Mark O’Connor (born 1961) is the most decorated contest fiddler of the modern era. He won the Grand Master Fiddler Championship at age 13, took it twice more, and won the Grand National Championship at Weiser four times before he turned 23. He then left the contest stage for a career as a session player, bandleader, and composer that brought him three Grammy Awards and six straight CMA Musician of the Year awards. The National Fiddler Hall of Fame inducted him in 2009.
Why O’Connor matters
O’Connor proved that a contest fiddler could go anywhere. He learned Texas style at the feet of Benny Thomasson, then took that bowing into jazz with Stéphane Grappelli, into new acoustic music with David Grisman, into Nashville sessions, and into concert halls with Yo-Yo Ma. Every young contest player who hopes to make a living with a fiddle is following his path. His teenage albums also gave a generation of pickers something to copy, and his method books now teach fiddle tunes to students who would once have started on Suzuki.
Life and career
O’Connor was born on August 5, 1961, in Seattle, and grew up in the suburb of Mountlake Terrace, Washington. His mother, a dance teacher, started him on guitar at five. He saw Doug Kershaw play Diggy Liggy Lo on television in 1969 and asked for a fiddle for three years before he got one at 11. Benny Thomasson had moved to Washington by then, and O’Connor became his student.
Results came fast. He won the Junior-Junior division at Weiser in 1974, the year Thomasson won the Grand National title. In 1975, at 13, he won the Grand Master Fiddler Championship in Nashville against players of all ages. That same year he won the National Flat Pick Guitar Championship at Winfield, Kansas. Rounder Records signed him as a teenager and released National Junior Fiddling Champion in 1974. He recorded A Texas Jam Session in 1977 with Thomasson, Texas Shorty, and Terry Morris.
After high school in 1979 he joined the David Grisman Quintet, taking the guitar chair Tony Rice had left. He toured with Grappelli as a teenager and played Carnegie Hall at 17. He also played in the Dregs. At Weiser he won the Grand National Championship in 1979, 1980, 1981, and 1984, and he took the Grand Master title again in 1980 and 1982.
O’Connor moved to Nashville and became one of the busiest session fiddlers in town. He signed with Warner Bros. and released The New Nashville Cats in 1991, an album that gathered the city’s best pickers and won a Grammy. His single Restless, with Vince Gill, Ricky Skaggs, and Steve Wariner, won the CMA Vocal Event of the Year. He also recorded with Béla Fleck, Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, and Edgar Meyer as Strength in Numbers. The CMA named him Musician of the Year six years in a row, 1991 to 1996.
From the 1990s on, O’Connor turned to composing. His Fiddle Concerto, written in 1992 and recorded for Warner Bros., has been performed more than 250 times. Appalachia Waltz (1996) and Appalachian Journey (2000) with Yo-Yo Ma and Edgar Meyer topped the classical charts, and Appalachian Journey won a Grammy in 2001. He founded his own label, OMAC Records, and released the Hot Swing! trio albums in tribute to Grappelli. In 2010 he published the O’Connor Method, a string method built on American tunes. The O’Connor Band, with his wife Maggie O’Connor and his son Forrest, won the Grammy for Best Bluegrass Album in 2017 for Coming Home. He published a memoir, Crossing Bridges, and tours with Maggie from their home in North Carolina.
Playing style
O’Connor’s base is Texas contest style as Thomasson taught it: long bow strokes, a smooth tone, and tunes built as a chain of variations rather than one melody played twice. On a breakdown like Tom and Jerry or Sally Johnson he plays the plain tune once, then rebuilds it with new bowing, new double stops, and new runs on every pass. The tune never repeats and never loses its shape.
What set him apart, even as a boy, was speed with clean intonation and a fearless left hand. He plays high on the neck as easily as in first position, and he uses the whole bow. After Grappelli he added swing phrasing, chromatic runs, and a jazz player’s sense of when to lay back. After Nashville he added the studio player’s discipline: every note in tune, every fill in the pocket. His later concert music treats the fiddle as a solo violin, but you can still hear the Texas shuffle underneath.
Influences and legacy
Thomasson gave him the Texas style and the contest vocabulary. Grappelli gave him swing. Chet Atkins, Doc Watson, and Steve Morse shaped his guitar playing. He recorded Heroes in 1993 with 14 of his fiddle heroes, including Johnny Gimble, Vassar Clements, Thomasson, Jean-Luc Ponty, and Pinchas Zukerman. He shared Weiser stages with Byron Berline, Dick Barrett, Herman Johnson, and Tony Ludiker.
His teenage Rounder records reached a generation of players. Maddie Denton lists him among her bluegrass influences. His method books and string camps now teach thousands of students, and his Fiddle Concerto has put fiddle tunes in front of symphony audiences around the world.
Signature tunes and songs
Tom and Jerry Sally Goodin Sally Johnson Midnight on the Water Bonaparte’s Retreat Appalachia Waltz Restless The Olympic Reel.
Essential recordings
A Texas Jam Session Featuring Four World Champion Fiddlers, with Benny Thomasson, Texas Shorty, and Terry Morris (Mark O’Connor Productions, 1977) Markology (Rounder, 1979) The New Nashville Cats (Warner Bros., 1991) Heroes (Warner Bros., 1993) Appalachia Waltz, with Yo-Yo Ma and Edgar Meyer (Sony Classical, 1996)
Awards and honors
National Oldtime Fiddlers’ Contest, Junior-Junior division (1974) Grand Master Fiddler Championship (1975, 1980, 1982) National Flat Pick Guitar Championship, Winfield, Kansas (1975) National Oldtime Fiddlers’ Contest, Grand National Champion (1979, 1980, 1981, 1984) CMA Musician of the Year (1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996) CMA Vocal Event of the Year, Restless (1991) Grammy Award, Best Country Instrumental Performance, The New Nashville Cats (1992) Grammy Award, Best Classical Crossover Album, Appalachian Journey (2001) National Fiddler Hall of Fame (2009) Grammy Award, Best Bluegrass Album, Coming Home, O’Connor Band with Mark O’Connor (2017)
Watch and listen
O’Connor at 13 plays Tom and Jerry on the Porter Wagoner Show in 1975, the year he won his first Grand Master title. Listen for the variations stacking up with each pass.
A solo set at MerleFest: Midnight on the Water into Bonaparte’s Retreat. Watch how much of the bow he uses on the waltz.
What to learn from O’Connor
Learn Sally Johnson from the 1977 Texas Jam Session record, where you can hear O’Connor next to Thomasson, Texas Shorty, and Terry Morris on the same tunes. Play the plain melody until it is solid, then write out two variations of the A part and two of the B part, the way a contest player does. The technique to steal is his bow length. Most jam fiddlers saw with the middle third of the bow. O’Connor uses the whole hair on slow tunes and keeps it moving on fast ones, and that is where his tone comes from. Practice a waltz with one long stroke per beat before you try to add the notes.
Sources
National Oldtime Fiddlers’ Contest champions, University of Idaho Library Past winners, Grand Master Fiddler Championship Biography, Mark O’Connor official website Mark O’Connor, Wikipedia Country Music Association Award for Musician of the Year, Wikipedia 2019 National Fiddler Hall of Fame inductions, Bluegrass Today A Texas Jam Session Featuring Four World Champion Fiddlers, Discogs Mark O’Connor, Markology, Discogs Mark O’Connor, The New Nashville Cats, Discogs Yo-Yo Ma, Edgar Meyer, Mark O’Connor, Appalachia Waltz, Discogs
Related players
See the fiddle players hub and the fiddle guide for more contest and bluegrass fiddlers. O’Connor learned from Benny Thomasson and Stéphane Grappelli. Byron Berline and Herman Johnson shared the Weiser champions list with him, and Katrina Nicolayeff and Luke Price later passed his Grand National count.