A life of music
For one young fiddler, Weiser festival offers up learning opportunities
By Johna Strickland
Argus Observer
Tuesday, June 17, 2008 10:38 AM PDT
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| Joseph Turner, 10, Tucson, Ariz., plays his fiddle Monday afternoon in the ‘bullpen,’ a room where contestants and accompanists practice before going on stage, or just hang out, as Turner did, at the National Oldtime Fiddlers’ Contest and Festival in Weiser. The contest continues today at the Weiser High School gym |
Weiser — Joseph Turner doesn’t play the violin.
It plays him, his mother, Paula Moss, said.
The instrument plans to play Turner in the Junior-Junior division today for their first National Old-time Fiddlers’ Contest appearance.
The fiddle first picked up Turner, 10, four years ago when Turner was a first-grader at a public school in Tucson, Ariz. Each student in Turner’s school learned the fiddle once he or she reached first grade, Turner said.
He stuck with the instrument.
“I just liked it and kept playing,” he said. “It’s fun.”
At home in Tucson, the fiddle lives in a wide hallway — called a zaguan —where carriages once rolled, and convinces Turner to play a while each time he walks by, Moss said. Sometimes they give an old tune a run through, other times Turner “makes up stuff,” he said.
Turner and the fiddle usually practice for an hour to 90 minutes a day, but leading up to the Weiser competition they played “quite a bit more,” about 21⁄2 hours, Turner said. Weiser contestants play a medley of three tunes — a hoe-down, a waltz and one of their choice — in the Weiser High School gymnasium as secluded judges and a watching audience listen. Monday afternoon, Turner sat in the “bullpen,” a room for performance preparation, listening to accompanists and fellow competitors, but he didn’t travel through the door into the darkened gym to see the stage.
“The first time I see it, I’ll be on stage,” he said. One of Turner’s two violin teachers first mentioned Weiser to him, and he decided to go. Together with his parents, the fiddle and camping gear, they left Tucson in a Saturn sedan for an eight-week trip that “begins and ends with fiddling,” Moss said. Weiser starts the trip, and a two-week fiddling camp in Colorado will end it. In between, they hope to bicycle, camp, back pack and visit Canada. Moss said they added Weiser to their itinerary to support Joseph.
“I like the idea of music everywhere ... a lot of people play really, really well, and you can just hang out and listen and people don’t mind,” he said. The moments on stage won’t be about winning, Moss and Turner said.
“Mostly about having fun, and having fun yourself,” Turner said.
Moss agreed, saying it was enough “just to be among all these wonderful fiddlers and to join them.”
Regardless, the fiddle has already played Turner to one win — his division title in the Southern Arizona Old-time Fiddlers’ Contest.
Turner said he didn’t know if he would continue playing the fiddle, which feels “natural” to him, in the future.
“I would enjoy that (though),” he said.
