Patti Kusturok (Lamoureux) ( ) is a
Canadian
Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...
fiddler
A fiddle is a bowed string musical instrument, most often a violin. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including classical music. Although in many cases violins and fiddles are essentially synonymous, the ...
,
performer
The performing arts are arts such as music, dance, and drama which are performed for an audience. They are different from the visual arts, which are the use of paint, canvas or various materials to create physical or static art objects. Perfor ...
,
teacher
A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching.
''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. whe ...
, and composer who is known as "Canada's old-time fiddling sweetheart."
She resides in Winnipeg, Manitoba where she teaches fiddling. She performs frequently in addition to teaching at workshops and music camps each summer. She has taught at the Emma Lake Fiddle Camp, Shivering Strings Fiddle Camp in Winnipeg, and Falcon Lake Fiddle Camp. Her son, Alex Kusturok is also a champion fiddler.
Kusturok began playing fiddle at age four according to the
Suzuki Method.
Her playing is characterized by a pulsating, rhythmical lilt and often referred to as one of the "smoothest fiddle players in North America." Patti has attributed her playing style to having a loose bowing wrist and allowing her fingers to move on the bow as she is playing. Her style is described as part
Métis and part
Québecois.
Her musical influences include
Calvin Vollrath, Reg Bouvette and
Graham Townsend. Lamoureux explained to CBC SCENE host Bruce Ladan (CBC Manitoba) that she has learned a lot about playing the fiddle by teaching it. After she mastered the instrument, she started teaching when she was 16 years old, taking over for her teacher when he retired. "Being kind of a natural player and not having trouble learning, it was great to learn that other people don't always learn that way," she recalled. "So I learned how to teach by teaching. People would ask me why my bowing arm was so smooth. I had to analyze how I gripped it, as well as the pressure, that kind of thing."
In 2015 she published 365 videos of herself playing a new fiddle tune every day in an event called "Patti Kusturok's 365 Days of Fiddle Tunes." In 2019, Kusturok published an additional 365 videos of herself playing a new fiddle tune every day in an event titled "2019-Patti Kusturok's 365 Days of Fiddle Tunes."
Awards
* Canadian Junior Fiddle Champion (1985)
* 3 time Champion at the Pembroke, ON fiddle competition
* 6 time Manitoba Fiddle Champion
* 3 time Grand North American Champion
* Canadian Grand Masters Fiddling Championship in Ottawa, ON (1994, 1995, 1996). Kusturok was the first woman in the history of Canada to win the Canadian Grand Masters Fiddling Championship and the very first winner from Western Canada.
* Induction into the Manitoba Fiddle Association Hall of Fame (2010)
* Induction into the North American Fiddlers' Hall of Fame (July 31, 2016)
Albums
References
External links
* https://www.pattikusturok.com/home
* https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCz_VvZXL8thkEjlTMtcvrOg
* https://soundcloud.com/pattikusturok
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kusturok, Patti
Canadian women violinists and fiddlers
Living people
Musicians from Winnipeg
21st-century Canadian violinists and fiddlers
Canadian composers
Year of birth missing (living people)
20th-century Canadian violinists and fiddlers
Canadian women composers
Canadian folk fiddlers