Our Featured Fiddle & Mandolin
Instructor
Byron Berline
Byron Berline is a three-time National Fiddle Champion who turned to a musical career after earning a B. A. in Physical Education at the University of Oklahoma. Originally from Oklahoma where he began playing the fiddle at age 5, Byron lived and worked in Los Angeles for 26 years before returning to his home state in 1995. Byron's professional career reads like Who's Who .. In the music busines as he performeed with or recorded with so many notables. He has led or been a member of the following bands: Bill Monroe Bluegrass Boys (1966-67), Dillard & Clark (1969-70), Dillard Expedition (1970-71), Country Gazette (1971-75), Sundance (1975-85), Berline, Berline, Crary & Hickman (1978-90), L.A. Fiddle Band (1978-93), California (1990-96) and currently the Byron Berline Band (1996-present).
Byron is one of the most sought after session fiddlers and his long list of recroding credits are proof: The Band, The Byrds, The Eagles, The Rolling Stones, Manhattan Transfer, Bob Dylan, John Denver, Elton John, Olivia Newton-John, Burt Reynolds, Linda Rondstadt, Rod Stewart, Kay Starr, Hoyt Axton, Alabama, Susis Bogus, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Joe Diffy, Vince Gill, Arlo Guthrie, Mickey Gilley, Emmylou Harris, Kris Kristofferson, Johnny Lee, Willie Nelson, Red Stegall, Doug Stone, Tammy Wynetter, Jethro Burns, The Dillard, John Hartford, Bill Monroe, Nitty Gritty Dirt Banjd, Don Reno, Earl Scruggs, Mason Williams and numberous symphony orchestras.
Byron has extensive movie and commercial sound track credits as well, including work with Henry Mancini, Jerry Fielding, Johnny William and Lalo Schifrin. Byron scored his first major motion picture in 1975, "Stay Hungry", for director Bob Raphelson. He has appeared in "Star Trek", "Blake", "Back To The Future III" and "Basic Instinct". He has been interview by major city newspaper and magazine throughout the world, and he has toured in the United States, Europe, China, Japan, Australia, Northern Africa and the South Pacific. In his spare time, Bryon enjoys producing albums for his friends and himself.
Byron was inducted into Oklahoma's Musician's Hall of Fame, named Oklahoma's Ambassador of Goodwill, been the featured artist at the International Convention of the Violin Society of America, and conceived and planned the Oklahoma International Bluegrass Festival since its beginnings in 1997.