Isa Burke
Instrument: FiddleIsa Burke grew up in South Berwick, Maine, and now lives in Brooklyn, New York. On vocals, fiddle, electric and acoustic guitars, and clawhammer banjo, Isa makes music that balances a respect for tradition with a healthy disdain for the limitations of genre. Raised in a musical family (her parents are Susie Burke and David Surette), Isa grew up immersed in the Northeast’s thriving traditional music community and has attended Maine Fiddle Camp almost every year since she was 11. In fact, Isa first picked up the fiddle at MFC! She is primarily known as one-third of the indie-roots band Lula Wiles, which first formed at MFC and has since toured internationally and released an album and EP on Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. Isa studied at Berklee College of Music, where she received a degree in violin performance and songwriting; studied with fiddlers like Bruce Molsky, Matt Glaser, and Darol Anger; and received the college’s Fletcher Bright Award, given each year to an outstanding fiddler. She has also taught private lessons, group classes at the Passim School of Music in Boston, and at numerous camps and festivals including the Miles of Music Camp and Ossipee Valley String Camp.