Sarah and John will be featured in the Vermont Fiddle Orchestra’s 20th anniversary concert.

Our 20th Anniversary Winter Concert will be performed Saturday, Dec. 2 at the Barre Opera House at 7 pm. Save the date!

Traditional music that makes you want to dance and sing is uplifting and uniting, especially in times of hardship.  Admission is by donation with proceeds going to Barre and Montpelier Flood Relief.

Sarah Hotchkiss, who founded the VFO, the first statewide fiddle orchestra, will be the guest soloist.  She will be accompanied by her husband, John Mowad, who composed the tunes they will play with the orchestra, including “Veefer Swing #2” which he wrote for the orchestra’s 10th  anniversary.

The orchestra will also honor its previous director, David Kaynor, by performing several of his tunes.   David took over when Sarah retired in 2013, helping to grow the orchestra to approximately 50 active musicians at any one time.  Susan Reid joined the orchestra soon after David, her friend and mentor, became the orchestra’s musical director.  When his health made it harder for David to always lead the orchestra, Susan stepped up as Assistant Music Director.  The concert will feature 3 lively tunes composed by Susan as well, including an aptly named walking tune “Warm in Winter”.

Peter Macfarlane was so appreciated as the VFO guest artist in 2019 that he was asked to be the Music Director in 2020. His good humor and technical abilities with Zoom kept the orchestra together virtually during the Covid pandemic until we could play together again. The orchestra will play several of Peter’s compositions, including a Rag he has written for the orchestra’s 20th Anniversary Concert entitled “To Twenty More”.

Would you like to know more about the Vermont Fiddle Orchestra? Here is a link to the documentary celebrating the VFO’s first ten years. Here is a link to the first live concert that the VFO was able to play after the pandemic started in December of 2021 under the direction of Peter MacFarlane.