Fire & Grace / Fire & Grace & Ash



Fire & Grace

Allemande (J.S. Bach) and Marga's Moment (Brian Finnegan) 

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 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 performances include engagements at the Music in the Somerset Hills (NJ), El Dorado County Community Concert Association (CA), Pamlico Musical Society (NC), SweetWater Music Festival (ON), Carmel Bach Festival (CA), St. Bonaventure University’s Quick Center for the Arts (NY), Guelph MusicFest(ON), Berkeley Festival and Exhibition (CA), Baldwin Wallace (OH), Music in the Somerset Hills (NJ), Five Boroughs Music Festival (NY), Music of the Spheres (Santa Cruz), Mozaic Festival (CA), University of British Columbia (BC), Riverside Fine Arts (NJ), Santa Cruz Baroque Festival, Caledon Chamber Concerts (ON), Electric Earth Concerts (NH), Monterey Museum of Art, and touring with Tomaseen Foley’s A Celtic Christmas. Fire & Grace has also been featured on CBC Radio, performing a nationally broadcast concert of folk and baroque. In Spring 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, in August 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 settings. Fire & Grace’s self-titled debut album combines melodies from Argentina, Bulgaria, and Western Europe with dance elements from baroque and folk musical traditions, 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. During 2024, Fire & Grace are planning to record their next album.


Fire & Grace & Ash

When ace mandolinist Ashley Hoyer joins Edwin and Bill, the trio Fire & Grace & Ash takes the stage. This unique ensemble explores the connective musical elements of classical, folk and contemporary traditions from around the world. Their signature piece, Partita Americana, is an astounding arrangement of J.S. Bach’s Violin Partita No. 3 interspersed with folk and bluegrass tunes from Bill Monroe, Vassar Clements, Gary Harrison, Sam Bartlett, Ervin T Rouse, and Ashley Hoyer. 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.”

Recent and upcoming performances include engagements at the Carmel Bach Festival, the Mozaic Festival, Chamber Music Pittsburgh, the Santa Cruz Baroque Festival, Electric Earth Concerts, the Da Camera Society (Los Angeles), El Dorado County Community Concert Association, Pamlico Musical Society, the Monterey Museum of Art and touring with Tomaseen Foley’s A Celtic Christmas.


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 AUGUST 2023. PLEASE DESTROY PREVIOUS VERSIONS.