Vivian Williams is an American fiddler and Phil Williams was an American producer, engineer and musician, (bluegrass guitar, banjo, mandolin a.o.) he died February 16, 2017. They founded Voyager Records in 1967.
Vivian and Phil Williams documented and performed Northwest folk music since their teens in the 1950's. They learned the pioneer dances as kids. As they discovered the Northwest manifestations of music that came to the region from all over the world with the pioneers, along with the Northwest's unique style of old time fiddling, they expanded their concert repertoire and began recording regional artists on their Voyager Recordings label.
Vivian is well known in the U.S. and Canada for her fiddling ability. She performs regularly for old time dancing and is one of the leading old time and bluegrass fiddlers on the West Coast. She has won many fiddle contests in the U.S. and Canada, including: 1999 National Senior Champion (Weiser), seven times Washington State Senior Champion, three times Washington State fiddle champion, Western Open Senior Champion, three times National Ladies Champion, four times winner of the West Coast International in Canada, and she won the Smithsonian Fiddle Contest in Washington, D.C., among many. She has judged many contests, including the National Oldtime Fiddle Contest, Weiser, ID. Vivian has won these championships playing old time and pioneer dance tunes in old time dance style, rather than the "contest" style that prevails in more U.S. fiddle contests today.
Vivian plays primarily in the old time fiddle styles found among fiddlers in the Pacific Northwest, with an influence of older era bluegrass. She is known as one of the major historians of the pioneer dance music of the Far West, and, particularly, the Pacific Northwest. Vivian is a noted composer of fiddle tunes, and her tunes have been recorded by many prominent folk and bluegrass musicians. They have been published in folk, fiddle, and bluegrass periodicals, posted on the Internet, and have been used in documentary movies on Northwest history.
Phil performed on guitar, mandolin, banjo, fiddle, and bass, and plays just about anything with strings on it. He has developed a reputation as an outstanding backup player and as a player of fiddle tunes on the mandolin. Phil has published a collection of fiddle tunes for the mandolin under the title "The Mandolin Player's Pastime." Phil also repairs and makes stringed instruments, is a recording engineer with many album credits in folk and traditional music, and co-authored a major recording arts book released in late 1998 by Hal Leonard, publisher, entitled Professional Microphone Techniques. He has done extensive recording work to document fiddling in the Pacific Northwest and has been a consultant to the Smithsonian on traditional music in the region.
Vivian and Phil grew up dancing traditional pioneer and contemporary dances, and are noted dance musicians. They have put together several dance bands and have played many many dances over the past fifty or so years. They play nearly all styles of dance music, including square dances, contra dances, traditional family or "Grange" dances, and ballroom dances.
Phil & Vivian both have numerous record credits. They own and operate Voyager Recordings & Publications, which has released recordings of over 85 fiddlers and has developed the most extensive recorded archive of Northwest fiddle and old time music in the country. Vivian has collected and published three volumes of "Brand New Old Time Fiddle Tunes," containing 461 fiddle tunes written by contemporary fiddlers, mostly from the Pacific Northwest. As well as the only two manuscripts so far discovered and published that were actually played from by dance bands in the pioneer Pacific Northwest. Phil & Vivian helped found the Seattle Folklore Society, Northwest Folklife, and the Washington Old Time Fiddlers Association.
Vivian has a B.A. degree from Reed College, Portland, Oregon, in Northwest History, and an M.A. degree in Anthropology (specializing in Ethnomusicology) from the University of Washington, Seattle. Phil has a B.A. degree in Philosophy from Reed College, and a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Washington Law School.
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