MORRISBURG – She has shared a stage with The Family Brown, Ronnie Prophet, Wayne Ronstad, Randall Prescott and Bobby Lalonde. She was the amazing featured artist with the ensemble Bowfire and inducted into the Ottawa Valley Country Music Hall of Fame in 2015. She has won numerous accolades with her own band, the Mushy Peas, and has been nominated for Fiddle Player of the Year by the Canadian Country Music Association. And, after he saw her perform at Dressed to Kilt in NYC, she was invited by the late Sir Sean Connery to perform at his private 80th birthday party in the Bahamas. She has also brought 20,000 Senators fans to their feet in mid game shows.
Personable, incredibly talented, a highly gifted fiddler, step-dancer and singer, Kelli Trottier, will headline at Harmony Concerts, Stone Crop Acres, on Saturday, June 17, at 7 p.m. Her concert will feature an outstanding line up of music, both traditional and original.
“My dad played and my Mom’s parents played Scottish violin. I started off step dancing, but the fiddle kind of followed naturally. I was very lucky that way,” Kelli Trottier said during an interview with the Leader. “When I got interested in the fiddle, I soon realized something,” she laughed.
“Never try to learn to play fiddle on your own. I was able to get a few lessons from an old friend who lived down the road from my home, but after six years, I signed up and took classical training. I admit that I didn’t necessarily love those formal lessons, but I soon began hearing people who saw me perform comment that I had definitely developed better techniques and better skills in my playing. So, in the long run, those lessons really made a difference.”
From that point onward, musically, Kelli Trottier has never looked back. Essentially the world has become her stage.
Her performances are a mixture of traditional and original works. She started to sing in some of her earlier albums, and found that her audiences enjoyed the balance between instrumental and vocals. With ten independent albums released, she is now a lyricist as well as a composer.
“It’s interesting,” Kelli said, “but I never actually think of myself as a ‘writer.’ For me, a new melody might come to me in the night. Because I was a fiddler, many melodies came to me in my early days, but I find lyrics tend to come now when I go for quiet walks, or when I drive in the country, with the radio off, and let a phrase or idea just appear in my head. Some become a song right away. Others get filed away in my mind. My schedule is very, very busy, but now I find that I genuinely wish I had more time to just write.”
While she has performed on professional stages all over North America, for her, shows done in Alert, in Canada’s Arctic, and in Dubai, for serving Canadian troops, are among her fondest memories. “The soldiers loved the music we played. For them, it was a real taste of home, clapping and even dancing along, able to relax and just enjoy. And I loved the whole experience too.”
Kelli establishes strong relationships with all her audiences. “I would say that it is the people who keep my passion for music alive, the people who dance and sing along when I perform. It is also the connection I make with other musicians that I work with that makes my fiddle music come alive. Like other artists, I did virtual concerts during COVID, because I really believe that music is a gift to listeners, a powerful force that touches chords in everyone. But I love a live audience: all musicians need that live connection. It’s truly why we perform.”
For her Stone Crop Acres concert, Kelli will be bringing a full band – piano, bass, acoustic guitar and mandolin. Her fellow performers are all outstanding vocalists as well. “I hope to do some step dancing, and I promise there will be lots of lively, fun music. However, there may be some quieter pieces mixed in. Everyone who has ever listened to Scottish bagpipes, knows how sad and lovely Scottish music can be at times. So maybe,” she added, “there may be a tear jerker or two.”
Kelli is eager to share her musical gift with others. A talented, dedicated instructor, she teaches traditional fiddle music to her students, “encouraging them to write and create. I love coaching them”
Kelli Trottier’s concert at Stone Crop Acres on June 17 will be a remarkable one. “I absolutely love what I do, the music, my fellow musicians, the connection with fans. I feel that I was very lucky to have been born into a life of music.”