Mary Agnes Kennedy: (fiddle, mandolin, vocals) the four members of Fiddle Earth all did personality tests and I was the only extrovert of the group. I picked up the fiddle after ten years of piano lessons with the very wonderful Sisters of Providence in Kingston, Ontario. From the sisters I learned music theory and how to read music. (I am very thankful for what they taught me!) I enjoyed playing the piano but it is a very solidary instrument and hard to carry to the campfire and music events -- from holding the violin for the first time when I was twenty --- I was hooked. I love all kinds of music and I especially love sharing the music I can play with others. Watching people sing and dance and laugh and cry as I play is something that moves my soul. I tell really bad jokes and as the extrovert they make me do it. If you have any really bad ones please send them to me. I also love playmobil and teach fiddle privately from home.
Brent Schneider: (guitar, vocals, bass, bodhram) as one of the introverts of the group I don't have much to say about myself. I have been playing music as long as I can remember, primarily saxophone in my youth. I had always harboured a desire to play the guitar and I realized a few years ago that time was running out and I better act soon or give up on the idea. As further incentive my wife insisted on having a convenient accompanist for her fiddle playing. I also realized that, unlike with the saxophone, you can sing and play the guitar at the same time. The rest, as the cliche goes, is history.
Alice Ching-Chew: (tenor guitar, vocals) started playing the violin at nine years of age and has been a musical dilettante ever since. She has taken lessons in violin, piano, guitar and voice, and in various groups plays her special custom tenor guitar, autoharp, and recorder. Born in Arizona, Alice has a natural affinity for country-western and folk music, and her background in church and classical music has given her a strong and clear mezzo-soprano voice. When not playing music, Alice is obsessed by computers, romance novels, and writing.
Ted Chew: (fiddle, violin, vocals) started playing violin when he was 10, and took to it like a duck to water, even taken his violin on family vacations. After university, Ted played largely for himself and family members, but around ten year ago, his wife sent him to fiddle camp. There he met Mary Kennedy, and they have been “fiddling" around together ever since! Ted has played classical music in a variety of orchestras, irish music in various celtic groups, and at weddings, funerals, and churches in the Kingston area and abroad. Ted’s unique
ability to harmonize on the fly makes him highly versatile, and well suited to play at nearly all occasions and events. When he’s not working hard at computer programming or playing video games, Ted enjoys composing new fiddle tunes and photography.
ability to harmonize on the fly makes him highly versatile, and well suited to play at nearly all occasions and events. When he’s not working hard at computer programming or playing video games, Ted enjoys composing new fiddle tunes and photography.
