About Nellie
Canadian folk fiddler Nellie Quinn is quickly gaining attention as an outstanding musician, captivating performer and versatile interpreter of Canadian traditional musics. At the age of 23, Nellie belies her young years through the depth and maturity of her music, no doubt a result of traveling across Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom to study under some of the best fiddler players of today.
Born and raised in Victoria, British Columbia, she began playing music at the age of 9 and unlike most fiddlers, started playing violin an opposite way, or cross fiddle style as she is naturally left handed. After a few years of excelling at playing fiddle tunes left handed, she started to study classical music where it was recommended she switched to the conventional way of playing, right handed. Nellie studied classical music for 3 years before deciding to return to her first love, folk music.
Hailing from a musical family, Nellie inherited her great grandfather's fiddle on which she has explored and become proficient in many different genres of music, recording with Indie Band ‘Italian Edition’ and recording her original tunes and traditional folk music on her bands recently released CD ‘From Past to Present’. Nellie has played with many prestigious groups including the ‘British Columbia Fiddle Orchestra’ which performed for over 40,000 people at the Victoria Canada day celebrations and ‘Twisted String’; a string group formed by Juno-nominated composer Oliver Schroer.
As an active musician in the Canadian folk scene, Nellie has had the great opportunity to compose and perform with some of Canada’s most influential fiddlers over the past several years. She has performed on stage with such fiddlers as; Gordon Stobbe, Oliver Schroer, Daniel Lapp and Daniel Bernard Roumain (DBR) and learned from luminaries such as Mark O’Connor, Ashley MacIsaac, Darol Anger, Catriona MacDonald, Jerry Holland, Shane Cook, Calvin Vollrath, Patti Lamoureux, John Arcand and Ivonne & Kalissa Hernandez to name but a few.
Nellie has strong roots in Canadian folk music traditions such as Cape Breton, Quebecois, Métis (indigenous first people of Canada) and Old Time music. Nellie based herself in Newcastle, UK for 4 years studying, performing and teaching which puts her in high demand as a teacher and performer of British Isles fiddle styles. In 2009 Nellie also studied in New York to become a practitioner of Mark O’Connor’s Violin Method. Through her understanding and awareness of these genres she has developed and nurtured an individual style of playing which draws and shows respect for all these traditions whilst creating something vibrant, exciting and different. An evening of music from Nellie is an experience not be forgotten and is guaranteed to get your feet tapping.