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Award-Winning Violinists ‘The Forget-Me-Nots’ to Perform Celtic Music in Boone on Sunday

FMNS 2007
The Forget-Me-Nots, 2007
FMNs 2015 Flipped
The Forget-Me-Nots, 2015

Do you love Celtic music? Then don’t miss your chance to enjoy an unaccompanied triple fiddle performance by three local award-winning musicians at Lost Province Brewing Co. in downtown Boone this weekend.

Watauga natives Maura Shawn Scanlin and sisters Ledah and Willa Finck have been performing Celtic music in the community for more than a decade as the group The Forget-Me-Nots. They’re now studying independently at out-of-state conservatories, but will convene for their only local performance of the summer on Sunday evening. They’ll perform a family-friendly set of music arranged for unaccompanied triple fiddle from 6-8 p.m. at Lost Province Brewing Co., 130 N. Depot St. in downtown Boone.

The sets will feature their own Celtic-infused original compositions, traditional tunes and, likely, more than a few surprises that are sure to delight all manner of music lovers.

All three girls have won classical violin competitions across the state and among them have performed as soloists with major symphonies.

ABOUT WILLA FINCK

Willa Finck studied at the UNC School of the Arts during her senior year of high school, where her teachers were Sarah Johnson and Ida Bieler. She recently completed her first year at the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester, where she studies with Mikhail Kopelman.

In summer 2014, Willa traveled as a member of Carnegie Hall’s National Youth Orchestra. The orchestra made eight appearances across the United States, playing in such venues as Carnegie Hall, Tanglewood and the Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. The tour also included a stop at the Schaefer Center in Boone.

In 2014, Willa won first place in the Asheville Symphony Young Artist Competition, leading to a solo performance with the Symphony in November 2014. She also won first place in the Senior Division of the 2014 Kathleen Price and Joseph M. Bryan Youth Concerto Competition in Raleigh.

ABOUT LEDAH FINCK

Ledah Finck attended the UNC School of the Arts for her senior year of high school, studying with Kevin Lawrence. In 2012 she was awarded one of four Kenan Music Scholarships to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she worked with Richard Luby and Jennifer Curtis. In 2014, Ledah transferred to the Peabody Conservatory of  Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, where she now studies violin with Herbert Greenberg and composition with Judah Adashi.

In recent years, Ledah has attended several summer music programs, including the Eastern Music Festival, the Aspen Summer Festival and the Yellow Barn program in Vermont, which she attended as a violinist and later as a composition student. This summer, Ledah has been accepted at Kneisel Hall, a full-scholarship chamber music school in Maine.

Ledah’s original compositions have been performed at the Peabody Conservatory, the Yellow Barn Music Festival and at UNC Chapel Hill. The Baltimore Choral Society recently selected one of her choral compositions as a winner in its annual competition. The piece will be performed this summer.

ABOUT MAURA SHAWN SCANLIN

Maura Shawn is a U.S. Open National Scottish Fiddle Champion at the junior and senior levels and has also won first prize at the Glen Fiddich Fiddle Competition – one of Scotland’s most prestigious. She’s a rising junior at the New England Conservatory in Boston, Massachusetts studying with Lucy Johnson.

Scanlin began her violin studies at the age of three with Nan Stricklen of Banner Elk.  She later became a student of Dr. Nancy Bargerstock at the Hayes School of Music at ASU where she also played in the ASU Symphony and Chamber Orchestras. She attended high school at The UNC School of the Arts studying with Sarah Johnson. At NEC, she is now a member of several ensembles in both the classical and contemporary improvisation departments.

Scanlin has won numerous state and national awards and has appeared as a soloist with the Charlotte Youth Symphony and the Asheville Symphony. She has also served as concertmaster of the NC Western Region and the NC All-State Honors Orchestras.