Lillian Sawyer was born in Sarasota, Florida to a musical family. She attended bluegrass and roots music festivals from a young age where she was inspired by the fiddle playing of Tania Elizabeth (the Duhks). It was at that moment, only 9 years old, she found her calling and quickly discovered her own aptitude for fiddle playing. Only a year or two later she made her professional debut playing with her dad, Matthew. 

​

During her adolescence, Lillian frequented fiddle camps across the country, most notably Mark O'Connor's in Nashville, Tennessee where she had the opportunity to learn from Aubrey Haynie, Bruce Molsky, Darol Anger and others. It was during her time at fiddle camp that she learned about Berklee College of Music. 

​

In 2011, Lillian was accepted to Berklee. During her time at Berklee, she learned classical and Arabic violin from Simone Shaheen as well has jazz violin from Rob Thomas. She graduated from Berklee with a degree in Contemporary Writing and Production enabling her to compose and orchestrate for a variety of small and large ensembles, including orchestra and big band. Her degree program also offered considerable instruction on music production with an emphasis on MIDI programming and home studio production. 

​

Since graduating in 2015, Lillian has moved to Portland, OR where she has returned to her musical roots in bluegrass and other fiddling styles. She currently performs regularly with Rowdy Mountain, led by Jonathan Trawick, as well as her own band, the Lillian Sawyer Band. 

 

Lillian plays on a 2017 Royce Burt 5-string fiddle and uses Helicore heavy tension strings.