Many talented musicians also serve as exemplary music educators. This is true of Colyn Fischer, an award-winning violinist from Pennsylvania who now works as a middle school music teacher in northern California.

Colyn was born in 1977 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He began to play the violin when he was only three years old. Since the age of five, he has concentrated on the specialty of Scottish fiddling. While just a teenage, Colyn studied under a number of notable American Scottish fiddlers, including John Turner and Bonnie Rideout, and several celebrated fiddlers from Scotland, including Ian Powie and Alasdair Hardy.

Following his graduation from Penn-Trafford High School in Harrison City, Pennsylvania, Colyn enrolled at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois. There he earned his Bachelor’s degree in Music Performance in violin from Wheaton College in 1999. He completed the requirements for his teaching credential at Seton Hill University in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, in 2005.

In 1993, Colyn garnered the first-place title in the American National Scottish Fiddling Championship, Junior Division. In 2005 he won in the open category in Texas, a title which he captured again in 2006 in Ohio.

Colyn first taught music in grades three through eight in the Silver Valley Unified School District in California’s San Bernardino County. He worked there from 2006-2009. Currently, Colyn teaches orchestra at Central Middle School in the San Carlos School District located in San Francisco, California. He also teaches the annual Jink and Diddle School of Scottish Fiddling, and gives private violin and fiddle lessons.

To view Colyn playing Scottish tunes, watch the You Tube video above.