Contemporary Fiddlers/Sierra Noble



Sierra Noble (born February 20, 1990) is a Manitoba singer-songwriter, and fiddle player. She achieved Jigging Champion in 2004. By the time she played the opening set at Folklorama 2008 she was playing classical,old time, rock, jazz, Celtic, bluegrass, Middle Eastern. Eighteen years old at the time, she had already toured Japan, Belgium, France, Mexico and the United States.

In 2005, she released an instrumental album of traditional [[Old-time music|Old Time and [[Métis people (Canada)|Metis fiddle music entitled "Spirit of The Strings", produced by Randy Hiebert (guitar player of The Bellamy Brothers), distributed by Arbor Records/[[EMI|EMI Canada.

In December 2008, Sierra released her debut vocal release entitled "Possibilities" on [[MapleMusic Recordings, produced by Toronto based record producer, Bill Bell. The first single release from the album, "Possibility" (co-written by Noble, [[Chris Burke-Gaffney, and Keith Macpherson) was on rotation on [[Contemporary hit radio|pop radio and country radio in Canada, with the music video for the song reaching #1 on [[MuchMore and appeared in the Top 20 in [[CMT (Canada)'s Cross Canada Countdown.

In 2011, she won the 52nd edition of the Viña del Mar International Song Festival with the song "Try anything". .

Early life
Born in Ottawa, Ontario, Noble is the third and youngest daughter of Sherry Noble (born in Kingston, Ontario) and David Noble (born in Muscatine, Iowa). She moved to [[Winnipeg, Manitoba in 1990. She's from the métis community. (One of the [[Aboriginal peoples in Canada who trace their descent to mixed European and First Nations.)

Sierra attended École Laura Secord School from pre-school to the 4th grade when she transferred to Wolseley School for grades 5 and 6. She attended and graduated from [[Gordon Bell High School with the exception of grade 10 and 11 when she attended The [[University of Winnipeg Collegiate on a full scholarship from the University of Winnipeg president, [[Lloyd Axworthy.

Music
Sierra Noble plays fiddle in a modernized country-pop influenced interpretation of the Meti style but has been known to play Celtic rock fusion, as in the Sierra Noble Trio with Ariel Posen on guitar and Bruce Jacobs on bass. T

David Chartran, President of the Manitoba Metis Foundation, is also interviewed in a 2006 documentary by John Barnard documentary and emphasizes that the Metis fiddle tradition is an aural tradition which cannot be taught in schools. Meti fiddling has been analyzed by ethnomusicologist Lynn Whidden as featured in the film; she indicates that meters can vary from measure to measure and is very percussive. Players use their feet and choke up on the bow to enable a very sharp bite.

Social causes
Sierra Noble has been active in humanitarian causes since childhood. She began by busking at the [[Forks Market in Winnipeg.(1 ) She used the money that she earned from busking to sponsor children from the third world. This activity evolved into volunteering one on one with child refugees affected by war and conflict at the NEEDS Centre and IRCOM House in Winnipeg.(2)  At the age of 12, Sierra became the youth ambassador for the [[Manitoba Campaign to Ban Landmines. In this capacity she began making presentations about the global landmine issue in various schools, universities, and colleges.  In 2004 she was selected to be one of two representatives of Canada at the [[Ban Landmines International Childrens Conference. She has received various awards for her humanitarian and volunteer services including the [[Inaugural Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal(3),the [[Manitoba Premier’s Volunteer Service Award(4), the [[Manitoba Teacher’s Society Young Humanitarian Award(5), and [[Manitoba Hydro’s Spirit of the Earth Youth Award.

The citation for the Manitoba Teacher’s Society Young Humanitarian read:"Sierra Noble is a Grade 5 student at Wolseley School who has taken it upon herself to help children who have been victims of war. A visit to a War Child exhibit last September inspired her to promote awareness of the landmine issue. She has spoken at a number of schools, collected signatures for a petition to the U.S. president and was heavily involved in Landmines Awareness Week. Sierra works directly with war-affected refugee children at a downtown centre called NEEDS. Currently, she is trying to help a Somalian boy get the rest of his family to [[Canada from [[Nairobi, Kenya".(6)

Footnotes 1 Canadian Living Salutes: Sierra Noble, Canadian Living Magazine, vol 30,no.6,June 2005. P202 2.ibid. p202 3.ibid. p202 4.http://www.gov.mb.ca/minister/premier/volunteer/pastrecipients.html 5.http://www.mbteach.org/library/Archives/YHA/YHA_2001.pdf 6.ibid.