"Sassanak" A derivatiive of the Scottish word "Sassenach". We wanted a word that communicates the fact that we play Scottish music, but also that we are not indeed from Scotland. Since Sassenach can mean any place South of Scotland, we addapted the word and made something entirely new by misspelling the original. Lynn Rubier-Capron Lynn is the 2004 Scottish Fiddle champion of the Grandfather Mountain highland games at Grandfather Mountain, N.C.
Lynn Rubier-Capron
Lynn is the 2004 Scottish Fiddle champion of the Grandfather Mountain highland games at Grandfather Mountain, N.C. Her Scottish fiddle lineage flows backward through her fiddle teacher: John Turner, 10 time winner of the national Scottish fiddle Championship, to his fiddle master J.T. Hector MacAndrew, backwards through the generations to Neil Gow himself! Lynn won her championship because of the unique qualities she brings to all of her music: Beauty, Intensity and Swing!
Lynn learned to pull a deep, rich sound from her violin from her first mentor: Dr. Jerrie Lucktenberg, who graduated from The Curtis School of Music. Lucktenberg passed on to Lynn a passion for the beauty that only the violin can produce.
Lynn brings a unique intensity to all of her playing. Whether she is competing at the Scottish games, or performing with Toni, she constantly searches for the most effective interpretation of each phrase that she plays. Folk Arts Director of the Rochester Arts and Cultural Council, Susie Chodorow, finds Lynn's approach to Scottish fiddle music especially moving because of its intensity and the clarity of her particular Scottish style.
Lynn has enjoyed living in the Rochester area now just over 8 years. This is the first time she has had the opportunity to settle into an area and get to know a community, and the Rochester area and people have been a wonderful place to establish roots! Lynn Graduated from Converse College and Florida State Univ. with a bachelors and then a masters (respectively) in violin performance. She lived a typical musician's lifestyle for 8 years, and then went back to school at Columbia Theological seminary in Decatur GA. where she married Mike Capron and earned her Masters of Div. (in that order ). After Lynn and Mike moved to Williamson NY, Lynn taught Greek at Colgate Rochester Crozier Divinity School, served as a Christian educator at Pittsford Pres., and then as solo pastor for Dewey Ave. Pres. Lynn went back into music in Aug. 2003, teaching Suzuki violin at the Hochstein School of Music and Dance and playing folk and classical music with various musicians in the greater Rochester area.
For Lynn, the most amazing thing about settling into Rochester has been the wonderful ways that her music grows more rich and expressive as she collaborates with friends in the community. Music building community, and community enriching music - two wonderful gifts she has received since moving to Rochester.
Toni Elderkin
Self-taught musician, Toni Elderkin likes to push the musical envelope and blur the lines when it comes to her guitar playing. She loves blending different genres and styles, loves trying odd tunings and "wrong" chords in a particular key, and if/when it works, it's one of the best things in life to her.
She first started playing guitar at a very young age. In fact, on any given day at one end of her house her mom would play Motown and blues records and at the other end her dad would have on country & western, and Toni could be found in her room blaring her little Panasonic cassette player with Rock & Roll she'd taped from the radio: She learned to play along with almost every record in the house on a little red & white guitar.
And then one day in the late seventies she was helping her brother move, and found herself going through his record collection of artists she'd never heard before: Joni Mitchell, Rickie Lee Jones, Joan Armatrading, Jim Croce, Nina Simone, Joan Baez, John Prine, James Taylor, etc...Well, she was hooked and fell in love with yet another style of music.
Toni's passion for music is almost as strong as her love of Art. Her Bachelor's Degree is in Studio Art/Illustration, and she continues to draw & paint, both privately and for commission. She lived in NYC for a while and had the privilege of traveling around the world freelancing for numerous dance companies and performance artists as their Lighting Designer...and she always brought her guitar.
Now she enjoys being close to her family & friends, and working part time in theatre. Toni has also been busy jamming with other local musicians and playing around with several other instruments including electric Bass, Mandolin, Banjo, Concertina and Fiddle - which is how she met Lynn Rubier-Capron. In the Summer of 2004, she decided to take Violin lessons and Lynn was her teacher. One day months later, she showed up to her lesson with her guitar strapped on her back because she was going to another band's rehearsal afterwards. Lynn asked her to play something and the rest, as they say, is history!