Paul Kirk will discuss the personal and professional life of Marion Thede, a pioneering musicologist who collected fiddle tunes in Oklahoma during the 1930s. The program will feature the music and stories of Oklahoma fiddlers whose contributions helped shape American folk music.
Kirk has been playing bowed string instruments since 1980 and has taught them privately, in classroom settings and through workshops since 1988. He studied music theory, composition, music education and music history and musicology at Cleveland State University and has composed more than 500 folk tunes in a variety of styles. In recognition of his work, he was designated a Master Old-Time Fiddler and received Traditional Arts grants from the Ohio Arts Council in 2022 and 2025 to work with apprentices of his choosing. His book, Marion Thede and the Fiddlers of Oklahoma: The Fiddle Book, the Musicians and Their Tunes, was published by McFarland and Company in 2025. He currently teaches old-time fiddle and leads a monthly jam at The Music Settlement in Cleveland.
Mark McNulty is a multi-instrumentalist who began playing professionally in 1981 while a student at The Chicago Academy for the Arts High School. A self-taught musician, he has studied, recorded and performed rock, jazz, blues, classical and folk music in a variety of settings. Since 2018, he has become deeply involved in folk music and is now a regular presence in the Cleveland area old-time music scene, performing on guitar, mandolin, banjo and most recently fiddle. He is currently a member of the Down the Road Old-Time String Band and studies fiddle with Paul Kirk through the Ohio Arts Council Traditional Arts Apprenticeship program. McNulty frequently participates in Kirk’s “Old Time Tune of the Week” series on YouTube and volunteers at The Music Settlement in Cleveland, where he helps facilitate monthly community old-time music jams.
