Violin or fiddle? Rosemary Lawton plays both

"I definitely feel it's a folk album, but there's a very heavy classical influence in it," says musician Rosemary Lawton of her debut album, Painted Glass.

Lawton is equally at ease in both the violin section of an orchestra and wedged between an accordion player and a guitarist at a trad music session.

She started playing the violin at the age of seven, and received both classical and traditional music training through the Suzuki Talent Education Program in St. John's.

While she was studying for her bachelor's of music degree at Memorial University, she began to see how her love of traditional Newfoundland music could be combined with her classical training.

"I learned how to arrange music for string quartet and for orchestras," said Lawton.

Lawton then applied her new skills to her old favourites. 

"I had all these harmonies going through my head, with all those old fiddle tunes,"

Lawton then started arranging the trad tunes in her head for classical musicians, and that assignment eventually became the album Painted Glass.

Hear Rosemary Lawton talk with Weekend AM's Heather Barrett about Painted Glass.  

Do you have a new album of music that Weekend AM should know about for First Listen? Email us [email protected] and tell us about it.

You can hear First Listen Sundays on Weekend AM from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. (5:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. in Labrador) on CBC Radio One.