Fiddle virtuoso at 15: Katy Hill carries on family music tradition

Katy Hill, a pretty, 15-year-old fiddle player-extraordinaire came with her parents to chat with the Tallahassee Democrat on the second floor of the Tallahassee Senior Center.

It was after her school day at Florida High and just after her mother got off work. The Senior Center was a handy place to meet. It was also where several raucous games of pickleball were being played in the adjoining auditorium.

Midway into our chat with the young instrumentalist, she pulled out her fiddle and began to demonstrate a few of the riffs and breaks she had mastered to be recently named the winner of one of Florida’s most coveted fiddle awards.

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And despite the sounds of whacking and slamming from the auditorium, hearing the music, slowly mature heads began to peek out from inside.

Then several sweaty bodies holding pickle-ball paddles came out to listen. Then a woman in shorts danced a kind of clog around our interview site. Older men stood staring, mumbling, “Amazing!” and “Wow!” as if the music coming from the young woman’s fiddle was a supernatural event.

It may not be supernatural, but the mesmerized reactions are something that young Katie Hill may be getting used to.

You have a chance to hear Katy performing around town with her family in the Kenny Hill Band at Goodwood, Blue Tavern and Outzs' Too over the next month.

Florida Folk Festival accolades

Katie received the Florida Fiddler’s Association’s 2023 Gold Medal in the 13-18-year-old category at the Florida Folk Festival in White Springs, Florida. In Nashville, she was invited to participate in an elite Student Showcase at the Bluegrass mecca, the Station Inn. And later, Hill was invited to jam on-stage with some of the most brilliant fiddle-players in the nation.

Scientists may differ as to whether musical talent in parents is a sure sign of a similar inclination in their offspring. Certainly, in Katy Hill’s case, both parents came with musical genes galore. Father Brian Hill has led the Kenny Hill Band for the last 20 years.

Himself a master of the guitar, fiddle, mandolin, and harmonica, the group includes banjo-player, Ken Baldauf, and happily, Hill’s wife, Jennifer, who plays the bass. But while the couple knew their only child was being steeped in string band music at home, Brian Hill says he didn’t want to push her.

In fact, says Katy, “I originally thought I wanted to play cello.” But at 6 years old, her father suggested that rather than carrying a heavy cello on and off a bus to music lessons, there may be another option. “That’s when I put a violin in her hands,” he laughs.

Katy studied at Mason’s School of Music for three years, she says. The next two she learned from local mandolin magician, Mickey Abraham, but still keeping to her fiddle. By the time Katy was entering her teens, she had branched out to study with 80-year-old Jane Scott at Gordon’s String Music, immersing herself in old time music from a master.

Nashville lessons

And today, she studies online with Nashville Blue Grass legend, Deanie Richardson, who plays at the Grand Ole Opry and has toured with Patty Loveless, among others.

But what exactly is meant by the “fiddle music” that Katy Hill plays? Is a fiddle a violin? And where does this kind of music — old time music, bluegrass music — come from?

First of all, the instrument is a violin, though the bridge may be altered slightly, the strings may be metal rather than the gut on a violin. And the fiddle may be tuned differently.

Many of the techniques used in classical violin music are also modified. Vibrato and long, sustained notes are rarely used. But fiddle double stops are often employed, and short, brisk bow strokes are features of fiddle breaks and riffs.

Being highly portable, the fiddle had come along with immigrants from England, Scotland, Ireland in the late 18th century, who brought with them their Celtic-related reels and jigs. They settled into Appalachia and the rural South where amid poverty and insulation, “old time” music flowered.

Much later, in the 1940s, Bill Monroe introduced his own style incorporating African-American and indigenous sounds that became known as bluegrass.

Honors student and soccer too

Glancing at Katy Hill’s parents as they listen to their daughter play, a smiling encouragement has settled onto their faces. They have much more than the musical talent they’re listening to to be proud of.

“Well,” says her mother, “she plays violin in the school orchestra of course. She is in chorus. She’s an Honors student. And she is the goal-keeper on Florida High’s Junior Varsity soccer team.”

Jennifer Hill and her daughter share a glance. “Yeah, it can be dangerous,” admits Katy. It seems just before the Florida Folk Festival competition, goalie Katy had intercepted a kick, which resulted in a broken left wrist — on her fingering hand. “But I was able to take the cast off to play,” she smiles with a 15-year-old shrug.

But even with all of her outside school commitments, there is one thing that she intends to keep on her schedule.

“I’ve started playing with my family’s band. Over the last two years, I might have stood up and played a little tune here or there, but now, I’m kind of like really part of it, in all the sets… and I sing too."

Upcoming performances

Jan. 24 and Jan. 31: Katy and her parents with the Kenny Hill Band will next be playing in Tallahassee at the Blue Tavern from 5-7 p.m.

Jan. 26: They will also play at the Senior Center’s Contra Dance evening at 7 p.m.

Feb. 10: Performing at Outzs' Too

Feb. 24: They will perform at the Sopchoppy Opera

Feb. 28: Performing at Goodwood’s “Wonderful Wednesday” from 5:30-7:30 p.m.

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Fiddle virtuoso Katy Hill carries on family bluegrass tradition