Van Diemen's Fiddles

Van Diemen's Fiddles formed in 2019 from a simple question: what happens when you put a modern experimental violinist, a klezmer fiddle player, and a baroque violinist together? Three musicians, one instrument, but worlds apart in our approaches—from cutting-edge electronics to historically informed performance on 17th-century instruments.

The magic lies not in making everyone sound the same, but in letting different musical universes collide. During pandemic lockdowns, we dove deep into new repertoire and experimentation, including weaving vocals into our sound, experimenting with the different colours we could create on our instruments and turning traditions on their heads.

What's emerged is a sound that doesn't fit neatly into any one category—and that's exactly the point.

Today, Van Diemen's Fiddles (VDF) is a quartet of Tassie fiddlers combining the exceptional talents of Van Diemen’s Band artistic director Julia Fredersdorff on baroque violin, Klezmer and folk fiddler Rachel Meyers, and Classical/ folk/ experimental violinist Emily Sheppard. Modern/Baroque violist and Freedman Fellow Katie Yap joined the Fiddles in 2024.

Equally at home performing in concert halls or pubs, Van Diemen’s Fiddles have performed an open air gin walk on the side of Kunanyi/Mount Wellington, toured maritime myths with indy-folk singer Mikelangelo, created the immersive multi-disciplinary performance experiences Whispering Walls and Sirens, and have performed at Cygnet Folk Festival, Four Winds, Ten Days on the Island and Moonbird Festival on King Island.

You can pre-order the debut Van Diemen's Fiddles album today, or stream their acclaimed Homeward concert on VDB On Demand.