A woman from Waterloo, Ont. is now a Canadian Grand Master in fiddling. Anna Smilek, 24, was crowned the champion at the Canadian Grand Masters Fiddling Competition in High River, Alberta last weekend. “I definitely didn’t expect to win. I knew that I might get into the finals round,” Smilek said. “I did a music degree, and during that degree, I was doing a lot of classical music. And so, I was very much into worlds musically,” Smilek said. “This past year, year-and-a-half, I’ve been only doing fiddle music, and so I think I just had an opportunity to really sink into that style. I’ve been playing a lot of dances and dance music, and danceability matters so much for that competition. And so, I think really, I just got to practice a lot and I got to immerse myself in the music more.” Approximately 30 fiddlers across Canada are invited to compete for the title each year. Smilek has competed four times, but this year, she won it all. “Once she set her sights on that, I knew eventually she would do it. She’s just that kind of person. She’s very dedicated to her craft. Incredibly talented,” Shane Guse, Smilek’s former teacher said. From busking to Canadian champion Smilek has been playing fiddle since she was four-years-old. She also plays piano, violin, viola and a bit of mandolin and guitar, but she said the fiddle is her favourite to play. “When I was younger, I spent a lot of time busking at the St. Jacobs Farmers Market. I would kind of get together with some of those fiddle friends, and we would just spend hours playing, and I feel like that’s where I really got to get used to performing,” she said. “I am kind of a fiddle for hire sometimes, so I’ll play with various people who contact me and say, ‘We need a violinist or we need a fiddler.’ Some country bands that are local I’ll play with,” She believes fiddling allows her to connect with people in a unique way. “All her family, they’re all musical. There’s always music at their house. A friend of mine lived across the street from them, and he always would tell me. He was like, ‘I’m hearing all this great music coming out of that house all the time,’ he says. ‘” Guse explained. “I’ve never had a student make me work so hard. In a good way,” he reaclled. “I was happy to do it. When Anna first came to me, she was very eager to learn, she was a sponge. I would give her things that an average student would be working on it for a month, and she’d have it down in a week. So, I’d be like, ‘OK, pivot. We got to work on the next thing.’” Guse said Anna was the only student he had who specifically asked him to “nitpick” her performances. “She goes, ‘You’re not going to hurt my feelings.’ She was so dedicated to learning and was a very quick study,” he said. Upcoming performances The 24-year-old is pursuing a degree in social work but plans to play for as long as she can. “I will keep playing. Yeah, I love it, and I have so much fun doing it,” Smilek said. “We’ve started playing a lot of dances in the community and spreading the fiddle - the kind of fiddle and folk music culture around here, especially with young adults. It’s become really popular to do, like country dancing and line dancing, and we’ve been teaching a lot of that.” “I get the opportunity to play with her from time to time, which is great. Now I’m calling Anna, if I need [someone] or somebody calls me for a gig and I can’t do it, I’m like, ‘You should call Anna Smilek,” Guse said. Smilek will be performing again in September. She and some local folk musicians are part of a concert fundraiser in Waterloo for the non-profit organization Fierce’N’Fit Boxing on Sep. 12. She’ll also once again be performing in St. Jacobs with the bluegrass band Sourwood at the Bales and Boots Bluegrass Bash on September 26.
