Quick Q and A with Hanneke Cassel
 by Kathy S-B  ·  15 March 2008

Hanneke graced the me&thee stage a couple years back during one of our annual Scott Alarik song swap nights. We were entranced with the grace and beauty of her music and charmed by her style. Take a moment or two and explore Hanneke’s website and listen to some of the best fiddling you’ll ever want. Also check out this video of Hanneke playing at Club Passim.

Hanneke is a beautiful name. Can you tell us what its origin is?

It’s a Dutch name. It means “little Johanna.” I’m not Dutch :) . . .my mom just met a woman named Hanneke and liked it.

How would you describe your kind of fiddle music? What was it about music that inspired you to give up playing classical music?

I never really played classical music. I started in classical for a couple years . . . very basic Suzuki stuff. Then my teacher moved away, and I started taking oldtime/Texas-style fiddle lessons from a great fiddle player in Oregon. She got me into Scottish and introduced me to Alasdair Fraser and Buddy MacMaster (through fiddle camps). I usually describe my style as ‘contemporary American - Scottish.’ I’m grounded in traditional Scottish and Cape Breton styles . . . but highly influenced by American fiddles styles, and pop/rock music.

You have been part of several different bands including the Cathie Ryan Band, Halali, Childsplay. Are you still a part of each of these musical units?

I don’t play in the Cathie Ryan Band anymore. And, yeah, I still play a few times a year with Halali, and one (VERY BIG!) week of the year with Childsplay. I also play with an early music/Celtic group called Ensemble Galilei.

You’ve played in some pretty exotic locations like New Zealand and China. How did those tours come about?

I met a fiddler a few years ago at a camp in California named Catherine Fraser. She’s Australian and recently started a fiddle camp in New Zealand. She brought me over to teach there for a couple years. And, China . . . I just have some friends over there who run an Art Gallery Shanghai and are involved in arts/music. They had me come over to do a couple concerts/workshops. I’ll be returning again on April 16!

Do you have any musical goals you want to accomplish in the next year or two?

Nothing huge on my mind right now. I’d like to make another album at some point, so I’ll probably spend some time this year writing some new tunes. I have another summer full of fiddle camps . . . so that will be fun. :)