Fiddle workshop

Kyle Dillingham, a fiddler from Oklahoma, is tall and lanky with a shock of straw colored straight hair. The instant he was introduced to CMW, he started rhythmic clapping; with an inclusive gesture at the end of his first rhythmic pattern (which took about 10 seconds) the audience joined in, and echoed the pattern, and continued to do so in a call and response dynamic that was vigorous and joyful.

Kyle talked and played in a variety of ways; he was so engaging in his interactions with us, you couldn’t wait to see what was coming next. At one point he held up his fiddle. "How shall I play it?" he asked. "Maybe like a cello?" Some in the audience cried out "No!", but he sat down and, holding the violin between his knees, started fiddling at great speed.  Everyone laughed and clapped. "That’s too hard," he said, "maybe like this?" He called for a volunteer to hold his bow for him. The small boy was instructed to hold the bow very firmly in a perpendicular position. Kyle, holding his violin out in front of him, rubbed the violin against the bow, while incredibly fingering the same lively piece he had just played in the cello position. Everyone cracked up with amazement and delight.

Kyle dismissed this remarkable feat lightly, saying he once had a teacher who taught him to do some tricks like that, and it liberated him to explore his violin and try things out. He urged the CMW youth to do the same. When he launched into Russian gypsy music, he called out open strings by name as he played, and got great harmonic support from the many violins, violas, and cellos that were there. His playing was impassioned, full of cadenza-like passages and romantic gestures; he stretched tall on tiptoes, while all the time one foot tapped the rhythm. His upper torso was in constant motion and his eyes moved from face to face as if communicating directly with each person.

Toward the end, after he had told us of his travels to 29 countries in Asia, South America, Africa, and Europe, he launched into La Vie en Rose, and strolled around the room serenading young and old alike with great charm. When Kyle was about to conclude, he said "I would like, finally, to play again Anais’ piece." (The piece that a very young beginning student had composed herself using open strings, and which, at Sebastian’s invitation, she had played for everyone at the start of the workshop.) Kyle remembered the piece perfectly and played it with warmth and simplicity. It was the best possible finale for a workshop that was vibrant with vitality and the celebration of the MusicWorks community and the joy of music-making.

-Karen Romer, CMW Board