Phil Howes & Debbie Herriot-Howes

Phil & Debbie live in Markham, Ontario. They both discovered their love of traditional violin music on their own, and have been performing and studying this music for over twenty years.

Debbie is a very accomplished pianist, earning her A.R.C.T. from the Royal Conservatory of Toronto. Debbie taught piano for 5 years, then lived in Scotland for a year before returning to Canada to take up the study of law. She is recognized as one of the leading piano players in the fiddle community, and has been playing with fiddlers for over twenty years with a style that is uniquely her own, with complex chord and rhythm patterns that enhance the musicality of the traditional music.

Phil has been playing the violin since the age of ten, has played with a number of orchestras and music shows including the Toronto Youth Symphony, Oshawa Symphony and Etobicoke Philharmonic. He was introduced to the special celtic-influenced violin music, and has spent the last ten years studying, performing and developing his expertise in this area. "The classical music schools have focused almost exclusively in teaching western music as it developed in Italy and Germany, largely ignoring the whole body of extremely beautiful music that grew out of the Celtic influences in north-western Europe and the British Isles - to the detriment of many musicians and music lovers. This music has a different tonality and rhythm structure than what we call classical music, and has come down to us in the folk idiom almost derisively as "fiddle" tunes. We now know that the best violinists in Scotland in the 18th and 19th centuries could be called upon to play both Bach and traditional dance tunes in the same evening, so there is in fact a large cultural and technical crossover that exists."

Phil & Debbie have played together at numerous engagements, including the Royal Ontario Museum, Campbell House, Markham Museum, community fairs and festivals throughout Ontario, Scotland and in Cape Breton. They are also active in the Ontario Fiddle community, teach at the Canadian Fiddler's & Stepdancer's Hall of Fame Music Camp, and can often be found at contests where Phil often adjudicates and Debbie accompanies.