Save the Date for our Fall Concert on the Prairie!
Sunday October 20, 2024. Doors open at 3pm.
Concert starts at 3:30pm.
Performers:
Molly Baer: violin/fiddle
Ben Weldy: mandolin, guitar, scandola
Part I – Classical and Irish selections
Intermission
Part II – Irish and Bluegrass selections
Reception – Immediately following the concert.
Molly Baer
Molly Baer joined the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra in 2012. Before moving to Texas, Molly was a violin fellow at the New World Symphony in Miami Beach. She graduated from the New England Conservatory in Boston as a student of Miriam Fried, and received her Master’s degree from Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Music, where she studied with Andrés Cárdenes.
Since moving to Fort Worth, Molly has participated in frequent chamber music performances with local ensembles and festivals. She has performed with Spectrum Chamber Music Society, Hall Ensemble, the Basically Beethoven Festival, Opus Nova, and Sedici Strings, a string quartet made up of colleagues in the Fort Worth Symphony. She teaches a private studio of violin students and has enjoyed coaching young chamber musicians for the Fort Worth Youth Orchestra. Molly grew up in Maryland and developed an interest in folk and bluegrass music at a young age by participating in the Fiddler’s Convention in Carroll County every summer.
Ben Weldy
Ben Weldy is a versatile multi–instrumentalist, ardent improviser, composer/arranger, singer/songwriter, and educator. A Dallas, TX native, he grew up performing a broad diversity of genres on guitar and mandolin: Classical, Jazz, Blues, Rock, Country, Americana, Folk Traditions, Celtic/British Isles, World, and Sacred music. A songwriter and recording artist, Ben has recorded his music in Dallas, Boston, and Nashville.
Ben has performed with groups and ensembles across the U.S., most recently as a mandolin soloist with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, and Irving Symphony Orchestra. As an Irish/Celtic music specialist, he has performed concerts and festivals with; Michael Black, The Sídhe, Glas, Strings & Pipes, and in the house band at Tipperary Inn.
Ben was a guitar performance major and scholarship recipient at Berklee College of Music in Boston. Prior to shifting his focus to fretted instruments, he studied French horn and Music Composition at the University of North Texas. He maintains a successful private music lesson studio comprised of students of all ages. And he is a member of Folk Alliance International.
