Welcome to the Grand Master Fiddler Championship!

The Forty-Seventh Annual Grand Master Fiddler Championship was held on Saturday September 1st and Sunday September 2nd, 2018 (Labor Day Weekend), in Nashville, Tennessee, at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in the Ford Theater.  Contestants from 15 states competed in the competition with over 83 contestant performances.

The Grand Master Fiddler Championship Inc. is organized as a Tennessee nonprofit and U.S. IRS 501(c)(3) charitable corporation, formed to educate about and perpetuate fiddling as an art form and cultural treasure. The corporation's primary focus is holding the annual Grand Master Fiddler Championship competition - an event that has started many young musicians on their way to a career in music. As a 501(c)(3) entity, all donations are tax deductible, and we welcome your support to promote and educate about fiddling. Fund-raising efforts are being planned in order to expand the competition, enhance our educational efforts, and to further the awareness of fiddling around the globe.

Fiddling laid the foundation of the WSM Grand Ole Opry and remqins important to country and bluegrass music today. For a quarter-century, the contest was sponsored by WSM, the Grand Ole Opry, the Country Music Association, and later by Gaylord Entertainment.  When financially able, the GMFC makes donations to such charities as the Grand Ole Opry Trust Fund and the Bluegrass Trust Fund which benefit musicians in need.  We do this in honor of the contributions of the pioneers to country, bluegrass and traditional music. Many of these pioneers such as Roy Acuff, Porter Wagoner, "Uncle Jimmy" Thompson, Bill Monroe, Howdy Forrester and Tommy Jackson played the fiddle or were very involved with fiddling. We also donate fiddles/violins to the W. O. Smith Music School in Nashville.

Please tell all your fiddle music friends, websites, discussion lists and other music sites about this web page! Let us hear from you and we will add you to the GMFC email list.



2018 Dr. Perry F. Harris Distinguished Fiddler Award Recipient Dr. Robert "Roby" Cogswell.