04/10/2024
A Fiddle with a Dragon’s Head
I started woodcarving classes when I was in third grade. I was the youngest person in the class and was surrounded by women who could have been my grandmother. When the inevitable blood started flowing due to a slip, the bandaids flew out of their purses before the first drop even hit the floor of the school woodshop where the community carving class was held.
Another group that met at the school was the community orchestra. My mother played violin with that group. She sat next to a man who did not tuck the violin up between his chin and shoulder but instead let it rest down between his elbow and hand. His violin had a dragon’s head. He could not read music, but would listen to the composition a time or two and internalized the entirety of the work. This man’s name was Mike Peters.
The first time I visited Mike’s violin shop downtown Duluth, I felt as if I had entered another world: The smell of wood and shellac, the wood chips, and the magical carved heads where there was ‘supposed to be’ a standard tuning head. He was also one of the kindest men I have ever met. He struggled to make a living repairing instruments while remaining faithful to the older tradition of Scandinavian folk music. There were instruments in his shop that I had never seen but fascinated me…it was like a zoo for exotic creatures of wood and wire. My fledgling carving hands begged to be allowed to make such beauty.
Several years later my family left for Somalia. My father played cello and wanted to take one with him to the horn of Africa. Mike Peters built a box cello that was hinged so that all the parts could be placed inside the box. It was an odd looking creation, but one that followed his rule that the rules don’t need to be followed. Music was a partnership where culture and craft played in a way that reminded us who we are and where we came from.
After years of struggling to make a living repairing and building instruments, Mike opened a museum of sorts (a museum where everything was begging to be touched instead of behind glass.) He found, in his museum, the perfect fit for alluring people to the Scandinavian instruments and making a living.
Tonight, in Paoli, I will once again get to enter this magic realm…and you are invited to be there. Lotus Arts and Education Foundation generously brings music from other parts of the world to Indiana and then right to our doorstep. The First Presbyterian Church generously allows us to share their acoustically resonant space. If you have never seen a nyckelharpa, viola d’amore or hardanger fiddle in the wild, I might compare the awe to that of an audio solar eclipse. But, there is also the immense beauty of a new generation carrying a tradition (which usually includes breaking some rules) in order to let us know who we are and who we can be. Northern Resonance does just this.
I ended up going to guitar building school in large part due to the seeds planted by my encounter with Mike Peters.
Donations are encouraged. Awe is imminent. The show starts at seven at the First Presbyterian Church in Paoli.
