Matt Glaser has been a fixture in the string music scene in the northeastern US since he was in his 20s.

As a young man he recorded and performed with other acoustic string crazies like Tony Trischka, Marty Cutler and Andy Statman as a part of the Wretched Refuse String Band. He received a masters degree in music from Tufts University and was involved in the transcription and authoring of a number of fiddle books for Oak Publications.

Matt always had an interest in a wide range of fiddle styles, from the old time music that first caught his ear as a young boy, to the wide ranging world of jazz violin. He continued to perform and record across these genres, even as he became known as an authority on American fiddle music and a first rate educator.

In the 1980s, two events occurred which changed the direction of his musical life. He was asked by Bob Share, then provost of Berklee College Of Music, to help them launch a string department at the rapidly-evolving college in Boston. He was the lone instructor when the department was announced, and has served as its chairman this past twenty eight years, overseeing a faculty of 8-10 instructors.

Glaser also became acquainted with filmmaker Ken Burns, then not so much a celebrity as he is today, and played on the budding director’s first documentary film, The Brooklyn Bridge in 1980. When work began on The Civil War, Burns’ epic mini-series for PBS, Matt was asked to be a musical consultant, and was a featured artist on the award-winning soundtrack.

His fiddle, and that of Jay Ungar, was heard in the film on Ungar’s gorgeous tune, Ashokan Farewell, which may be the most widely heard piece of fiddle music in the past 100 years. He and Jay also performed together as Fiddle Fever for several years.

Now, with twenty eight years under his belt at Berklee, Glaser found that the job he had so cherished all these years was taking him farther and farther away from what excited him about the position when the string program was first established – that being actually teaching the violin. Realizing that administrative work had nearly removed him from the classroom, Matt approached Berklee president Roger Brown about a role change at the college, with the result being the American Roots Music Program, with Glaser at the helm.

Matt explained a bit about how this all came to be…

“Since he first arrived at Berklee, Roger Brown has been vocal about his desire to create a home for all kinds of American music that feeds into rock and pop – classic country, old time, bluegrass, blues, polka, western swing, gospel…. what have you. When I met with him to share my interest in possibly relinquishing the string chair, we began discussing the idea of creating the American Roots Music Program. (more…)