Marcus Holden Australian Fiddler  

My Story

My love affair with music began with studying the violin at the age of 8 in Canberra. My father, Terry Holden, a programmer for CSIRAC in Melbourne (Australia's first computer), wrote some of Australia's building standards, designed and built the first passive solar house in Victoria and subsequently worked for the division of Computing Research, Canberra.

My mother Patti Holden, was an artist and art teacher at several local schools in the North Canberra area. She was also very involved (and still is) in the Canberra art scene and was a member of the Contemporary Art Society in Melbourne. Initially studying classical music and joining the new Canberra Youth Orchestra (with my clarinet playing sister Salli) and Canberra Children's Choir in 1967 I toured with choirs, groups and culminating in a tour of Europe to the International Festival Of Youth Orchestras in 1974.

In the early 70s, the newly amplified violin took my interest and I began listening to Jean-Luc Ponty, Frank Zappa, Jerry Goodman, Miles Davis and Sugar-Cane Harris.

My first attempt at amplification used a DeArmond pickup placed on the table of the violin, not very successful. Then came the Fender Electric Violin... best described as a chainsaw with vibrato. Next were Barcus-Berry violin bridge pickups which clipped to the bridge... a real improvement and a Fender Quad Reverb, beautiful big valve amplifier with 4x12" speakers... it worked! Check out Equipment for more!
Playing in many rock, jazz and country bands at this time including Cactus Jack (with Mike Hayes) and other musical experiments with other well-known musos like Charlie MacMahon and George Washingmachine. Canberra during the 70s and 80s was a real hotbed of music. Loads of gigs and parties. The city and its cosmopolitan population from round the world (being the National Capital) helped nurture an unique scene. Check out Canberra Musicians for a whole swag of bands, photos, names and clips. After a short stint in Adelaide my next move was to the big smoke.

Moving to Sydney in 1979 to study jazz at the NSW Con. of Music, I began a career as a session fiddle player losing count at over 500 award winning records, films and jingles (see Recording) working with such luminaries as Jimmy Barnes, Ross Wilson, Diesel (Mark Lizotte), Mark Hunter, Ross Ryan, John Williamson , Graeme Connors , Richard Clapton, Daryl Braithwaite etc!

Sydney in the 80s was full of smokey pub gigs and for most of that decade I averaged 6 a week, including all sorts of wierd jobs from bikie parties to funerals, harbour cruises to concerts.

In 1983, Returning to the NSW Con to study Music Teaching and taking lessons from Laslo Kiss (Sydney String Quartet) and Christopher Kimber, both of whom helped my technique immensely, I was given the opportunity to further study compostion and arranging. By 1990, though my primary source of income was still performance with my own Bloody Dog Studio, the years of session experience began to pay off. In 1994, Jimmy Barnes invited me to arrange and record (with a string quartet) on Flesh and Wood. A long association with Diesel (Mark Lizotte), Jimmy and EJ Barnes began.

In 1996, at the Tamworth Country Music Festival along with 3 other legendary fiddlers (Ray Schloeffel, Pixie Jenkins, Andrew Clermont and Garry Steel on accordion), a loose group of lunatics jammed together eventually forming the Fiddlers Festival. From these humble beginnings the FF became the most widely recognized fiddle band in Australia. Tours to Japan in association with the Hawkesbury National Fiddle Festival and the setting up of the Golden Fiddle Awards helped to bring fiddle playing into mainstream Australian Music. 1997 saw the formation of Mic Conway's National Junk Band which celebrated 10 years of lunacy with a DVD and four CDs, the latest (Corporate Chook) produced at Bloody Dog. While 'filling in' at a pub gig for an ailing Ray Schloeffel, I met up with Sean O'Boyle and Mark Collier-Vickers, producers of Orchestral stage production Scotland the Brave and was invited to join the cast. Since 2004 this hit show has been performing with major orchestras around Australia, New Zealand and North America.

In early 2006, Canadian Anita MacGregor and her fiddling family moved to Sydney. Part of the Calgary Fiddlers and keen to keep fiddling she approached me to set up a similar group in Oz. Enter the Southern Cross Fiddlers, a group which meets every week and is dedicated to teaching fiddling to students of all musical denominations.

In recent years, assocations with many well-known musical identities including Warren Fahey and Annalisa Kerrigan have resulted in a diverse range of musical performance opportunites both in Australia and overseas...see Performing.

What a charmed and exciting life!