Bellingham Mandolin Teacher & Guitar, Violin & Fiddle Instructor
Kian Dye
Online and In-Person
Instruments
Violin/Fiddle
Mandolin
Guitar
Education
Associate of Arts and Science, Whatcom Community College
Skills & Training
Violin/Fiddle (Beginner to Advanced)
Mandolin (Beginner to Advanced)
Flatpick Guitar (Beginner to Intermediate)
Specializes in bluegrass, old-time, country, folk, etc.
Music Theory
Sight Reading
Teaches primarily by ear
Bio
Kian began playing the violin when he was 6 years old as a Suzuki Method student in Port Townsend, WA. It soon became clear that Kian had a passion for playing and performing, and he soon began taking private violin lessons. Kian’s family moved to Portland, Oregon when he was 8 years old and that is where he started to get into fiddling.
In 2004, Kian took 1st place in the Oregon State Fiddle Contest’s 8 and under division and began a long career as a fiddle contest competitor. In 2013, Kian and his longtime friend and collaborator Wilhelmina Frankzerda won the National Twin Fiddle Championship. He has won or placed highly at the National Old Time Fiddle Contest, the Walnut Valley Fiddle Contest, the Oregon State Fiddle Contest and many more.
As his musical interests expanded and evolved, Kian added guitar and mandolin to his repertoire and he explored different musical genres including jazz, swing, old-time, Celtic and bluegrass all while continuing his classical training with private instruction and with the Metropolitan Youth Symphony. He also began regularly attending various summer music camps including the Shasta String Summit and the Mandolin Symposium and began helping as a student teacher at the Wintergrass Youth Academy and other bluegrass festivals’ youth camps in the Pacific Northwest.
Kian began performing at Portland music venues and events when he was still a teenager. From the ages of 19-24, Kian toured and performed full-time with a variety of Northwest bluegrass, country, and Americana groups and recorded on three full length studio albums and many other smaller projects. Kian also taught the intermediate mandolin course at the Washington Old Time Fiddlers Association (WOTFA) Workshop in 2017 and 2018.
Kian was a founding member of the Portland band Never Come Down (now Rockygrass Band Competition champions!), with whom he was invited to perform at the Iceland Airwaves music festival in Reykjavik, Iceland. He also played fiddle on Never Come Down’s debut album of the same name in 2018. Kian has since parted ways with the band and moved to Bellingham, WA in 2019 where he is now focusing on school, teaching music, and working on his own musical projects. Kian is currently finishing his Associate of Arts and Science transfer degree and plans to transfer to Fairhaven College at Western Washington University starting in the Fall of 2021 to study audio engineering, jazz guitar, and interdisciplinary studies.
Influences
David Grisman, Vassar Clements, Bill Monroe, Stuart Duncan, Chris Thile, Doc Watson, Tony Rice, Clarence White, Stephane Grappelli, Django Reinhardt, Kenny Baker, Bobby Hicks, Julian Lage, Bill Frisell, Nickel Creek, Bela Fleck, John Hartford, Ronnie McCoury, Mandolin Orange, Hank Williams, Emmylou Harris, Bob Dylan, James Taylor, Sam Bush, Brandi Carlile, and many, many more.
Current Projects
August & May
Discography
The Wildwood – “The Wildwood” (2015)
Never Come Down – “Never Come Down” (2018)