Isabel Oliart is a 27-year-old fiddler from Boston and has been playing the violin since she was 3 years old.
She began her musical journey with classical music, but discovered Scottish and Celtic fiddling through Brian O’Donovan’s show, “A Christmas Celtic Sojourn,” where she heard several amazing artists play, including Alasdair Fraser and Natalie Hass.
She started taking lessons with Anne Hooper in 2009, and has since worked with other world-renowned teachers such as Winifred Horan, Hanneke Cassel and Katie McNally.
She is a graduate of the New England Conservatory where she studied with Lucy Chapman and Nicholas Kitchen, and she is currently finishing her Masters of Music at Boston University with Bayla Keyes.
Isabel is now pursuing a career in both classical music and Celtic fiddling. She primarily plays Scottish fiddle music, and also has a love of Irish fiddle music, Cape-Breton music, and Contra dance music.
“Isabel is part of the new incredible generation of musicians who effortlessly rock back and forth between the fiddle and the classical worlds. Her rhythmic drive blends with her sweet, beautiful tone to create a percussive, expressive sound.
In addition to her amazing playing, Isabel is a prolific composer and continues to contribute to the living traditional Scottish-American music scene with newly composed yet traditional sounding tunes.”
Isabel has competed in Scottish fiddle competitions many times in the US. She won the Junior fiddle competition at the New Hampshire Highland Games in 2013 and went on to win the Open fiddle competition at the New Hampshire Highland Games in 2023. She also won the Scottish F.I.R.E Tune Writing Competition in 2021 with her tune called “The Top of the Mountain.”
She has placed second and third in many other competitions over the past years, including the Grandfather Mountain Highland Games, the New England Regional Open Competition, and the US Scottish Nationals. She was a finalist in the Dan R. MacDonald Scottish Fiddle Competition in South Carolina in 2022.
In addition to competing, Isabel plays numerous shows with many top musicians in the Boston area. She was part of a duo band with cellist McKinley James called “Catching Sparks” for several years. She has played many times at The Burren Backroom Series in Somerville, Massachusetts, performing solo openings for artists such as Winifred Horan, as well as playing shows with cellist Giulia Haible, from the band “Scottish Fish.”
She has been featured on several radio shows, including WGBH’s “A Celtic Sojourn” alongside Giulia Haible, as well as multiple appearances on NPR’s “Says You,” with fiddler Anne Hooper and with guitarist Calum Bell. She has also played Scottish country dances with Anne Hooper and fiddler Elizabeth Anderson. In the summer of 2022 she performed at the Rockport Celtic Festival where she played her tune “Crow Over the Water” with harpist Maeve Gilchrist. She is now playing with cellist Sammy Wetstein as part of a new duo band. She can also be found playing at sessions in the Boston area and she regularly attends fiddle camps throughout the year.
Isabel’s original tunes can be found on her Facebook page and on her Youtube channel, called “Isabel’s Fiddling,” both linked at the top and bottom of this page. She is currently working on an album to be released in 2023.
“I have had the distinct pleasure of knowing, teaching, working with and performing with Isabel. She is one of those rare talents that comes along and immediately makes you take notice. Her violin playing is a thing of beauty.
She has straddled the classical and the folk music world for years and is equally comfortable and so very talented and capable in both genres. She was a student of mine at New England Conservatory in Boston and I have witnessed her growth as a violinist, fiddle player, composer and all-around musician over the years. Her work ethic is to be admired and her music is to be loved and enjoyed.”
— Winifred Horan, (previous member of Solas and NEC faculty)
