Wedding Ceremony Musician

In the lineages I am part of, solo fiddle players have been cultivating ambience and joy for weddings and other community ceremonies for centuries. It’s a focused, rich, down-to-earth sound that can be woven into both ceremony and the container or environment that surrounds it. I play fiddle music that reflects my lived experience in folk culture as an Upper Midwesterner, mixing both American and Nordic traditions. There is a sleek elegance in this heritage – one musician with one instrument, acoustically pouring out the tones and rhythms that help folks emotionally open for ceremony and bind memories together. Access more information about my work in this field at ritualfiddler.com.

Grief Ritual Work

Private one-on-one ritual for somatic opening during the processes of grief, both unlocking and opening the heart in a contained, safe, ceremonial space.

To meet with and let grief flow through the body is an important process of both expressing our living love to what has been lost and allowing these massive energies moving through us to not stagnate so that the relationship may be allowed to transform into a new form that is both physically and emotionally sustainable. It is a crucial energetic process for the health of both the griever and that which is being grieved.

The work is deep opening, cleansing and transforming assisted by ritual, kinetic and sonic experience. It draws from ancient connective technologies that give meaning to my entire body of music work, but in this setting are practiced in their pure, potent form.

This process includes an orientation phone call, a private 3-4 hour session that involves preparation, ceremony, rest and integration following the experience, and finally an integrative discussion a week following the rite.

This is opportunity for connecting with and honoring what we have been separated from, and reflection and integration to unearth and hold what we are connected to.

Dance Musician

I have been a fiddler for square and contra dances nearly all of my life, and this role was one of the original impulses that awakened me to my identity as a functional musician - the meaning of a dance fiddler being a motor, an invisible gear, driving the good time of a much greater group, the ecstatic celebration of body, community, and life.

Drone House

Launched in 2023, Drone House is a music-based somatic and creative practice and a container for your personal work or ritual. The services are focused meditative practices, 30 minutes in length, with small sections that build toward creative fluidity, connection with yourself and your tools, and toning your nervous system to be able to dig deeply in to that work or pleasure. In this offering, I am synthesizing different somatic artistic development work that has been meaningful in my path and offering this vessel in which folks can experience this kind of practice themselves. You can participate as a singer, an instrumentalist, or with movement. Access the workshops here.

Retreat Facilitation

Please reach out if my presence and teaching would elevate an event or retreat you are coordinating. Stay tuned for in-person group courses that I am moving towards presenting local to my area in Northern Michigan.

Recorded Music for Private Work

As part of my role of providing functional music for my community, I have the goal to curate original music of mine that can be used for meditative work and publish those pieces as a digital collection in the future. In the meantime:

Inside of each Drone House there are eight-minute compositions for breath work. Learn more about the curation of that practice in the video at the bottom of this welcoming page for Drone House.

This coming fall I’ll be releasing a group of voice and fiddle compositions that contain lamenting or grief work and can be used privately for that purpose. Sign up on my email list to be informed of the release date of this project.

If you have used my music for healing work and accessed it through streaming services, please consider an exchange of energy by offering a donation here.

Private Lessons

View more options for one-on-one learning on the Private Lessons page, including offerings on vocal opening, creative coaching, old-time fiddle, and clawhammer banjo. This private work is shaped for the individual student and often leads towards somatic tonifying and liminal space connective work inside of the music, if that’s what the student is seeking.

CONTACT

Please contact me at laurelpremo@gmail.com for more information and pricing for any of the offerings described here.