Mark your Calendar: The Saline Fiddlers Philharmonic will be Performing their 30th Anniversary Hometown Show

A special show for a special anniversary, the Saline Fiddlers Philharmonic will be performing their 30th Anniversary Hometown Show featuring a very special guest.

This show will mark the return of Saline Fiddler's Alumni and Grammy nominated artist, Jeremy Kittel and his band, Kittel & Co. The middle school fiddle clubs will also perform. It's scheduled for 7 p.m. on Saturday, April 6th, at Saline High School.

In the announcement for the event, Todd Trese, Board Director for the Saline Fiddlers, said the Saline Fiddlers Philharmonic has been a point of pride for Saline since 1994.

“The group is well known throughout Michigan and beyond for their ability to uplift audiences with their joyful music,” Trese said in the announcement. “The Grammy-nominated Jeremy Kittel grew up in Saline and spent his high school years performing and touring with the Saline Fiddlers. Now Kittel and his five-member band, Kittel & Co., are returning to Saline to perform with The Saline Fiddlers.”

In the about us section of its website, the story of The Fiddlers is detailed. It began with a simple idea: introduce an alternative style of music education to public school students to maintain and expand their interest in music performance. Its rich history includes more than 1,500 performances in the majority of the states in the U.S. Among the many exciting performances, the group has been honored to perform three times at the White House.

As described on its website, this is a premier youth fiddling show band that is composed of musicians from Saline High School presenting an energetic and polished show that features a diverse range of music from American folk, fiddle, bluegrass, jazz, western swing, and Celtic traditions.

“Spirited vocals and Appalachian step dancing combine with the instrumentals to create an unforgettable live performance,” the fiddlers’ website says.

In giving some background on Kittel, after graduating from Saline High School, he earned degrees from the University of Michigan and Manhattan School of Music in New York. He received a Grammy nomination for "Best Instrumental Composition” in 2019, and Kittel and Co.’s most recent album “Whorls” debuted as #1 on the Billboard bluegrass charts.

According to Trese, Kittel performs with his group as a soloist with orchestras and in collaborative and supporting roles with many of today’s leading artists. In demand as a composer and arranger, he has worked with Abigail Washburn and Bela Fleck, My Morning Jacket, Aoife O’Donovan, Theo Katzman, Jars of Clay, Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble, Laura Veirs, Sara Watkins, and the Grammy-winning Turtle Island Quartet (of which he was a member for five years). He has also recorded with artists such as Edgar Meyer, Chris Thile, Fleet Foxes, and Esperanza Spalding.

For more information on the big show and how to get tickets, go to https://salinefiddlers.com/.

image courtesy of the Saline Fiddlers Philharmonic Facebook page