Skip to main content

Westminster College Assistant Professor Releases CD of Scottish Fiddle Music

Posted on Tuesday, May 7, 2013

NEW WILMINGTON, Pa. - Dr. Melinda Crawford Perttu, Westminster College assistant professor of music and Westminster Orchestra director, recently released an album of Scottish fiddle music.

The Sheiling Braes includes traditional music as well as many of Crawford Perttu's own compositions. She is accompanied by Dr. Daniel Perttu, Westminster assistant professor of music, on keyboard and Carolyn Koebel on percussion.

Dr. John Turner, a ten-time U.S. National Scottish Fiddling Champion, said "The Sheiling Braes is a recording through which her enthusiasm for the genre fairly flies off the disc. The tracks display high energy and she has the fiddle ‘speakin' the Gaelic' very well indeed. You'll want to listen to this one many times."

The Sheiling Braes is available through all standard digital retailers and at www.melindacrawford.com.

Crawford Perttu, a former U.S. National Scottish Fiddling Champion, performs frequently for Scottish highland games, Celtic festivals, and concerts throughout the United States and abroad. A Scottish fiddler since the age of eleven, she has won numerous awards for her solo playing and her original compositions. She was also a finalist for the inaugural Niel Gow International Scottish Fiddle Composition Competition held in Pitlochry, Scotland. She is an instructor at the Jink and Diddle School of Scottish Fiddling in North Carolina, and she frequently judges competitions by the Scottish fiddling association for North America, Scottish F.I.R.E.

At Westminster College, Crawford Perttu directs the symphony orchestra and the Ceól na Teud Scottish string music group, teaches the string pedagogy sequence as well as private violin and viola lessons, and supervises the weekly string master class. She joined the Westminster faculty in 2009.  Crawford Perttu earned an undergraduate degree from Duquesne University and a master's and doctorate from Ohio State University.

Contact Dr. Melinda Crawford Perttu at (724) 946-7271 or email for additional information.

Dr. Melinda Crawford Perttu