North American
Fiddlers Hall of Fame Inductees

Join us in honoring Fiddling's North American Treasures!

2019 Gordon Stobbe

Gordon Stobbe is considered one of Canada's master fiddlers and teachers. His fiddle career accomplishments include composing, hosting and musical directing for theater, radio broadcasts and television. As a teacher, mentor and workshop leader he is in high demand across Canada; not just for his teaching and performing, but for his skills as a square dance caller. Gordon Stobbe has over 23 fiddle instruction and repertoire book available, featuring traditional music and his own fiddle tunes. A long list of other honors of Gordon Stobbe include the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Canadian Grand Masters Fiddling Association, induction into the Nova Scotia Country Music Hall of Fame, recipient of the 2016 East Coast Music Association Stompin' Tom Award and being invested as a member of the Order of Canada for "his commitment to the preservation of fiddle music as a performer, composer and teacher". For these reasons and many more, Gordon Stobbe was nominated and elected to be the 2019 North American Fiddlers' Hall of Fame inductee.

2018 Kelli Trottier

Kelli Trottier toured much of the world as a featured soloist in the Sensational String Production, Bowfire for nine years, “The finest lineup of fiddle and violin virtuosi ever assembled on one stage.”

As a triple threat, Kelli brings her crisp fiddling, Angelic voice and fiery stepdance to all of her performances. Her talents carry her to stages across North America, Europe, the Middle East, and the Far North, making fans and friends at every venue along the way.

A Member of the North America Fiddlers’ Hall of Fame, Kelli has performed for Canadian soldiers in the Middle East and the Canadian Arctic. She has brought twenty thousand NHL Ottawa Senators Fans to their feet many times as the featured mid-game entertainer. More highlights for Kelli include performing for Sir Sean Connery’s Dressed to Kilt several times in NYC and for his private 80th birthday party in the Bahamas.

Her art was developed from deep and lasting Scottish and French roots, and together with other influences of contemporary and traditional music, Kelli shaped her performing and recording career. She has earned a dedicated and growing following and glowing accolades from promoters, organizers and fans.

In addition to her extensive performing experience, Kelli continues to be a highly sought-after instructor and judge of fiddle and stepdance events across Canada and parts of the U.S. She has been nominated three times for Fiddle Player ofthe Year by the Canadian Country Music Association and has performed live and in studio with George Fox, The Family Brown, Randall Prescott, Wayne Rostad, Lucille Starr and more. Most recently, Kelli was inducted into the Ottawa Valley Country Music Hall of Fame!

With ten independent recordings; singing, dancing and playing her way to the top of her musical genre, Kelli Trottier is an unforgettable and enchanting artist, consistently delivering performances that raise her stature in the hearts and memories of audiences everywhere."

2017 Frank Ferrel

Mr. Farrel is from Bath, Maine. Frank is widely regarded as a leading authority on North American traditional fiddle music. He began his fiddling career at age 8, being influenced by his grandfather, a traditional fiddler in Ohio and West Virginia. In the early 1970’s, while in New England, he honed his interest in traditional fiddling from the influences of local Irish, French-Acadian, and Canadian Maritime fiddlers. Along with researching, collecting, composing, publishing and teaching, he is considered to be one of Americas’ leading fiddlers performing today. Mr. Ferrel has kept active musically throughout the years playing for major festivals as well as local music sessions and dances. Frank has made numerous appearances on the nationally broadcast American radio series, A Prairie Home Companion and Says You. He has performed with the legendary Celtic group, The Boys of the Lough. His major label CD, Yankee Dreams, was chosen by the Library of Congress for inclusion in their Select List of 25 Recordings of American Folk Music. Frank has published 315 original tunes in The Ferrel Collection and just composed “The Fiddlers Picnic Jig” for his stint at this year’s Picnic. Fiddlers’ Picnic Festival.

2016 Patti Kusturok

Patti Kusturok’s joy in and dedication to teaching and promoting fiddling go without saying. Her YouTube channel, "365 Days a Year with Patti Kusturok", became widely popular. Few know that she also teaches private students at home, teaches an entire school on a Hutterite colony once a week, and teaches in Northern Manitoba for the Frontier School Division, which has 2400 students playing the fiddle across the province.

“Fiddling has been my life since I started playing at the age of 4,” Patti recounts. “My home was filled with the sounds of the great fiddlers my parents constantly listened to, and that’s what I really wanted to play. At that time, the fiddling style wasn’t encouraged in the Suzuki program,” she explains, “so my parents decided to find me a teacher that taught both classical and fiddling.”

Patti went through the classical exams by the Western Board of Music, Western Canada’s equivalent to the Royal Conservatory of Music, she relates. It was when she received a failing mark for her grade 8 exam with the comment, “You play too much like a fiddler” that it made her decide she’d had enough of the classical exam route and she dedicated her life to fiddling.

2015 Vic Kibler

1919 - 2013 Victor Fountain Kibler was born October 22, 1919, in the Town of Wells, New York. His Grandfather William Fountain was a fine fiddler, and it was his playing that influenced Vic’s playing style. Vic started to learn fiddle at the age of thirteen and got his own instrument two years later. During WW II, Vic served as an Army medic. After returning home he became an auto mechanic and also played with a group called the Adirondack Mountaineers. He then married and found himself playing for his three sons. Vic has long sought out and learned as many good tunes as he could find. He had an enviable repertoire of over 500 tunes, old and new. Vic made numerous appearances from the 1990s until his death. He was honored as a Master of North Country Folklife by North Country Public Radio and also received a North Country Heritage Award from TAUNY (Traditional Arts of Upstate NY). Victor served as a fiddle contest judge for 25 years. He was considered an expert in tune authentication and spent much time recording family tunes for the Adirondack Fiddler Project that would have been lost otherwise. This project went on to win Smithsonian awards in folk music for two years in a row. Through the years, Victor taught many students in the aural tradition. Sadly, Vic died in August, 2013. Vic’s son Paul accepted the award on behalf of the family.

2014 Carol Ann Wheeler

Carol Ann Wheeler from the state of Washington. She is a lady champion fiddler. She loved the sounds of the fiddle music as a child but was learning classical violin. It was only after she became an adult and was working as a string teacher in schools did she develop her love of fiddling. She spent lots of time studying different styles of fiddling and has recordings featuring many of these styles including old time, Texas, Canadian, Scottish and Irish styles. She is a three time Oregon State Fiddle Champion, five time Northwest Regional Ladies Fiddle Champ, and is the 1979 National Ladies Fiddle Champion in the National Superbowl of Fiddling among many other awards. She has appeared at many fiddle and folk festivals across the US. She has spent much of her life teaching in schools and at workshops in many different states across the country including the Fiddler’s Picnic.

2013 Vivian Williams

1938-2023 Vivian Williams and her husband, have been documenting and performing Northwest folk music since their teens in the 1950's. This fiddler is a fine example of what Inductees to the Hall of Fame should accomplish. She is known for promoting, perpetuating and preserving old time fiddling throughout the United States as well as being an excellent fiddler. Our Inductee is well known in the U.S. and Canada for her fiddling ability. She performs regularly for old time dancing and is one of the leading old time and bluegrass fiddlers on the West Coast. She has won many fiddle contests and awards in the U.S. and Canada and she won the Smithsonian Fiddle Contest in Washington, D.C., This year she was inducted into the National Old Time Fiddle Contest Hall of Fame at Weiser, Idaho. Our inductee plays primarily in the old time fiddle styles found among fiddlers in the Pacific Northwest, with an influence of older era bluegrass. She is known as one of the major historians of the pioneer dance music of the Far West, and, particularly, the Pacific Northwest. She is a noted composer of fiddle tunes, and her tunes have been recorded by many prominent folk and bluegrass musicians. The couple is known to have been published in folk, fiddle, and bluegrass periodicals, posted on the Internet, and have been used in documentary movies on Northwest history. This couple grew up dancing traditional pioneer and contemporary dances, and are noted dance musicians. They have put together several dance bands and have played many dances over the past fifty or so years, including square dances, contra dances, traditional family or "Grange" dances, and ballroom dances. She is teaching (her seventeenth year) at the Washington Old Time Fiddlers annual week long workshop where NW Fiddlers teach primarily traditional old time dance tunes. She has taught at many other noted workshops and Festivals. This fiddler helped found the Seattle Folklore Society, Northwest Folklife, and the Washington Old Time Fiddlers Association. Her credentials, aside from her vast experience, is a B.A. degree from Reed College, Portland, Oregon, in Northwest History, and an M.A. degree in Anthropology (specializing in Ethnomusicology) from the University of Washington, Seattle. Our inductee in partnership with her husband own and operate Voyager Recordings & Publications, which has released recordings of over 85 fiddlers and has developed the most extensive recorded archive of Northwest fiddle and old time music in the country. She has collected and published three volumes of "Brand New Old Time Fiddle Tunes," containing 461 fiddle tunes written by contemporary fiddlers, mostly from the Pacific Northwest. As well as the only two manuscripts so far discovered and published that were actually played from by dance bands in the pioneer Pacific Northwest. She has many recordings in her own rite. The Seattle Metropolitan Magazine "Top 50 Most Influential Seattle Musicans in the Last 100 Years." In 2011 they received the "Best in the West- Ambassador" award from Folk Alliance West, the Western U.S. division of this international organization, for fifty years of performing and documenting the traditional fiddle music of the Pacific Northwest. This year she was inducted into the National Old Time Fiddle Contest Hall of Fame at Weiser, Idaho. Please give a cheer for our newest North American Inductee, Vivian Williams from Washington.

2012 Ron West

1925-2012 Ron West grew up in the era when kitchen dances--known as junkets or tunks-- regularly brought farm neighbors together to socialize and make music. Ron's mother played the parlor organ and his father and uncle were fiddlers. During his teens he was playing for kitchen dances after listening and observing his family members and learning to play the fiddle. He has kept the fiddle by his side often playing, playing in bands, informally with friends, in solo concert, or just playing at home. A shy, unassuming person, he has accumulated shelves of fiddling competition trophies and is widely recognized as an outstanding old-time fiddler. At fiddle contests, he often placed and has many trophies to attest to his talent. He was known to preserve the old tunes of the past, promotes old time fiddling by performing around the Northeast, and preserve old time fiddling by teaching. He was a valuable asset to the Vermont Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program as a master teacher to young musicians. He also taught privately at home. He was known to have a fun time fiddling but at the same time was serious, disciplined and had a passion for the fiddle. Ron West was a 2001 Artist Award Recipient of the Vermont Governor’s Heritage Award.

2011 Calvin Vollrath

Calvin’s love for music began at an early age when he mimicked his fiddling father, Art “Lefty” Vollrath. By the age of 8 he received his first fiddle and it soon became apparent that he was a natural. By the age of 17 he was winning championships at fiddle contests and has twice won the Grand North American Old Tyme Fiddling Championship. He has composed over 400 tunes, released over 50 CD’s, several fiddle books and an instructional DVD. He was commissioned to write five fiddle tunes for the opening ceremonies at the 2010 Winter Olympics that took place in Vancouver, Canada. He is touted by the Saskatchewan Cultural Exchange Society as being one of the driving forces behind the revitalization of the fiddling tradition in recent years. He teaches at the Canadian Grand Masters Fiddle Camp in Ottawa every year as well as many other camps and workshops. In 2005, Calvin received the Lifetime Achievement Award given by the Canadian Grand Masters Championship. He also received the Bev Munro Award sponsored by the Association of Country Music Legends in 2009. He is known as a performer, teacher, composer, and judge. He also keeps busy at his home in St. Paul, Alberta producing recordings of other fiddlers from across Canada

2010 Dick Barrett

1918 - 2012 Dick Barrett was born in Maysville, Oklahoma on August 6, 1918. As a young child , his family lived in Quail, Texas. Dick’s father and grandfather were fiddlers and many of his family members played music. When he was six, his father started to encourage him to play music. Major Franklin was a fiddler who really motivated Dick to work at playing the fiddle. I kept learning a little on the fiddle, and the guitar, and I played a few school house dances with Ernest Tubbs back then before he moved on. “At the end of the dance, I would get anywhere from 50 cents to a dollar for the job, depending on how many dancers there were. My family and I would play house dances and make about a buck a piece.” Dick began to be interested in Western Swing and concentrated on learning about that style. Dick moved away from Texas and became fiddler for Tex Ritter and subbed as a fiddler for the Sons of the Pioneers. He became one of the most successful competitors ever with a long and colorful history as a breakdown fiddler. For the last 24 years Dick has lived in Montana with his wife Lisa. There they have taught Texas Fiddling to a large number of people from all over the world that come there to study with them as resident students. He does the bow work for the Violin Shop that his wife Lisa runs. They still travel about 50,000 miles a year playing and promoting Texas fiddling. At 85, his favorite part of life is sitting down to a good jam session in someone’s home playing tunes and enjoying company that music seemed to bring. When asked what he favorite tunes are, he replied with a smile, “I love them all.” Mr. Barrett passed away February 23, 2012.

2009 Peter McMahan

1918 - 2000 Peter McMahan was born in 1918 near Bluffton, MO where he started playing fiddle at the age of 6 and won his first fiddle contest at age 15. After returning from the Army of WWII, Peter played in local dance bands. He later competed in national contests and also served as contest judge for several years. Peter has been an instructor for the Missouri Folk Arts Apprenticeship Program and has performed at many festivals including the Smithsonian's Festival of American Folk Life, the National Folk Festival, and the Festival of American Folk Tunes. In 1966, Peter was inducted into the Missouri State Old Time Fiddlers Hall of Fame. Peter's motto is: "You're not playing fiddle unless you make people want to dance." Peter McMahan died February 11, 2000.

2008 George Servey

1932 - 2018 George F. Servey Jr. was born on 12/8/32 in Leatherwood, PA. At the age of fifteen, he sold his bicycle to buy his first fiddle. When he was 18, he played on Andy Burkett’s Saturday Night Jamboree Radio Show on WKRZ in Oil City, PA. George has won numerous champion fiddling contests over the years from 1959 to 2003. He held a concert in Osceola in at the Fiddlers’ Hall of Fame in 2004. George volunteered his time by playing fiddle for two local hospitals, nursing homes, rehab centers and home bound patients. He has played with many known fiddlers and enjoyed the music of Don Messer, Tommy Jackson, Ivan Hicks, Ernie McDonald, and many more. George retired from Owen-Illinois Glass Plant in Clarion, PA as a blacksmith. You can hear his music on his CD entitled, George Servey: Fiddling Blacksmith. George passed away on November 4, 2018.

2007 Bobby Hicks

1933 - Present Bobby Hicks was born in Newton, North Carolina in 1933 and started playing fiddle when he was nine years old. He is self taught and was hired by Bluegrass legend Bill Monroe in 1954 to play bass, but switched to fiddle after fiddler Gordon Terry was drafted into the military. Bobby spent the 1960's through the middle 70's in Iowa, Montana, Oregon and Las Vegas. In 1975 he returned home to North Carolina, where he met Ricky Skaggs at Camp Springs, North Carolina. In 1981, Bobby joined the Ricky Skaggs Band, which was one of the hottest country bands of the 1980's and received many, many awards including three time winners of the CMA "Instrumental Group of the Year", three time winners of Music City News "Bluegrass Act of the Year", the five time winners of the Academy of Country Music’s "Touring Band of the Year". The Ricky Skaggs Band transitioned to Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder and became an award winning Bluegrass band - twice winning the IBMA and SPBGMA's "Instrumental Group of the Year" in 1999 and 2000. Additionally, they have won GRAMMY awards for Bluegrass Rules!, Ancient Tones, and Soldiers of the Cross. Their newest album, History of the Future was nominated for a Grammy this year as well. In many ways, Bobby has come full circle - back to Bluegrass music where he started years ago. Bluegrass music is enjoying resurgence in popularity not seen since the 1950's. Whether it's teaching young fiddlers or playing a hot fiddle break on stage, Bobby Hicks is a living legend and continues to contribute to the enjoyment of fans everywhere

2006 Homer Pappy Sherrill

1915 - 2001 Homer “Pappy” Sherrill was born March 23, 1915 in Sherrill’s Ford, North Carolina. As a child when he heard music, he would pick up two sticks and rub them together, pretending to play the fiddle. His first professional appearance was in 1928 at the age of 13 on Radio Station WSOC in Gastonia, N.C. He joined Byron Parker’s Hillbillies in 1939, where he played with banjoist Snuffy Jenkins. They teamed up as “The Hired Hands” playing together until 1990. They played at the 1982 World’s Fair, the Chicago Folk Festival, American Folk Festival and Carnegie Hall. He also performed with Jimmy Davis, Tex Ritter, Mel Tillis, and Roger Miller. His original tunes include “CNW Railroad Blues”, “Peanut Special” and “The Cherry Blossom Waltz”. Pappy Sherrill died at age 86, November 30, 2001.

2005 Peter Dawson

Peter Dawson, a native of the Okanagan Valley in South Central British Columbia, following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather, did not start to play the fiddle until he was the ripe old age of five. From there, he never looked back! In the 1940's and early '50's with his own band, Peter played for dances throughout Southern B.C. and broadcast regular radio shows on CKOV in Kelowna, CJIB in Vernon and CKOK in Penticton. In the early 1950's, he joined a travelling country group making several cross Canada tours. In the mid 1950's, Peter moved to Toronto and played the nightclub circuit plus several TV shows out of Toronto and Hamilton. He appeared several times on the Mainstreet Jamboree out of CHML in Hamilton. Peter was also one of the musicians in the Toronto studio that recorded the original "The French Song" by the famous Canadian, Lucille Starr. He then joined the Wheeling Jamboree at Radio Station WWVA in Wheeling, West Virginia as their Staff Fiddler. He travelled the United States and Canada extensively working with many country and bluegrass bands. During this period, he also appeared as back-up musician on the famous Grand Ole Opry in Nashville Tennessee. In the early 1960's, Peter returned home to Canada. He then established a music business while continuing composing and recording fiddle music. Peter has recorded a number of albums, going as far back as 1958, several of which are still available. The latest is "Re-Pete Performance" CD, 2004. Others still available include: "For Pete's Sake' CD and cassette, 2001; "Owl in the Henhouse", CD and cassette, 1999; "Star of Calabogie", CD and cassette, 1998; "Peter Dawson Live", cassette; "From the mountains to the sea" (bluegrass) cassette; "Fiddling for Folk", cassette; "The best darn fiddling in the world", cassette; and "Home sweet home", cassette. Peter is the owner and operator of "Peter Dawson Violins Inc." Peter was inducted into the North American Fiddlers Hall of Fame, Osceola, New York, as of July 2005.

2004 Jay Ungar

1946 - Present Jay Ungar was born in the Bronx, NY on November 14, 1946. He began playing classical violin at age 7 and traditional fiddle tunes at age 16. His main musical mentors have been Bud Snow, John Cohen, Aly Bain, Dewey Balfa, and Junior Daugherty, who along with Evan Stover and Matt Glaser have greatly influenced his fiddling style. His daughter Ruthy Ungar and brother-in-law, James Mason also play the fiddle. Jay won the Hartford Fiddle Contest in the ’70. He has recorded with many bands and currently performs in a duo with his wife Molly Mason and their Family Band with Ruthy and her husband Mike Merenda. Jay has composed many popular fiddle tunes, such as “Round the Horn”, "The Wizard's Walk," “Vladimer’s Steamboat," “The Lovers’ Waltz” (co-written with Molly), and most notably, “Ashokan Farewell,” which is known worldwide and has been recorded by dozens of fiddlers.

2003 D. Paul Warren

1918 - 1978 Dorris Paul Warren was born May 17, 1918 in Lyles, Tennessee, where, as a boy, he would walk for miles to listen to a radio to hear the Grand Ole Opry and Fiddlin' Arthur Smith. He would then go home, slip his daddy's fiddle down and pick out the melody. As time went by, Paul became a Fiddlin' Arthur Smith in overdrive. There was no equal when it came to playing the old time, double stop breakdowns. His intonation & bowing were always accurate. Paul's first professional job came in 1938 with Johnny & Jack & Kitty Wells. His stay was interrupted by military service where he spent 29 months in a German Prisoner of War Camp in 1954, he went to work with Flatt & Scruggs, staying with Lester Flatt after the Flatt & Scruggs breakup. Paul died on Jan. 12, 1978 in Nashville, Tennessee.

2002 H. Ralph Blizard

1918 - 2009 H. Ralph Blizard was born December 5, 1918, in Kingsport, Tennessee. He was greatly influenced by his father, Robert, who played the fiddle and banjo. Also such fiddle greats as Charlie Bowman and Dudley Vance. By the time Ralph graduated from High School, he was playing professionally in Tennessee, Virginia and Kentucky. He retired from Eastman Kodak after 25 years and in 1982 formed his band the New Southern Ramblers. They perform throughout the country and are featured at work shops from Alaska to Florida. Master Fiddler Ralph Blizzard has been playing old-time music as long as he can remember. His unique and beautiful "Appalachian Mountain Longbow" style makes him one of the premier traditional musicians playing today. Ralph Blizard died on December 4, 2009.

2001 Charlie Bowman

1889 - 1962 Charlie Thomas Bowman was born July 30, 1889 in Gray Station, Tennessee. Charlie first learned to play a homemade banjo when he was 12. Not long after, he began to "saw on the fiddle." He had 4 brothers and 4 sisters; his brothers each chose a different instrument and "The Bowman Brothers Band" was born. He entered his first fiddle contest in the early 1920's, finishing 2nd behind the Georgia State Champion, Clayton McMichen. Over the next several months he won 28 of 32 contests he entered. He went on to a long distinguished radio and recording career. When asked, "What makes a good fiddler?" he said, "Time and Practice, start on the right foot, learn the tunes correctly, and use all the bow." Charlie Bowman died May 20, 1962.

2001 Joseph Allard

1873 - 1947 Joseph Allard was born February 1, 1873 in Woodland, Maine and was raised in the province of Quebec, Canada. He started to play the violin at the age of 9. He returned to the U.S. when he was 16 and for the next 28 years he won fiddle contests in New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. In 1917 he settled in Ville Saint-Pierre, where he worked as a fisherman all his life. He won many contests in the Montreal area. He made 75 cuts for Bluebird Records from 1928-1946. His most successful being, "Blind Man's Reel," "Chateaugay Reel," "Jacques Cartier's Reel," and "Traveler's Reel." He was nicknamed "The Fiddlers' Prince" because his bowing was smooth and light and his fingering was matchless. Joseph Allard passed away November 14, 1947.

2000 Lowe Stokes

1898-1983 Lowe Stokes was raised in the country outside of Rome, Georgia. He first learned to play fiddle from his father, but was more influenced by Joe Lee, adapting his style of pulling a long smooth bow with a tendency to keep the strings run down to standard or lower pitch, giving the music a more mellow sound. Lowe played with the "Skillet Lickers," a well known Georgia Fiddle band, sharing lead fiddle with Clayton McMichen. The band recorded 88 sides from 1926 to 1931, using three fiddles, a banjo and a guitar, disbanding when Lowe lost his right hand. Later with a special adaptation to hold his bow he amazingly won first place in the National Fiddle Convention in Atlanta.

2000 Herman Johnson

1920 - 2014 Herman Johnson was born May 10, 1920 near Sparks, Oklahoma, one of 13 children. His father, grandfather and two uncles were fiddlers. By the age of 8, Herman was fiddling. He has been with many bands such as the "Oklahoma Ragtimers," "The Harmony Boys," "The Melodiers" and then formed his own band with his brother Cecil. Tone, Pitch, Rhythm; always perfect, rarely will any mistake be heard, he is a perfectionist. He is a champion. His home is filled with hundreds of 1st place trophies. He is a member of the National Fiddlers Hall of Fame in Weiser, Idaho and has won the National Fiddlers Championship 5 times, and the Grand Masters Championship in Nashville in 1974. He traveled the U.S. working with others, striving to keep old time fiddling alive. Herman Johnson died January 20, 2014.

1999 Earl Johnson

1886 - 1965 Robert Earl Johnson was born in Lawrenceville, Georgia August 24, 1886. Earl learned to play fiddle from his father and played with his brothers, who both died in 1923. He then played with Fiddlin' John Carson until 1925 when he cut 14 sides for Paramount as the Dixie String Band. In 1927 he gained fame with his band the "Clodhoppers," recording for OKEH Records. No one did more to earn Georgia fiddle music their great reputation than Earl Johnson. In the low part of a tune he was a model of the reliable dance player, but in the high parts he would suddenly go squealing and skidding on and off pitch. It took expertise and exuberance to play like that, it appears he possessed both.

1999 Telleta Atwell

1909 - 2015 Telleta Bourne Atwell was born in Rome, New York. She started playing the fiddle at age 7 and by 12 years of age was playing in an orchestra. Telleta possesses Bachelor and Master's Degrees from Syracuse University. She taught music for 32 years. A highlight of her teaching career was the honor of bringing two of her bands to both the 1939 and 1964 World's Fairs in New York City. Telleta taught all instruments to her students, however, violin has always been her favorite. She has been a member of the Utica and Syracuse Symphonies and the Sun Coast Symphony in Clearwater, Florida where she has held the first chair violin position as concertmistress. Telleta also is the 1983 New York Inductee into the New York State Fiddlers Hall of Fame.

1998 Gid Tanner

1885 - 1960 James Gideon Tanner was born in Thomas Bridge, near Monroe, Georgia on June 6, 1885. He learned to fiddle at the age of 14, when an uncle died and willed him a fiddle. Gid was a well known fiddler in the Atlanta area, when he was asked to go to New York to make some recordings. Bringing guitarist Riley Puckett along, they made their first records on March 7, 1924. For the next 8 years he recorded primarily with the "Skillet Lickers." Gid's fiddling can be heard on all but a few singing and fiddling were of a rough quality, but he used them to good advantage and could hold his own with the best.

North American Fiddlers Hall of Fame Inductees

North American
Fiddlers Hall of Fame Inductees