Belen Escobedo plays rare and beautiful fiddle tunes in the South Texas Tejano (Texas-Mexican) tradition. Growing up on the South side of San Antonio and working as a professional fiddler since she was a teenager, Belen has preserved a unique style of fiddling that has all but disappeared from the Texas borderlands. Belen has a vast and
unique repertoire, including tunes she learned from her grandfather’s whistling and a huge range of borderlands tunes from both sides of the border

When Texas Folklife and the Festival of Texas Fiddling honored her with the 2017 Texas Master Fiddler Award, they praised her for “single handedly keeping alive” the tradition of conjunto fiddle, “a rare and beautiful style of Mexican-American fiddling which has almost disappeared despite once being very widespread in the borderlands.” Today Belen Escobedo is the foremost practitioner of this fiddle-led art form that expresses the deep roots of Tejano (Texas-Mexican) culture.

Backing up Escobedo are her husband, Ramon Gutierrez, on tololoche, the Tejano upright bass, and Stevie Ray Vavages on bajo sexto, the twelve-string guitar. Her first album Panfilo’s Güera was released by Spring Fed Records in May, 2018.

Take a listen as Belen reflects on her music and learn more about the tradition of conjunto fiddle.

The border country of Texas is a rich tableau for multicultural traditional music.  Belen Escobedo grew up in San Antonio listening to a savory stew of Norteño, Tejano, mariachi and classic Texas country music.  The old songs left an impression in her mind as she learned violin in school and the local traditional fiddle styles on the side.  Many of the songs she plays are an eclectic mix of waltzes, polkas and other traditional forms brought by early German and East European settlers to Texas, in which the fiddle playing the melody lines came to be replaced in more conventional versions of this music by the accordion. 

Today, Belen is one of the few remaining practitioners of authentic fiddle-based Conjunto music, and Sugar Maple is excited to present her and her band, Panfilo’s Güera, for their first appearance in the Upper Midwest.  Belen was presented the Master of Texas Fiddling Award at the 2017 Festival of Texas Fiddling in recognition of her significance in maintaining this distinctive Texas musical style.  She and her band were recently featured in concert at the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville.  Panfilo’s Güera includes Ramon Gutierrez on tololoche (bass) and Virginio Castillo on bajo sexto.  Their new self-titled live album showcases 17 traditional songs of the Texas borderlands.

~written by Brad Wolbert

Two of the country’s most sought-after bluegrass artists will hold public workshops on the Roots and Reasons stage at the 15th Annual Sugar Maple Music Festival.

First, violin virtuoso Brittany Haas, of Hawktail, will lead a fiddle workshop in the evening on Friday, Aug. 3. Called a “a fiercely nimble fiddler” who is “one of the best fiddlers of her generation,” Haas will talk about the influences and techniques that have made her one of the most in-demand fiddle players on the scene today. This workshop is open to fiddle players of all ages and  experience levels, as well as anyone else interested in fiddle music.

Then on Saturday evening, mandolin master Ronnie McCoury, winner of the International Bluegrass Music Association mandolin player of the year for eight consecutive years, will take to the Roots and Reasons stage to demonstrate his unique style, which has become the standard for modern bluegrass mandolin playing. The Travelin’ McCoury’s guitarist Cody Kilby, a former member of Ricky Skaggs’ Kentucky Thunder band, will join Ronnie in this session, which is open to all.

These two stellar workshops are among the many interactive and fun activities that will take place during the Sugar Maple Fest.

The Sugar Maple Music Festival invites you to play along!  Join local fiddle phenoms Rin Ribble and Tina Thompson as they lead the Little Fiddler’s workshop designed for young fiddle players of all skill levels. Participants will learn about the musical styles they’ll hear all weekend long at Sugar Maple.

And don’t miss this chance to attend a guitar workshop with Molly Tuttle!  A graduate of the prestigious Berklee College of Music, Molly might be young, but she has already earned a reputation as one of the most virtuosic guitar players on today’s bluegrass scene. In this interactive workshop, Molly will demonstrate different styles of rhythm guitar to help participants improve their own rhythm playing.

Want more chances to play along?  Start your Saturday morning right at the Bloody Mary jam at the Roots & Reasons stage then move over to the jam tent where hosted and ad hoc jams continue through the day.  There will be a bluegrass jam hosted by Southern Wisconsin Bluegrass Music Association, a Cajun jam hosted by T’Monde and an old-time jam hosted by Glass Mountain.

Studies show that when kids learn music their brains work harder, they have higher test scores and their concentration improves. Not to mention, making music is just plain fun. If these studies are to be believed, Madison’s youth string ensemble, MadFiddle, is doing its part to create a generation of joyful geniuses. Led by Shauncey Ali, MadFiddle is receiving the first Sugar Maple Music Festival Scholarship, awarded by the Four Lakes Traditional Music Collective, the volunteer-led nonprofit that puts on the annual Sugar Maple Music Festival.

The Collective strives to make roots and traditional music accessible to people of all ages throughout Dane County and beyond. The $500 scholarship supports MadFiddle’s work in fostering musical passion and creating performance opportunities for young people.

“MadFiddle brings roots music to the next generation of players. Music is something they will be able to play and share their entire lives,” says Bob Batyko, president of the Four Lakes Traditional Music Collective Board of Directors. “Making the arts available to kids is more important than ever, and Shauncey’s ongoing commitment to doing just has touched the lives of countless young people and families.”

Buy Tickets
The scholarship will be presented during MadFiddle’s final show of its spring season, to be held at the Stoughton Opera House April 30. Learn more and buy tickets at the box office before or the day of the show.

Early bird tickets for the 14th annual Sugar Maple Music Festival, to be held Aug. 4 and 5, will be on sale May 1 – June 1. Early bird tickets are almost half the cost of the door price. Buy tickets on Brown Paper Tickets starting May 1.

This scholarship was made possible thanks to a donation from the Francis Johansen Memorial Fund.

About MadFiddle
Founded in 2011, MadFiddle is a youth violin ensemble that explores and performs fiddle music from around the world. The repertoire draws largely upon the traditions of old-time, Appalachian, Celtic, bluegrass and Scandinavian folk tunes, but also includes music composed by some of today’s most influential acoustic artists. MadFiddle meets weekly and performs with an energetic backing band called Highway 151. MadFiddle is directed by Shauncey Ali, an award-winning teacher, fiddler, violist and composer who created the program as a way to nurture the alternative string scene in and around Madison, Wisconsin.