ABOUT

Aurora Bowers is a classically trained fiddler that has been playing since the age of 6. She got her start in Fairbanks, Alaska, in a musical family with deep roots in the Alaskan traditional music scene.

Aurora’s musical tastes and experiences have taken her from an eclectic childhood 5-fiddle band called “Slightly Askew” to a brief college flirtation with jazz, and then on into a deep dive into traditional music in ETSU’s Old Time, Bluegrass, and Country music program. Most recently, she has played and recorded with The Norris Bowers Band, The Hannah Yoter Band, and Ryan Bowers and the Brain Trust. She currently plays live with Steve Brown and the Bailers, and the Honeybucket Stringband. Her most bizarre claim to fame is that she recorded on the soundtrack of a Las Vegas slot machine game called “Lucky Clucks.”

Aurora has been teaching music for about 7 years, through Dancing with the Spirit, a program that teaches traditional fiddle music in remote parts of Alaska. She has also taught private lessons, both in person and online, for about 5 years. She is a certified secondary special education teacher, and in 2019, founded a fun and informal group called Pickers in Training, which is aimed at demystifying the “rules” of bluegrass and old-time jamming, and making jamming more accessible for musicians of all skill levels. Inclusiveness is one of her main guiding principles when it comes to music and teaching, and one of the main reasons she started this online fiddle school.

Aurora is currently on hiatus from teaching, but feel free to contact her for lesson recommendations, or for info on her video courses.