Bonnie Rideout spent her early years on a Michigan farm and much of her childhood on Cliff Island in Casco Bay, Maine, before pursuing classical violin studies at the University of Michigan. Her fiddling nevertheless draws deeply from the traditions of her Scottish forebears. In 2000 she received both Instrumentalist of the Year and Record of the Year honors from the Washington Area Music Association, having already claimed the United States National Scottish Fiddle Championship three times and becoming the sole American invited to present eighteenth-century and Highland styles at the Edinburgh International Festival. The Washington Post described her work as “soulful, elegant, and virtuosic fiddle playing,” while Rock’n Reel observed that her “playing is examplary throughout, with exhilaration and desolate beauty in equal measure.”
Rideout’s parents—her mother at the piano and her father on ocarina—instilled an early love of music that led her, while hunting for Christmas gifts in their closet, to “discover” an old violin. Captivated, she committed herself to classical technique, progressing rapidly through public-school orchestras and earning private instruction at the University of Michigan, where she also joined the youth orchestra. Matriculating as a viola major, she soon changed course and graduated in 1985 with degrees in violin performance and fine arts.
Drawn by Scottish fiddler Dr. John Turner, she relocated to Scotland and performed with several strathspey and reel societies. There, veteran players Ron Gonnella, Bill Hardie, and Angus Cameron guided her through a broad spectrum of regional styles, while farmer-fiddler Jim Falconer and his wife, Katherine, passed along numerous tunes. During her residency at Armadale Castle on the Isle of Skye she studied pieces from the eighteenth-century collection assembled by Patrick MacDonald; several appeared on her debut album, “Soft May Morning.”
Now based in Alexandria, Virginia, Rideout divides her time between solo recitals and performances with the Bonnie Rideout Scottish Trio, whose members include guitarist Bryan Aspey and percussionist Paddy League. She has also authored four books issued by Mel Bay Publishing.
