Born and raised in New Zealand, Oscar is a fiddler and piper based in Melbourne. He currently runs the popular Sunday session at The Last Jar and is a passionate performer and advocate for traditional music playing in Australasia. Initially learning classical violin, he started playing traditional music after hearing the playing of The Chieftains fiddler Sean Keane. At the age of 16, several key encounters steered him towards learning the Scottish Smallpipes and later the Irish whistle, Highland pipes and Uilleann pipes. Completing a Master of Arts in Theatre Studies in 2015, Oscar toured Australia and New Zealand for several years as a musician in New Zealand and Australia, leading him eventually to Melbourne. Over the last decade he has performed extensively with wooden flute and guitar player Rennie Pearson as the traditional music duo Polytropos and recorded and toured for many projects as a fiddler, whistler and piper. Oscar is thrilled to be joining Session Players Tasmania for their first Deloraine Celtic Music Weekend.
For the DCMW Oscar will be leading Fiddle classes.
Saturday Elective: Oscar is passionate about tune history, and will deliver a well-researched class. This was a popular elective at DCMW 2024, and one that Oscar repeated at other festivals owing to its success. Oscar’s very conversational style makes this an interesting option.