore the synergy between those cultures. Admission is $20.00 per person, limited to 120 seats only. Tickets may be reserved in advance by calling the Baileys Harbor Visitor Center at (920) 839-2366 during business hours, or may be purchased at the door, first-come first-serve cash only. Don’t forget, only limited seating is available. A reception will follow the performance.
Hanneke Cassel is an effervescent and engaging performer, a fantastic fiddler, and one of today’s leading proponents of the Scottish and Cape Breton styles, fused with cutting-edge contemporary grooves. She is also a prolific and inspired composer of tunes, some of which directly benefit Many Hopes, a children’s educational nonprofit organization in Mtwapa, Kenya. She has recorded six solo albums to date, featuring some of the very best musicians on the current folk scene, and her most recent CD Trip to Walden Pond has received high praise.
As a student, Hanneke’s love of Scottish music was nurtured at the nation’s top fiddle camps, and she has now become a revered faculty presence at many of those same camps for new generations of aspiring fiddlers. The breadth of her influence can be traced directly to the lineage of her heroes, Alasdair Fraser and Buddy MacMaster. And her positive message reaches an exponentially wider audience through Youtube performances and lessons online at Fiddlevideo.com
When not busy composing, teaching, recording or touring internationally with her duo (with ‘cellist/husband Mike Block) or trio (adding either guitarists Keith Murphy or Christopher Lewis), Hanneke resides in Boston, and contributes mightily to the thriving Celtic music culture there. She runs her own fiddle weekend called Pure Dead Brilliant, plays in the mega-fiddle-band Childsplay, the chamber-folk Ensemble Galilei, occasionally gigs with the now-legendary fiddle trio Halali, and produces recordings for supergroups like Crooked Still. She has just published a fine book of her early original tunes, the Cassel Collection Volume 1, which is now available at her website: www.hannekecassel.com
Vidar Skrede hails from Haugesund, Norway, and is a stunning all-around talent. He plays beautiful Hardanger fiddle, scintillating guitar, and writes lovely and dynamic music which is entering the standard repertory worldwide. After years of touring the Scandinavian counties with projects such as The Dynamo Band, AAMOS, The Secret Carpet Club and Geitungen, and garnering many honors and awards for those recordings, he has recently settled in Milwaukee, WI. Vidar is now in great demand as a teacher/clinician around the U.S., plays with the band Myserk, and has recently begun several new duo projects. He is a most welcome and important addition to the U.S. folk scene, and is a co-founder of the Door County Nordic FiddleFest. More info on Vidar available at: www.vidarskrede.com