[434] Documentary On Old Time Fiddlers Set To Air On South Dakota Public TV

DOCUMENTARY ON OLD TIME FIDDLERS SET TO AIR ON SOUTH DAKOTA PUBLIC TV
Vermillion Native’s Project Gets Broadcast Premiere May 5

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 23, 2010
EDITORIAL CONTACT: Dr. Stephanie L. Taylor, 615-898-5979

(MURFREESBORO, Tenn.)—The tales and tunes of the South Dakota Old Time Fiddlers move to television on Wednesday, May 5, when a fellow musician’s documentary on the group gets a broadcast premiere on South Dakota Public Broadcasting.
“South Dakota Old Time Fiddlers: Musical Heritage of the Great Plains,” was filmed in 2008 by Dr. Stephanie Lynch Taylor, now an assistant professor in the Department of Recording Industry at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, Tenn., and three of her students. It had its first public airing last October at the National Music Museum at the University of South Dakota in Vermillion and is set to air beginning at 9:30 p.m. Central/8:30 p.m. Mountain on SDPB TV and SDPB1 (digital channels 2 and 2.1).
Taylor, a Vermillion native and longtime violinist and competitor in the South Dakota Old-Time Fiddle Contest in Yankton, created the 30-minute documentary from hours of interviews and performances to preserve the unique history of the men and women who keep old-time music alive.
“I grew up with all these people as ‘grandparents,’” Taylor recalls of talented teachers like Wilbur, Elizabeth and Jarle Foss and Chester Olsen. “I saw that if I didn’t capture their history and tell their story, no one would. I initially thought that ‘history’ meant analyzing their music, but I soon realized that it was all about the people.
“They started just to keep the music alive, and it’s become not so much about the ‘contest’ they have but going to nursing homes and county fairs and sharing the music with people.”
Taylor’s project was funded by a grant from MTSU’s Faculty Research and Creative Activity Committee and made use of equipment from the university’s Department of Electronic Media Communication. For more information, visit the SDPB website at www.sdpb.org/schedules/tv_schedule.aspx and jump to “Wednesday, May 5” on the pull-down menu.

-------

IN BRIEF: The tales and tunes of the South Dakota Old Time Fiddlers move to television on Wednesday, May 5, when a fellow musician’s documentary on the group gets a broadcast premiere on South Dakota Public Broadcasting. “South Dakota Old Time Fiddlers: Musical Heritage of the Great Plains,” was filmed in 2008 by Dr. Stephanie Lynch Taylor, now an assistant professor in the Department of Recording Industry at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, Tenn., and three of her students. It is set to air beginning at 9:30 p.m. Central/8:30 p.m. Mountain on SDPB TV and SDPB1 (digital channels 2 and 2.1).


For MTSU news and information, visit www.mtsunews.com.

—30—

ATTENTION, MEDIA: For a color JPEG of Dr. Stephanie Lynch Taylor and a B&W jpeg of one of the Old-Time Fiddlers events, please contact Gina E. Fann in the Office of News and Public Affairs via e-mail at gfann@mtsu.edu or by calling 615-898-5385.
Thanks!


With three Nobel Prize winners among its alumni and former faculty, MTSU confers master’s degrees in 10 areas, the Specialist in Education degree, the Doctor of Arts degree and the Doctor of Philosophy degree. MTSU is ranked among the top 100 public universities in the nation in the Forbes “America’s Best Colleges” 2009 survey.