Ryan Thomson is a music and dance professional
who has been honored by inclusion on both the Traditional
and Touring Artist rosters of the New Hampshire State Council
on the Arts He is a past winner of the Northeastern Regional award
at the National Fiddle
Contest and is a multi-instrumentalist
who performs and teaches
weekly on fiddle, banjo, flute, piano, accordian, pennywhistle
and other instruments. His solo clawhammer banjo CD, Great
Bay Stomp, has received excellent reviews. In his spare time
he plays chamber music in a classical ensemble and is available
to contribute his musical talent to charitable organizations.
As an elgible NEST grant artist his performances for non-profit
organizations can be funded up to 50% through NEFA
(New England Foundation for the Arts).
He studied science at San Diego State University, and then topics
in the psychology of music in graduate school at the University
of New Hampshire. He acquired the nick name "Captain Fiddle,"
from his co-workers on college radio WUNH where he played his
fiddle live on his fiddling and folk music show. He continued
on radio with a regular Sunday night show on National Public Radio
WEVO.
In the early 1980's he passed an audition to play in an award
winning Nashville based country band and toured the eastern states
from Missisippi to Maine. He twice received the nomination for
"Country Fiddler of the Year," from the Massachusetts
Country Music Association.
In 1994 he won a Boston Music Awards nomination for Best Ethnic/International Act for his accordion playing while leading the Crawdad Wranglers cajun and zydeco band which has been playing for cajun dancers in New England for over 16 years. Ryan was invited in 2000 as a special guest artist to perform at the Celebrate New Hampshire festival sponsored by the Smithsonian. In 2003 he was hired to tutor fiddle at the Festival of American Fiddle Tunes in Washington.
After years of searching libraries from
coast to coast he had discovered that no general book about folk
fiddling existed. He decided to fill that niche and in 1985 founded
Captain Fiddle Publications by authoring his first book, The Fiddler's Almanac, a general reference
source about fiddlers and fiddling which can be presently found
in over 3000 libraries in the United States and Canada. He has
since authored numerous fiddling and fiddle
books, recordings, and instructional
DVD videos on various musical topics. Ryan's works have received
top reviews from the American Library Association and many other
music publications.
Back in 1990 Ryan acquired a medical condition which made it difficult
to bow the violin properly with his right arm. Feeling a strong
need to resume fiddling professionally, he converted his fiddle
to left handed, relearned to fiddle, and earned his first trophy
playing violin left handed at the Southern Vermont Scottish Highland
Games. There are entertainment
advantages to having learned to play both right and left handed
and his experiences have also made him an excellent fiddle
teacher and workshop leader. His research into handedness
has resulted in the publication of an informative documentary
work on the history and practice of musicians who play violin
left handed - "Playing Violin
and Fiddle Left Handed." He has also authored an instructional
book and DVD video - Left Handed
Fiddling for Beginners.
His latest projects include instructional DVD videos for Fiddle,
Claw Hammer Banjo, Piano,
Pennywhistle (tin whistle), Celtic
Irish Flute, Wash
Tub Bass, and Accordion.