Fiddle champion and classical violinist joins with guitar, mandolin, and bass to play a collection of original and traditional pieces inspired by bluegrass, classical, gospel, folk, and Celtic music

13 MP3 Songs
FOLK: Traditional Folk, CLASSICAL: New Music Ensemble

Show all album songs: Serenity Songs


Details:
Mary LaPlant grew up in Milwaukee, WI and started playing violin at 9 years old. In high school her orchestra toured Scotland, England and Wales. In college she majored in violin performance and forestry. Mary graduated from the University of Wisconsin with a Bachelor of Science in Forestry with a minor in music, and was hired by the US Forest Service to work in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in northeast Minnesota. While there, she entered the State Fiddle Contest on a whim and won second place! That day she also met her husband - guitar maker and player, Don LaPlant. That started her fiddling career.

More recently, Mary has won the title âState Fiddle Championâ three times (1999, 2003 and 2006). She has also performed with Jay Ungar (composer of âAshokan Farewellâ), opened for Ricky Skaggs, is the fiddler of a local bluegrass group, and is the concertmaster and occasional soloist for the Itasca Symphony Orchestra. She has also been hired as the backup fiddler on numerous recordings. âSerenityâ is her second of three recordings and features some of her most favorite fancy fiddle tunes along with the first piece she ever wrote, âSorrowâs Joyâ. Hereâs what she has to say about that piece:

âI never intended to write music â I didnât know I could. I was just playing my violin one day after our infant daughter died, and this tune just came pouring out of my heart through my fingers. I played it over and over â it expressed the emptiness I was feeling. I never performed it or did anything with it until years later when I was choosing the tunes for âSerenityâ. I thought that if anybody was ever to hear it, this would be the time. Then I realized that the beautiful, mournful melody I had written didnât tell the whole story. It didnât reflect all the fun we had with our daughter then, nor how my life is richer now because of her life and death. So I titled that first melody âAllisonâ after our daughter. Then I added a second comfortable and happy tune called âGood Timesâ, along with a third called âThe Giftâ. My life is richer now because I appreciate what I have â while I have it. For me, âSorrowâs Joyâ expresses how it hurts to lose someone you love, and how that sorrow can bring joy to the rest of your life. I hope it touches othersâ hearts as it does mine.â

Today Mary is a full-time mother (she and Don are blessed with two other children) and a part-time violin teacher. Thereâs no place sheâd rather be.