Rhiannon Giddens

”New To The Session”

I began my fiddling journey as an apprentice to a dance musician, and pretty late in life, as violinists go — so my repertoire and style is rhythmic and melodically simple, and always with a dancer in mind. They say write what you know — so when this opportunity came to create a piece for Johnny Gandelsman, I was thrilled to see what came out of my strings and off my bow. It‘s called “New To The Session” because as a beginner fiddler I would sit in on Irish sessions sometimes and feel like I was in a whirlwind — no more than twice through each tune and it seemed like everybody knew everything but me; I wanted to capture a bit of that feel with the journey through the melodies. —Rhiannon Giddens

“New To The Session” was generously commissioned by the 2021 Vail Dance Festival, Damian Woetzel - Artistic Director (Vail, CO)