Donna's mom, Mary M. (Peggy) Hinds, top left, her mom's sister, Theresa Palleria. top right. Peggy and her Range Riders played the Rhythm Ranch in Nashua NH from 1939-1942. Peggy was 18 when this photo was taken. Look closely and you'll see the six-gun in the middle Range Rider's right hand! Must have been a great show, ladies!

Press Release

Donna Hébert has fiddling in her genes. The daughter of a Franco-American banjo-playing mom who sang in a cowgirl quartet in the '30s and '40s, Donna heard jigs and reels at family gatherings. In high school she played Mozart, sharing a stand with concert violinist Elmar Oliveira. Fiddling's pull was stronger; since 1972, Hébert has learned from master folk fiddlers in a variety of regional styles as well as from classical and jazz violinists. She has received awards from media and recording industry organizations, national, state and regional arts organizations and recognizing her as a master fiddler, music educator and fiddling pioneer.

Donna is a 2008 Massachusetts Artists' Fellow in the Folk Arts, a merit award given by the Massachusetts Cultural Council to "recognize exceptional work and to support the further development of talent." Honoring Donna's lifetime of work in Franco-American music, the award includes a showcase concert Oct 4, 2008 at the Museum of Our National Heritage in Lexington, MA, where she will perform with Chanterelle friends

Adjunct fiddle instructor at Amherst College, Donna has taught fiddling at Wesleyan, The Hartt School, Arizona State and ASTA conferences, summer camps and workshops as well as folk venues nationwide. Named a Creative Teaching Partner in Fiddling by the Massachusetts Cultural Council in 2007, Donna is currently working with string teachers in Massachusetts designing a regional pilot program introducing fiddling into the classroom string curriculum.

With six apprentices in Franco-American fiddling funded by New England arts councils, Donna has fostered a large community of fiddlers, singers and lovers of Franco-American music. She has performed for fifteen years in Chanterelle with Josée Vachon, Liza Constable and Alan Bradbury in the U.S., Canada and France. Donna's work with Chanterelle and the Beaudoin family was forecast in 1977 when she produced mentor Gerry Robichaud's "Martime Dance Party," recording for Fretless/Alcazar. All Donna's recordings have included French tunes - from the first, seminal dance album in 1977 on Philo/Fretless: Yankee Ingenuity - Kitchen Junket, through her latest, Fiddlejam, the grooving jam session CD of tunes from Fiddling Demystified for Strings.

Says string music pioneer Darol Anger in his foreword to Donna's Fiddling Demystified: A Practical Guide for String Players: "Donna gets it all right! I suspect that the general level of fiddle knowledge and playing will take a major uptick soon after Fiddling Demystified is published, just as other great music books such as Earl Scruggs’ original banjo book, O’Neill‘s great Irish fiddling reference and the infamous jazz Real Book influenced the course of musicians’ lives and work."

A concert and dance fiddler since 1972, Donna also directs The Great Groove Band of young musicians at the Old Songs Festival in Altamont NY, where the program is in it’s 9th year. In 2006, the Great Groove Band expanded to a second yearly program at the Philadelphia Folk Festival.

She teaches, performs and records both solo and with her teaching partners in five-member string band Groovemama and with Franco-American heritage quartet Chanterelle. With Beaudoin family members, fiddler George Wilson and the Vermont Folklife Center, she co-directs The Beaudoin Project, documenting, preserving and presenting the music of Vermont fiddler Louis Beaudoin and his family. Their performing group, The Beaudoin Legacy was named in fall 2007 to the NEA's American Masterpiece Roster by the Vermont Arts Council. Past performances for the performing group include the Lowell Folk Festival, Champlain Valley Festival and Catamount (VT) Arts and in 2008 they are booked for the American Folk Festival in Bangor ME and the Champlain Valley Festival.

Donna is recorded twice on Smithsonian/Folkways, with other recordings on Philo/Fretless, Chanterelle and private labels. Donna's Flying Fish album with edgy '80s band Rude Girls won a 1988 INDIE Award for Best String Band. Donna is the director and publisher of Fiddling Demystified for Strings and runs three weeks of summer camp for Old Songs, Fidding & Strings for children and adults, and Fiddling Demystified Camp.

Shorter bio

Performing:

A 2008 Massachusetts Artists' Fellow in the Folk Arts, Donna Hébert is an extraordinarily skilled fiddler, able to play authentically in many regional styles, finding the rhythmic heartbeat of a tune every time. Learning style and repertoire from fiddlers like Louis Beaudoin, Allan Block, Graham Townsend, Gerry Robichaud, Ruthie Dornfeld and many others, she has fiddled, sung and written tunes for seminal '70s contradance band Yankee Ingenuity and INDIE award-winning women's band Rude Girls. Now Donna performs and teaches with Franco-American cultural group Chanterelle, in it's 15th year, and triple-fiddle group Groovemama, teaching Fiddling Demystified workshops and coaching The Great Groove Band at the Old Songs and Philadelphia Folk Festivals. With fiddler George Wilson, she also co-directs The Beaudoin Project, documenting, presenting and preserving the music of Vermont's Beaudoin family and performing with them in The Beaudoin Legacy, recently named to the NEA's American Masterpiece Roster.

Teaching:

A 2008 Massachusetts Artists' Fellow in the Folk Arts, Donna was also named a Creative Teaching Partner in fiddling in 2007 by the Massachusetts Cultural Council. This allows Donna to bring her Fiddling Demystified for Strings program into Massachusetts schools through the Council's Creative Schools Program. Teaching individuals and groups, she has taught for schools, colleges, conferences, festivals and summer camps. On the 2006 faculty at Mark O'Connor's San Diego Strings Conference, she met and worked with California jazz cellist Renata Bratt, with whom she now teaches fiddle/cello-focused Fiddling Demystified workshops. Donna is currently transcribing, teaching and performing the tunes and settings of her late Franco-American fiddling mentor, Louis Beaudoin. Donna's participatory program for school-age string and wind players, The Great Groove Band, is in its 9th year at the Old Songs Festival in Altamont NY and in it's third year at the Philadelphia Folk Festival.

TECH REQUIREMENTS FOR SOUND - SOLO

Pencil mic for fiddle, SM58 or better for vocals, both on boom stands, straight back chair (not folding).

RECORDINGS & PUBLICATIONS