Marilee Hord

Marilee Hord has been working as a professional musician out of the Portland area for the last 14 years. She has played in numerous critically acclaimed bands including Golden Delicious, Little Sue, and James Low, touring throughout the US, France, Belgium, Holland and the Czech Republic and playing at many festivals including SXSW, CMJ, Bumbershoot and FIMA. Currently, Marilee can be heard with The Pagan Jug Band, The Git Rights, avant-jazz wizards the Blue Cranes, and occasionaly with the house band of the OPB radio show “LIVEWIRE.” This past May, she went to Nashville to play on Music City Roots, a weekly event on the legendary WSM radio station; home of the Grand Ol’ Opry.

As a band member or guest she has played on over 75 recordings including releases by Kristen Hersh, Jerry Joseph as well as many well known local artists. Her playing can be heard on television commercials for the Oregon State Lottery, The Sierra Club, and Pier One.

In her youth, Marilee enjoyed a successful classical career, holding principal chairs in the Oakland Youth Orchestra, the Diablo Youth Orchestra and the San Francisco Youth Symphony, and winning local competitions. She was concert-mistress of her high school orchestra all four years. Along with continuing studies with such luminaries as Hollis Taylor and Julie Lyonn Lieberman, she now maintains a busy private teaching studio in SE Portland. Her bottom line philosophy is “It’s better to play music, than not to play music- both for you and the world.” Whether your goal is to be on the stage, or on the front porch with friends, Marilee can give you a solid foundation from which you may explore whichever fiddle styles appeal to you. If you have been a violinist in the past and wish to break away from the printed page, she can help you learn to improvise and be stylisticly accurate- whatever the genre. She also very much enjoys teaching the young ones, whether they are new to the instrument or are feeling “bored” with what they are currently playing.

As of Fall 2010, she is accepting students 10 years old and up — from absolute beginners to all levels of proficiency.

Member of the American String Teachers Association since 2002.

Marilee Hord teaches Fiddle and Violin