Rob's own website coming soon at: www.robdiggins.com

  

Rob Diggins, jazz violinist/violist

Click here for a solo sound sample!

Upon first hearing the warmth and fluid improvising of jazz violinist and recording artist, Rob Diggins, one is immediately reminded of just how soul satisfying a well-turned musical phrase can be. Whether playing at lightning speed or languidly drifting along, Rob consistently weaves a musical tapestry of rich and varied hues that is as original as it is creative. Successfully daring to find the right balance between lyrical lines, digital pyrotechnics, sophisticated rhythms and difficult polyphonic/chordal ideas, Rob does it all with an inviting twinkle in his eyes, and a smile on his lips.

Cultivating musical versatility throughout his career, Rob Diggins enjoys noted successes performing and teaching in each of the Jazz, Folk and Classical music idioms. His recordings and performances include working with artists as diverse as Kevin Burke and William Coulter (Celtic), Monica Huggett (Period Instrument) and Dr. Ross and the Hellhounds (Electric Blues) to name a few, plus over twenty CD’s with acclaimed international period instrument ensembles. His students range from the very young to the very old and have included such talented individuals as Jenny Scheinman (Downbeat Magazine's "Most Promising Young Talent") and Tristan and Tashina Clarridge (Grand Champions, National Oldtime Fiddlers Contest, Weiser, Idaho).

In addition to playing jazz violin with the Cuckoo’s Nest, Rob freelances with many of today’s notable period instrument ensembles. Rob has been a member of Collegium Vocale, Ghent and LaChappelle Royale - both under the direction of Phillipe Herreweghe - as well as Les Arts Florissants, the Gabrieli Consort, Cantus Koln, Musica ad Rhenum with Jed Wentz, the Ricercar Consort, Kammer Orchester Stuttgart under Frieder Bernius, American Bach Soloists, American Baroque, Lux Musica, Seattle Baroque Orchestra, Benevolent Order for the Music of the Baroque (BOMB), Los Angeles Baroque Orchestra, the Trinity Consort and the Portland Baroque Orchestra.

Here, there and everywhere...

Rob has frequently been a featured soloist on National Public Radio’s program Performance Today. Rob has also been a featured soloist for an Oregon Public Broadcasting television broadcast of Vivaldi concerti performed by the Portland Baroque Orchestra. Rob records on the Harmonia Mundi, Koch International, Musica Omnia, Pro Gloria Musica, Helicon, Musical Heritage Society, Gourd, and Music for Little People record labels.

In 1993, he earned a soloist diploma in violin from the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, Netherlands. He is currently co-director of the Alard String Quartet, and is founder/director of his teaching studio, Accademia dei Filomusi and Les Theatre des Funambules (a sporadic puppet/circus theater!) in Humboldt County, California.

During the 2003/2004 performance season, Mr. Diggins can be frequently heard live in concert, recorded broadcast, and on cd, as concertmaster and soloist with the Portland Baroque Orchestra (Portland, Oregon), the California Bach Society and Magnificat (both in San Francisco), and in chamber music recitals in many West coast concert series.

Why Jazz?

"I was about 14 when I first got turned onto the jazz violin through the playing of Jean-Luc Ponty. I thought it was the coolest sound I had ever heard, especially the stuff he was doing with an echoplex. Then the fact that he played with Frank Zappa opened up my life to the incredible musician and commentator that Frank was. And so by and by, not only did I collect and listen to all of Jean-Luc’s stuff but I finally got to see him play live and that just blew me away. About the same time, a fellow friend and violinist whom I met through the Peter Meremblum Youth Orchestra in Hollywood and who knew that I was interested in Ponty and Zappa, turned me onto the Brazilian jazz of Hermeto Pascoal. And so my life was for ever changed after that! Oh yeah, since Hermeto paid homage to Cannonball Adderley I also became a devotee of this great jazzman."

Equipment

"I have played on a variety of instruments and I prefer always to play acoustic. No pick-ups, no nothing, just the violin and bow. My violin is the same one that my father got for me way back in the 70’s! It was built in 1899 in Albany, Oregon by Hiram Stewart Richards. He copied the specifications from the ‘Alard’ Stradivarius, 1719, Cremona, Italy. That was Stradivarius Golden period when he produced, big and beautiful violins. Loud yet very responsive and capable of being heard over the rest of the orchestra. It has served me well in my career!

  

If amplification is needed I like to play through a high quality mike on a boom and then direct through the house PA. When that's not possible then I put a Fishman transducer pickup on the G-string side of my bridge and a Countryman hypercardioid mike inside my f-hole on the G-string side. They are wired together in a stereo tip and ring ¼"carpenter jack. I run that through a Rane preamp out to the PA. I've used lots of different effects racks and various pedals, amplifier combo’s and am still happiest producing all the effects with just the violin and bow. I like to use Eva Pirazzi medium gauge strings by Pirastro for the G,D and A and a Kaplan gold spiral for the E string. When I play period instrument stuff I change out the strings and replace with Aquila gut strings for the A and E and Olive label silver wound gut by Pirastro for the G and D. I use several different bows, some of which are made by Tis Marang (Netherlands) and others by Christopher English (Boston) and Ian Watchhorn (Australia)."