Rachael Penn
~Bio~
Rachael moved to Taos in 2000 after earning her Bachelors of Arts from Naropa University in Interdisciplinary Studies with an emphasis in the Creative Process and Healing Arts. She plays fiddle and banjo and is a singer, performing regularly as a member of Crooked and Cracked, as a duo with Banjo Billy Stewart and as a solo artist. She has played with numerous other bands and solo artists and is a sought-after recording session player. Rachael was the strings teacher at the Taos Waldorf School 2014-2016 until its closing and then founded the strings program at the Taos Youth Music School.
Rachael has a background in classical violin and viola and spent years playing improvisationally, which opened the door to an insatiable desire to study traditional fiddle music. She has studied old time Appalachian fiddle and banjo with UCLA Ethnomusicology instructor David Bragger of the Old-Time Tiki Parlour, voice with Taos opera singer Mark Jackson, and is currently studying Celtic fiddle with New England Conservatory instructor Winifred Horan of the band Solas. Rachael offers group and individual lessons in violin/fiddle, banjo and voice. She tailors her instruction and offers repertoire to match each student’s interests, goals and learning style, with attunement to student needs, self-pacing, and enjoyment of the learning process.
Building Community through Music
Along with the haunting beauty and the weird, old, crooked melodies, and the joy and exuberance in old fiddle tunes, part of what captivated me and led me into the study of different kinds of traditional music was the accessibility and shared culture that traditional music brings to the people who love and play it today. Music brings people together from all walks of life, ages, and diverse ethnic backgrounds. Whatever style you play, you DON'T need to be a master to enjoy playing and playing with others! Everyone CAN learn to play music. I'll be there to help you past the hurdles that come in the beginning and quickly get you to a place where you are loving the music you are playing.
Music of the People!
Traditional music is full of life: everyday, dirty, complicated, joyous life.... that gives it a kind of raw and numinous quality. There is lived experience captured in sound and time in those old tunes. Sometimes, when I listen to a song, the music transports my mind to a simpler time and place when people needed to create their own music, as there were no other options. I listen to old masters play and I can almost get a sense of what their daily lives were like, the joys and the hardships. This even comes through just the words of a tune title, or through the feeling I get when I listen to a musician who has put their whole heart, soul, and life experience into a tune sending the variations of the melody to places that only they fully understand. Old fiddle music belonged to the people who played it, not royalty who commissioned it, and not just the people who had the time to dedicate their entire lives to perfecting their craft. The music was very much integrated into their daily lives and local communities and was part of their shared experience: The Music of The People!
