Teen wins Grand Champion — again — at fair’s Fiddle Contest

PALMER — Eat your heart out, Charlie Daniels. For a couple hours during a rainy and chilly Saturday, entertainment on the Colony Stage at the Alaska State Fair came with plenty of strings attached. And for the seven young fiddlers entered in the fair’s Fiddle Contest, they cared to take that dare, ’cause they’re fiddle players, too.

And like the hero of Daniels’ iconic country hit “The Devil Went Down to Georgia,” a young Anchorage fiddler was judged better than all the rest.

“I’ve been playing (the Fiddle Contest) for a long time now,” said 16-year-old Grand Champion winner Sky Kelsey. “I’m been doing the fair for at least four or five years.”

Although young, Kelsey has enjoyed success on the Colony Stage, also winning Grand Champion “four or five times.”

Winning the big ribbon — Kelsey was also judged the winner of the Teen Division — may be old hat for the home-schooled teen, but it never gets old.

“It’s always an honor,” he said, adding playing at the fair is always an adrenaline rush. “Of course I get nervous. You just take deep breaths before going on stage, then you get over it on stage. You get in the moment, and that’s what an fiddler or musician strives for — to play and connect and make people clap their hands and sing to the music.”

There was plenty of clapping and dancing in the aisles during this year’s contest. Some of the loudest cheers came for 16-year-old Stephanie Clarice Mathew. She finished second in the Teen Division and was awarded first place in the Overall Championship category, runner-up to Kelsey.

For Mathew, her strong performance continued a string of progressive success at the Fiddle Contest.

“I’d like to make first place up to Grand Champion,” she said after her final performance. Last year she was second runner-up and third runner-up the year before that.

Like Kelsey, Mathew said she was aware of the crowd in the audience and the throngs of people passing by at the fair.

“Yea, sometimes I do (get nervous),” she said. “That last song was a little more nerve-wracking, but I love it and I have lots of people supporting me.”

Along with a love of fiddling, Mathew, Kelsey and the others had to deal with the cool, rainy weather, which can affect their fiddles.

“”It gets a little out of tune and the strings get a little stiff and the bowing a little harder,” she said about how that affects the players. “But if you just warm up on it, it’s good.”

Violin is one of many stringed instruments the home-schooled teen plays. She also plays the piano, guitar, mandolin and viola. It’s no wonder she said she wants to make music an important part of her future.

“I’d like to continue and be a music teacher,” she said.

The upbeat twang of fine fiddling is what drives 12-year-old Nathan Kristich, who won the Youth Division at this year’s contest. The Teeland Middle School seventh-grader has won the youth division before and said that while he also plays classical music “because the technique is good,” he prefers fiddle “all the way.”

Kristich said he felt a little case of nerves, “but you just have to play through it. I don’t really focus on the judges. I just play, and if they think I did good, that’s good.”

Contact Greg Johnson at 352-2269 or greg.johnson@frontiersman.com.

ALASKA STATE FAIR FIDDLE CONTEST

Saturday, Colony Stage

Overall Championship

Grand Champion Sky Kelsey, 1. Stephanie Clarice Mathew, 2. team of Harrison Jennings and Sky Kelsey, 3. team of Leo Budde and Kaden Mullin.

Youth Division

1. Nathan Kristich, 2. Caden Gerlach.

Teen Division

1. Sky Kelsey, 2. Stephanie Clarice Mathew, 3. Harrison Jennings.

Open Division

1. Sky Kelsey, 2. Stephanie Clarice Mathew.

Twin Division

1. Harrison Jennings and Sky Kelsey, 2. Leo Budde and Kaden Mullin.