Ethan Harty is an Alberta fiddler who has won the Canadian Grand Masters Fiddling Championship three times, in 2019, 2022, and 2024. He took his first title at age 17, which made him the youngest champion in the contest’s history at that time. He also placed second in 2018 and 2023.
Why Harty matters
The Canadian Grand Masters is an invitational contest. The field is made of the top fiddlers in the country, and most champions come from Ontario, Quebec, and the Maritimes. Harty won it from a farm in east central Alberta, and he won it three times before he turned 23. His success shows that the western provinces now produce fiddlers who can match the old eastern strongholds.
Life and career
Harty was born on March 5, 2002, into a farm and ranch family near Strome, Alberta. He started violin lessons at age six. In 2010 he heard fiddler Tony Michael play at the Strome centennial celebration, where Harty was helping run a steam traction engine for the parade. That day gave him two lifelong interests: steam power and old-time fiddle music.
He took classical lessons from Thomas Schoen in Edmonton and fiddle lessons from Daniel Gervais, a two-time Canadian Grand Masters champion. At age ten he went to Camp Calvin, the fiddle camp run by Calvin Vollrath in St. Edward, Alberta. He asked Gervais to teach him common tunes so he could play in the jam sessions, and he kept going back to learn from the camp’s instructors.
In July 2014 Harty won the junior division at the Grand North American Old Time Fiddle Championship. That fall he recorded his first album, Steaming Strings, with Vollrath as producer and engineer and Jeremy Rusu on piano. It came out in January 2015 and includes his first original tune, Forging the Fiddle. He performed as a junior at the Canadian Grand Masters in 2015 and won the Alberta Open in 2016.
Harty placed fifth at the Canadian Grand Masters in 2017 and second in 2018. Before the 2019 contest in Abbotsford, British Columbia, he went back to Schoen for a term of study at Augustana College in Camrose. He won the championship that August at age 17, and he also took the Ward Allen Memorial Trophy for best old-time waltz. His second album, Touchmark, came out later in 2019 with pianist Kimberley Holmes on the studio tracks and his contest sets added with Vollrath on guitar and Trent Bruner on piano.
He won again in Winnipeg in 2022, with a second waltz trophy, and in Whitehorse in 2024. He finished second in Truro, Nova Scotia, in 2023. Away from contests he works as a farmhand and blacksmith, plays local dances and fairs, and volunteers at museums in Strome, Camrose, and Wetaskiwin.
Playing style
Harty plays the Canadian old-time contest style. A Grand Masters set is a waltz, a jig, and a reel, and judges score tone, timing, and danceability. His waltz playing has won the contest’s waltz trophy twice, so listen first to how he holds long notes and shapes a phrase. His reels keep a steady dance pulse with clean, even bowing rather than flashy variation.
His training shows in his sound. He studied classical violin with Schoen alongside his fiddle work, and Schoen told him that a player who masters the instrument can play fiddle tunes and anything else. The result is a clean left hand and strong intonation on top of a dance fiddler’s drive.
Influences and legacy
Harty’s teachers were Thomas Schoen, Daniel Gervais, and the instructors at Camp Calvin, above all Calvin Vollrath, who produced both of his albums. He has named Vollrath and Alberta fiddler Alfie Myhre as idols. Trent Bruner has backed him on piano at the Grand Masters.
He now stands in the line of western Canadian champions with Gervais and Patti Kusturok, and he has beaten strong fields that included Alex Kusturok, Kyle Burghout, and Max Francis.
Signature tunes and songs
Forging the Fiddle His waltz sets from the 2019 and 2022 Grand Masters finals.
Essential recordings
Steaming Strings (2015) Touchmark (2019)
Awards and honors
Grand North American Old Time Fiddle Championship, junior champion (2014) Alberta Open Champion (2016) Canadian Grand Masters Fiddling Championship, fifth place (2017) Canadian Grand Masters Fiddling Championship, second place (2018, 2023) Canadian Grand Masters Fiddling Championship (2019, 2022, 2024) Ward Allen Memorial Trophy, best old-time waltz, Canadian Grand Masters (2019, 2022) Grand North American Old Time Fiddle Champion (2019)
Watch and listen
Harty plays his final set at the 2024 Canadian Grand Masters in Whitehorse. Listen for the even bow pressure across the waltz, jig, and reel.
His winning final set from Winnipeg in 2022.
What to learn from Harty
Learn a waltz from one of his contest sets and play it slow. Match the length of his notes and the way he lets a phrase breathe before the next one starts. The technique to steal is his even bow. Contest judges in Canada want a tune that a dancer could follow, and Harty’s reels never rush. Play a reel with a metronome and keep every downbeat in the same place, the way he does.
Sources
Ethan Harty, Canadian Grand Masters past champions Canadian Grand Masters past champions and results Canadian Grand Masters 2019 results Canadian Grand Masters 2022 results Canadian Grand Masters 2024 results Video: Canada’s top fiddlers face off in Abbotsford, Abbotsford News
Related players
See the fiddle players hub and the fiddle guide for more Canadian champions. Harty learned from Daniel Gervais and Calvin Vollrath. Patti Kusturok and Louis Schryer are the other multiple winners of the contest he now leads.