When junior Chloe Bullard presses her 1966 fiddle up against her chin, she’s not only thinking about the music she has in front of her.
She’s also thinking about her grandfather.
After all, it’s his refurbished fiddle that she still plays. And she plays it well, having achieved first chair in the Wichita Falls region.
“My great grandfather, who’s violin I still play, was in a band, and so he really inspired me to take it up,” Bullard said. “Nobody else in my family even plays an instrument, but he had his own band. He was a really awesome fiddler, and my family gets excited to hear me be able to carry that on, so it reminds them of him. It’s a good thing to look back on for them.”
Although her great grandfather passed when she was young, she still finds support and inspiration within her family.
“My inspiration to start playing was my great-grandfather, but my inspiration to keep going is my mom and dad, and to see how hard they work at their jobs and support me.”
Bullard has racked up several achievements during her time fiddling, including a first-place finish in a national fiddle competition, earning herself a $15,000 scholarship, and has made state solo and ensemble both the past two years and hopes to do so again this year.
“I’m in the worship band for my church, which is a lot more improv, and I try to at least practice for 30 minutes each day,” Bullard said. “I like to experiment, so a lot of times I’ll just listen to music and play along with it, so it can go for one or two hours.”
Over the years Bullard has gotten the opportunity to study under and learn from a variety of different sources, and she’s soaked them up like a sponge.
“I think I’ve improved a lot with the different mentors I’ve had,” Bullard said. “From fiddle to classical, and getting to go to different camps, visiting colleges during the summer, and getting lessons from someone from the Netherlands which has really helped me. My technique has improved tremendously because I’ve gotten to learn from so many different sources.”
While Violin and fiddle are often used interchangeably to refer to the same instrument, they’re very distinct and different styles of playing.
“Fiddle isn’t lazy compared to classical per say, but it’s more laidback, and that’s what actually makes it harder,” Bullard said. “Classical is a lot about perfecting exactly the technique, and fiddle is more about perfecting that fiddly sound, and so classical goes out the window for fiddle, it’s a lot more about your own personal style you can put into it.”
Bullard’s love for the violin has also been an inspiration to fellow all-state violinist Jun Park.
“She’s a really good violinist, she’s been working on the violin for a long time,” Park said. “She loves to play, and it really opened my eyes to how music can be and how to approach it.”
When the Rider orchestra was invited to play at Carnegie Hall last summer, Bullard and Jun had a competition to see who could get more tips.
“Our whole group had stayed inside Grand Central Station, but me and Jun went outside,” Bullard said. “He did classical and I did fiddle music, trying to see who got more tips. I can’t even remember who did more, but it was a lot of fun, we had very different reactions. People would come up next to me and dance, and for him people were just watching.”
One of Bullard’s newest inspirations was the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, which she got the opportunity to play with while with the Rider orchestra in New York.
“It was really awesome to get to go to New York,” Bullard said. “We got to work with the associate conductor in the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, which is a huge professional orchestra, and it broadened my perspective in music, which expanded my musicality.”
One area in which orchestra director Loy Studer has watched her improve is in her self-assurance.
“She was obviously good when she got here, but she’s just kept working and kept working,” Studer said. “I think one big area she’s improved is her confidence, because it’s one thing to have the skills but it’s another thing to be able to handle the pressure, and she’s improved a lot in that aspect. While she clearly has natural skill, it takes the extra effort to be not just talented, but successful.”
“I think she’s diligent,” Studer said. “Obviously she has some God-given ability, but she just stays at it. She’s a really hard worker, and she’s a kid that can take care of her business. The fact she can do the fiddling style, which is really cool cause that’s something that’s getting lost, and she does classical, and she does both of them really well, and I think that’s really cool.”
