Violinist and NMCO concertmaster Colyn Fischer, a native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, has played the violin since the age of three and has been playing Scottish fiddle music since the age of five. As a teenager, he studied with a number of the great fiddlers of Scotland and the U.S., including Ian Powrie, Alasdair Hardy, John Turner and Bonnie Rideout. He holds a Bachelor of Music Performance in Violin from Wheaton College Conservatory and has recorded in a wide variety of genres.
Mr. Fischer currently teaches violin and fiddle, directs the orchestra program at Central Middle School in San Carlos, coaches and co-directs the Peninsula Scottish Fiddlers, and performs in the duo “Peat- Fire Flame” with pianist Shauna Picket-Gordon. He has won the U.S. Open Scottish Fiddling championship three times, playing his 1926 Benjamin Franklin Phillips fiddle, “Angus”.
He has been Concertmaster of the New Millennium Chamber Orchestra and its principal solo violinist since the orchestra’s inception five years ago. Mr. Fischer has appeared as featured soloist in NMCO performances of Samuel Barber’s Violin Concerto, Mark O’Connor’s The Fiddle Concerto and three of the four concerti from Antonio Vivaldi’s Il Quattro Stagioni (The Four Seasons).
