In the 2016 fall season, audiences got a taste of Ivonne Hernandez’s fantastic fiddling skills when she was the special guest with a folk ensemble. This weekend Music On Sunday at The Old Schoolhouse Arts Centre will be featuring the five-time Grand North America Fiddle Champion in her own, dedicated concert.
The Jan. 22 concert at TOSH (122 W. Fern Rd., Qualicum Beach) is from 2:30-4:30 p.m.
Admission is $18.
Hernandez will be accompanied by Tad Ruszel on guitar and mandolin.
For more information, visit www.theoldschoolhouse.org or call 250-752-6133.
By the age of three, Hernandez started playing violin by ear, everything from her mother’s favourite maritime reels to her father’s Chilean folk music roots.
Hernandez was soon playing guitar, piano, cello, flute and percussion before joining Daniel Lapp’s B.C. Fiddle Orchestra.
While still in her pre-teens, Hernandez played on the Orchestra’s Fiddleharmonic CD and before 60,000 at a Commonwealth Games performance with the Crash Test Dummies.
At the age of 13, Hernandez was the youngest member of the Greater Victoria Youth Orchestra and formed Fiddlemania, a dual-violin band with her younger sister, Kalissa.
Hernandez was the Merritt Old Time Fiddlers’ provincial champion for two years running before becoming a judge at the event as a 15-year-old.
Hernandez is the reigning five-time Grand North American Fiddle Champion, and has performed with Mark O’Connor, Alan Jackson, Gloria Estefan, Jann Arden, U2’s the Edge, Natalie MacMaster, Earth Wind and Fire, Steve Winwood, Burt Bacharach, Juan Louis Guerra, Rosa Pasos, Ben Hepner and legendary film composer Howard Shore.
The young musician has been featured on television and radio, at folk music and fiddle festivals around the world, and played for the Governor General of Canada.
Her debut recording, Playing With Fire, garnered critical raves, and in 2006 Hernandez released In Time. She has most recently recorded and produced a twin fiddle album with her sister, Kalissa Hernandez fittingly called Sisters released in 2009.
With her band, Hernandez has been performing many educational and entertaining school shows across Canada and the U.S. to high acclaim. She has toured and taught all over North America, the Carribean, the U.K. and Ireland and Europe, and if that wasn’t enough, Hernandez was offered a scholarship to attend Berklee College of Music and graduated in three years at the top of her class with a dual major in violin performance and music business and management.
— Submitted by TOSH