Internationally acclaimed Scottish fiddler and violinist, Brandon Vance, is the recipient of Scotland’s 2017 Royal National Mòd “Sutherland Cup” in Scottish Fiddle, as well as being the youngest to win the U.S. National Open Scottish Fiddling Championship in both 1999 and 2001.
Vance has performed and taught internationally, serving as a guest lecturer at the University of Limerick’s Irish World Academy, appearing as guest artist for the 50th Anniversary of the Armagh Piper’s Club at the William Kennedy Piping Festival, and being selected as a featured soloist at the 2017 Scottish Royal National Mòd in Fort William. With a M.M. from the Cleveland Institute of Music, one of the continent’s most distinguished conservatories, Vance performs with Seattle-based Pacific Music Works, Early Music Vancouver, Northwest Sinfonietta, mandolinist John Reischman, vocalist Nadia Tarnawsky, Alex Fedoriouk, uilleann piper Eliot Grasso, and composer Stephen Rice. In addition to being a founding member of Celtic Ensemble Dréos and World Music Ensemble Alchymeia, Vance is a composer with a distinctive melodic and harmonic vocabulary, having given the world premiere of his original composition “Gael Storm” for fiddle and orchestra with the Cleveland Pops Orchestra at Severance Hall. Vance has had the honor of serving as music director and violin soloist for the world premiere of “Odyssey of These Days,” a work composed by Eliot Grasso, and presented at the Hult Center in Eugene, Oregon,as a musical response to a set of nine paintings by Wesley Hurd that deal with loss, grief, and hope. Recently, Vance has worked with his Celtic ensemble Dréos to compose, arrange, and perform music for the world premiere of Ballet Fantastique’s “Sleepy Hollow”. In addition to having a well-established international career as a violinist and fiddler, Vance is also emerging as a traditional Gaelic singer, having been ranked 3rd in the Skye and Sutherland Open Competition at the 2017 Royal National Mòd.