High schooler isn't just fiddlin' around with music

Because he was getting bored practicing classical violin music after six years of study, Victor Gagnon, now 17, decided to start fiddling around.

He was introduced to a different way of playing by hearing Celtic fiddler George Wilson.

"After that, I was pretty much hooked on Celtic music and fiddling," said the junior at LaSalle Institute in Troy. "I decided that I wanted to learn how to play my violin that way."

New style

Victor approached his instructor about learning the techniques of fiddling. She showed him ways to apply that style to the classical skills he'd already learned.

"After a while, I began to pick it up," he said. The rest was just practice.

He loves not only playing traditional Irish folk music, but also composing it.

"I really love to write Celtic music," he said. "I really haven't named many of the pieces I've written so far. I do have one song that my grandfather [Austin Gagnon] nicknamed, 'The Irish Astronaut.' I always perform that one, so I guess people kind of know me by that song."

After four years of practicing and writing, the Melrose native decided to go public. Earlier this month, he appeared at Eamonn's Restaurant in Loudonville, an Irish-style pub, where he performed a two-hour concert with popular Celtic performer Frank Jaklitsch.

Studies

Victor has to divide his time between studying and playing the fiddle.

"Last year, I played varsity soccer," he said, "but now I don't have enough time to do that. Fiddling takes up a lot of my time. Once I get my school work out of the way, my music is about all I can handle."

He likes to get in at least two hours of practice each night; on his days off from school, it isn't unusual for him to spend four or more hours plucking the strings of his nearly 100-year-old Czechoslovakian violin.

RCA Victor

"I have several gigs coming up within the next couple of months that I have been practicing for," Victor explained.

In addition, he will be cutting a CD in April.

"It'll only have five tracks on it, but the preparation for that takes up most of my free time right now," he said.

He hopes to attend college and major in music. "Music is definitely in my future," he said.

(It's in his immediate future, for sure. Victor Gagnon will perform May 9 at Albany's annual Tulip Queen Festival in Washington Park. On June 14, he will celebrate his 18th birthday with a solo performance at Eamonn's in Loudonville, a date that coincides with the release of his first CD.)

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