Fire & Grace / Fire & Grace & Ash

Fire & Grace

Hailed by Monterey County Weekly as “a monument to musical diversity and crossover brilliance,” Fire & Grace is a unique collaboration between guitarist William Coulter and violinist Edwin Huizinga. These virtuoso performers explore the musical landscape of classical, folk, and contemporary traditions from around the world. Fire & Grace’s repertoire is vast, ranging from Bach to Vivaldi, tango to Celtic reels, traditional Bulgarian to American fiddle tunes and waltzes, all played with a sense of discovery and commitment to the elements of passion and virtuosity—fire and grace—found in these diverse traditions.

Recent and upcoming engagements includes repeat performances at the Baldwin Wallace Bach Festival (OH), Hemet Concert Association (CA), Carmel Bach Festival (CA), and SweetWater Music Festival (ON), as well as the Ripon Arts League (CA), Music in the Somerset Hills (NJ), El Dorado County Community Concert Association (CA), Pamlico Musical Society (NC), St. Bonaventure University’s Quick Center for the Arts (NY), Guelph MusicFest (ON), Berkeley Festival and Exhibition (CA), Five Boroughs Music Festival (NY), University of British Columbia, Electric Earth Concerts (NH), and Chamber Music Pittsburgh. Fire & Grace has also been featured on CBC Radio, performing a nationally broadcast concert of folk and baroque. 

In 2017, Fire & Grace toured to New Zealand with appearances at the UPSURGE Festival, the Festival of Colour, and the New Zealand School of Music; their success led to a second tour of New Zealand, as well as appearances in Australia  2019. Fire & Grace has also toured Ireland alongside County Kerry singer Éilis Kennedy, appearing at the Séamus Ennis Arts Centre and a variety of pubs and traditional Irish settings. Fire & Grace’s self-titled debut album was released in 2015, and in May 2019 the duo teamed up with longtime collaborator Ashley Hoyer (mandolin) to release Fire & Grace & Ash’s debut album, Partita Americana, whose title track features J.S. Bach’s Partita No. 3 transcribed for the trio and interspersed with traditional American folk music. 

Fire & Grace & Ash

Fire & Grace & Ash is an eclectic collaboration among guitarist William Coulter, violinist Edwin Huizinga, and mandolinist Ashley Hoyer. This unique trio explores the connective musical elements of classical, folk and contemporary traditions from around the world. Fire & Grace and Ash's repertoire is vast, ranging from Bach to Vivaldi, tango to Celtic tunes, traditional Bulgarian to American fiddle tunes and waltzes, all played with a sense of discovery and commitment to the elements of passion and virtuosity—fire and grace—found in these diverse traditions.

Recent and upcoming engagements include performances at the Carmel Bach Festival (CA), Baldwin Wallace Bach Festival (OH), and Hemet Concert Association (CA), as well as at Electric Earth Concerts (NH), El Dorado County Community Concert Association (CA), Pamlico Musical Society (NC), 7th ST. Concerts (NC), the Da Camera Society (Los Angeles), the Monterey Museum of Art (CA) and Chamber Music Pittsburgh (PA).

Spring 2019 marked the release of Fire & Grace & Ash’s debut album, Partita Americana, whose title track features J.S. Bach’s Violin Partita No. 3 transcribed for the trio and interspersed with traditional American folk music. Acoustic Guitar Magazine raves, “Centuries and cultural barriers melt away as old-world bourées and minuets spiral seamlessly into all-American waltzes and folk dances.”

Performing both baroque and modern repertoire, Canadian violinist Edwin Huizinga has appeared alongside Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, Renée Fleming, Dawn Upshaw, Mike Marshall, and Stevie Wonder, and has been featured as a soloist with the San Bernardino Symphony, Trinity Alps Chamber Music Festival, and the Banff Summer Arts Festival, and has performed as conductor and soloist with the Guelph Symphony Orchestra. Edwin is a founding member of the baroque ensemble ACRONYM which has released ten full-length albums of previously unknown and unrecorded baroque music. Edwin also performs worldwide with his folk and baroque duo Fire & Grace, and tours extensively with Tafelmusik. Edwin is part of the artistic leadership of Carmel Bach Festival, and serves as the Artistic Director for Sweetwater Music Festival and Big Sur Music Camp. An avid composer, Edwin was commissioned to write a piece for Canada's 150th anniversary. Edwin is a member of the Juno-nominated indie rock band The Wooden Sky, and is a founding member of the Classical Revolution—an organization dedicated to shaping the future of concerts and jam sessions in alternative locations around the world. 

William Coulter is an internationally acclaimed, Grammy award winning master of the steel-string guitar. His most recent recording, The Rolling Waves, was released in December 2022 on the Gourd Music label. This solo project is a collection of original arrangements of folk and original music from the Celtic lands and beyond. His duo with Edwin Huizinga, Fire & Grace, released their third CD, Alma, in 2021 and the duo has been taking their music on the road again with performances around the US. Coulter has been Music Director for Tomaseen Foley’s A Celtic Christmas since 1998, and has performed with the Santa Cruz Baroque Festival, Apollo’s Fire and many other ensembles. In March of 2016 he debuted Celtic Journey, a full length pops concert with the Omaha Symphony featuring Irish singers, dancers, musicians and story-teller. Collaborations have been a mainstay of his career including tours and recordings with Gourd Music artists Neal Hellman and Barry and Shelley Phillips; classical guitar virtuoso Benjamin Verdery, and Irish flute wizard Brian Finnegan. Tours have taken him around the states and to Ireland, Europe, Taiwan, New Zealand, Chile, and most recently Australia. Coulter teaches classical guitar at UC Santa Cruz and at many summer camps and festivals. Coulter earned degrees from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and the university of hard knocks.

Ashley Hoyer is described as a “mandolin phenomenon” by the San Diego Tribune. She performs in various venues and ensembles ranging from great dance halls with The Syncopaths; to castles of Ireland with Sam ‘n Ash; to classical concert halls with Fire, Grace, & Ash; as well as small listening rooms with her all-original-music folk trio Long Story Short. A frequent collaborator, Ashley’s playing can be heard on albums such as Karan Casey’s Nine Apples of Gold as well as Brian Finnegan’s Hunger of the Skin. Ashley is an avid composer, premiering and recording her folk and new music works with various bands, chamber ensembles, and orchestras. She has an unquenchable curiosity for composition and perpetually chips away at writing projects and commissions.

UPDATED JUNE 2024. PLEASE DESTROY PREVIOUS VERSIONS.