Shari Ame (Corvallis) is an Irish and Appalachian fiddler, teacher, and contra dance musician. She always wanted to be a fiddler, and started playing violin in the school orchestra at age nine, then started Irish fiddle as a teenager.
Bio
Shari Ame is an Irish and Appalachian fiddler, teacher, and contra dance musician. She has always wanted to be a fiddler, and started her career on classical violin at age 9. Her experiences at the Lark in the Morning camp at age 14 persuaded her to take up Irish fiddle. She played throughout her time at Reed College in a session, (seisúin in Irish) and years after graduation formed a Celtic session in Corvallis, which gathered at Imagine Coffee in Philomath. Since 2001, Shari has been teaching traditional fiddling in both Irish and Appalachian Old-Time styles, in which she emphasizes learning by ear without sheet music and learning to play in sessions with other performers. She also teaches Scottish, Contra Dance, Swedish, and some Klezmir styles of fiddling. Shari also specializes in cross-tuning, an alternative style of tuning for string instruments, and crooked fiddle tunes that disrupt traditional rhythm. She teaches at the Troubador Music Center and Fingerboard Extension. She has also played in several contra-dance bands, including Three-Fingered Jack, Broken Top, Treehouse, and now the OverTones. As a 2022 Traditional Arts Apprenticeship awardee, Shari apprenticed with John Meade, learning traditional Appalachian tunes in the oral tradition.
