Handmade at Home - A Virtual Workshops Series

"Fiddling Traditions of Western North Carolina" with Emily Schaad

Join us for this special workshop with Emily Schaad where she will explore the incredible fiddling traditions of western North Carolina.  Emily will talk about the Helton Brothers, Manco Sneed and Bill Hensley. Emily will teach an Osey Helton tune. Tunes will be taught by ear with special attention to bowing rhythms/directions, although any other types of questions are welcome during the session.  This workshop is geared towards intermediate and advanced players, but all are welcome.

Old-time musician Emily Schaad plays strong and rhythmic fiddle, clawhammer banjo, and solid back-up guitar, and she has spent a significant amount of time with musicians from western North Carolina in Surry, Watauga, and Buncombe counties in particular.

Emily came to the music of the southern Appalachians as a classical violist and then started playing more fiddle music, attending festivals and conventions, and growing her passion for old-time styles. She made efforts to spend time visiting and playing with old-time music greats such as Clyde Davenport, Benton Flippen, Joe Thompson, Chester McMillian, Mac Snow, Ray Alden, Kevin Fore, and Cecil Gurganus.

Emily is sought after as an instructor for old-time music camps and workshops, blending a grounding in Appalachian tradition with instrumental pedagogy. She has performed and taught at such festivals as The Swannanoa Gathering, Augusta Heritage Center, Ashokan Fiddle and Dance, Falling Waters Music Camp, Pickathon, and Bluff Country Gathering. She is currently artistic director and conductor of Asheville Symphony Youth Orchestras and Greenville County Youth Orchestras, and is active professionally as a symphony musician.  She performs with various old-time groups, including the Blue Ridge Broadcasters with Joseph Dicosimo, Doug Sharkey, and Joe DeJarnette; and Old-Buck with Riley Baugus, Debra Clifford, and Sabra Guzman.

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Fiddling Traditions of Western North Carolina with Emily Schaad