Rose Bolton

Rose Bolton grew up in Toronto, where she began her musical training on classical violin and piano. Since studying music at McGill university, she has worked as both a classical and electronic composer, and a fiddler. Her first experiences performing Irish fiddle music were busking in the Toronto subways, and playing in Irish pubs. As a composer she has been commissioned to write works for many of Canada’s prominent new music collectives, and performers, and her music has been performed throughout Europe and North America.During this time, through her fiddling and composing, her goal has always been to create music that reaches the listener on a simple and basic emotional level.In addition to playing Irish fiddle, she has adopted many musical styles, learning from the Cape Breton, Newfoundland, Quebec and Ontario fiddle repertoire. The synthesis of Irish fiddling and these other styles has given her a unique fiddle sound. She is active as a fiddle teacher, both as a private instructor and in schools. Current projects as a composer include the beginning of an opera for Tapestry New Opera (with a libretto by poet Jill Battson), an electro-acoustic work for Toronto’s New Adventures in Sound Art, to be performed on the Toronto Island in the summer of 2007.