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By Emma Castleberry | Photo by Joye Ardyn Durham<\/p>\n
Arvil Freeman is known far and wide as one of the region\u2019s greatest professional fiddlers, but that label doesn\u2019t quite cover it. While the fiddle is an inherent part of his identity and has been since he was young, Freeman is first and foremost a teacher. \u201cThere is nothing I enjoy more than teaching,\u201d he says. \u201cThe most rewarding thing you will ever do is see your students keep getting better every week.\u201d In addition to his standing gig as a member of the Stoney Creek Boys (the house band for Asheville\u2019s Shindig on the Green) and around 30 live performances every year, Freeman sees about 20 students each week.<\/p>\n
Rhiannon Ramsey has been studying with Freeman for more than six years. Ramsey was inspired to start playing the fiddle at four years old after seeing a documentary about Freeman. When her first fiddle teacher went on tour, Ramsey immediately asked her father if she could get fiddle lessons from Freeman. \u201cHe has totally been my inspiration all around,\u201d Ramsey says. \u201cYou don\u2019t just go have a lesson and you\u2019re done. Most of the time we talk. He\u2019s more like family.\u201d Before Ramsey started taking lessons from Freeman, she was trying to learn to read music. \u201cI liked it, but something about it wasn\u2019t really my thing,\u201d she says. \u201cI went to Arvil and he does it completely by ear. Once I started doing that, I kind of flew because it was way easier for me.\u201d Since studying with Freeman, Ramsey has started a band called Rhiannon and the Relics and is performing much more frequently.<\/p>\n
Freeman has a distinctive personal style that he has cultivated over many years of performing and teaching. \u201cMy music is between old-time and bluegrass, in that category between it,\u201d he says. \u201cWhat I play is what I learned on my own. I have my own style of playing.\u201d A self-taught musician, Freeman never had any lessons to shape his skills. Instead, he learned many old-time fiddle tunes from his brother Gordon. Freeman\u2019s parents, while supportive, were not musical. \u201cThe only musician in my family besides me and Gordon was my grandpa,\u201d Freeman says. \u201cHe was a fiddle player but I was never able to hear him play. He was really old when I was growing up as a youngster.\u201d<\/p>\n
While his brother offered a springboard for Freeman\u2019s entrance into fiddling, Freeman eventually diverged into a different style of play. \u201cGordon was strictly old-time and I branched out into everything,\u201d Freeman says. \u201cYou\u2019re limited in old-time as to the type of people you make contact with and listen to. Old-time music has its own audience and people that follow that sort of thing. To be commercial, I decided that I would have to branch out and do it all, so I did.\u201d<\/p>\n
The branching-out strategy worked well for Freeman. The fiddler made his first radio appearance at age 14. \u201cIt was very, very amazing for me to be on the radio as a youngster,\u201d he says. \u201cThat was a big thing for me.\u201d Freeman admits that the tired old adage reigns true: practice makes perfect. \u201cI used to spend as many as four or five hours a day practicing,\u201d he says. \u201cLike I tell my students: you can be as good as you want to be, but you gotta put the time in. Hours and hours of practice\u2014that is what makes it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Freeman says one reason he loves the fiddle is because it allows him more freedom than other string instruments. \u201cIt\u2019s so hard to learn and you can play any kind of music you want to on fiddle,\u201d he says. \u201cWith guitar and bass and mandolin and banjo, you are sort of limited as to what you can play. With a fiddle, you can play anything.\u201d<\/p>\n
A four-time winner of the fiddle contest at the Mountain Dance and Folk festival, Freeman has performed for audiences as large as 50,000 people. As a performer, he says crowds don\u2019t affect him one way or another. \u201cI\u2019m really happy in any audience,\u201d he says. \u201cYou do what you are supposed to do and play as good as you can. I\u2019m going to play the best I can play whether it is in front of 10 people or 50,000.\u201d<\/p>\n
Freeman was recently announced as one of the six recipients of the North Carolina Heritage Award, an honor bestowed upon cultural icons in the state by the North Carolina Arts Council since 1989. \u201cThe award means a great deal to me,\u201d Freeman says. \u201cI think it hinges around all these years of teaching as well as playing.\u201d When one tries to speak with Freeman about his personal accomplishments, he often finds a way to redirect the conversation to his students. \u201cHe would give up his spot for any of his students in a heartbeat,\u201d says Ramsey. \u201cHe always says his days to be in the light are over and it\u2019s our turn. He tells us that the best award he\u2019s ever gotten is the opportunity to teach.\u201d<\/p>\n
To learn more, visit blueridgeheritage.com\/traditional-artist-directory<\/a>. The North Carolina Heritage Awards will be presented May 23 at the Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts in Raleigh. For tickets and information, visit ncarts.org<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Freeman was recently announced as one of the six recipients of the North Carolina Heritage Award, an honor bestowed upon cultural icons in the state by the North Carolina Arts Council since 1989. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":16888,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56,49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives","category-performing-arts"],"yoast_head":"\n