About

NOTE: I'm no longer writing on this blog, but intend to keep it around as a log of my time traveling with Barrage. To find out what I'm currently up to, please visit my website: www.taylormorrismusic.com 

 Thanks for visiting!

 -Taylor
December 2013

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 At the end of 3rd grade, our class was ushered into the multi-purpose room for a very specific purpose: to learn about joining orchestra the following year. Ms. Rausch, the orchestra teacher, showed each of the string instruments, explaining the differences in sound and tone. Having never played an instrument (with the exception of hitting keys on my family’s piano and pretending I was playing), I thought orchestra looked like an incredibly fun opportunity. At home, excited and intrigued, I told my parents I wanted to join orchestra.

That summer, my mom and I received some terrible news at the local music store – there were no more cellos for rent. Looking to please an obviously bummed child, the clerk suggested I take home a violin, playing around with it until a cello might become available.

Seventeen years later and I still haven’t gone back for that cello.

Hi. My name is Taylor and I play violin.

I’ve had a strange journey to where I find myself today, freelancing as a professional violinist, fiddler, and teacher outside of Phoenix, Arizona. After taking home that violin, I began, quite unintentionally, immersing myself in the arts. I studied multiple instruments for the first years, discovered theatre in junior high (where Mr. Wilson had created the idyllic environment all young actors want in a school drama program) and found myself singing and performing as much as I could. To me, participating in the arts was not a means to end. I was not the kid who spent hours holed up practicing, determinedly honing a specific set of skills. Looking back, I realize that I spent hours doing as many different and varied arts activities as I could for one very specific reason: it was fun.

When I was 12, I saw a Canadian group on PBS called Barrage, a dynamic troupe of seven fiddlers who ran around stage playing all styles of music with other guys rocking out on guitars and percussion. Fiddling, singing, rocking out, and performing – how could that not be the most awesomely fun thing ever? When I saw them in Phoenix later that year I knew that it was, indeed, the most awesomely fun thing ever. I left the concert on a high, but also lamenting that I was only 12 and not Canadian.

Fast forward to my sophomore year at Arizona State University, in the middle of a violin performance degree with Dr. Katie McLin, when she tells me she’s heard about auditions for this Canadian group she thought she heard me mention at some point in time. Numerous e-mails, hundreds of practice hours, one audition, one substitute gig, and two years later, I flew up to Canada and began training.

After I had the unbelievable opportunity to spend four years traveling the world, learning from incredible musicians, performing for people from all walks of life, having indescribable amounts of fun, and living a childhood dream, Barrage went on a hiatus from touring in May 2012.

Now, I’m back in Arizona, on a serious mission to keep music as fun as possible, for both myself and other young musicians. To this end, I’ve built the same variety into this freelancing lifestyle that I’ve always enjoyed, working with high school orchestras, a private studio of violin and fiddle students, and as the Artistic Director of the newly-founded Gilbert Town Fiddlers.

On that note, I should probably go practice.

To be continued.
Photo by Denise Karis.
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A Short, Formal, Impersonal, Third-Person Bio

Believing that classical music and fiddling traditions are equally viable in a variety of concert settings, Arizona native Taylor Morris enjoys blurring the line between being a violinist and a fiddler. After studying classical violin at Arizona State University with Dr. Katie McLin, he spent four years touring the world as one of five fiddlers with “Barrage,” a Canadian-based, world music violin troupe. His travels, both with Barrage and personally, have led to performances in 47 states and 13 countries with musicians from a multitude of backgrounds. Off of the stage, Taylor is a passionate advocate for arts education. He currently maintains a private violin studio outside of Phoenix, and regularly works with students and educators around the country to explore the violin’s unique relevance to a variety of genres.
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Here's a short video Arizona State University's Herberger Institute put together when I was invited to give a Guest Artist recital at ASU in August 2010. [To learn more about ASU's Herberger Institute, check out some of their videos online.]

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