Meridian fiddler wins fifth national title

Katrina Nicolayeff won her fifth National Grand Championship on Saturday night in front of a sold-out crowd of more than 600 fiddling fans at the National Oldtime Fiddlers’ Contest in Weiser.
 Nicolayeff bested a field of 11 top fiddlers during three days of competition that started Thursday with the first round. She made it to the fifth and final round on Saturday night, along with four other fiddlers.
 Nicolayeff collected a check for $1,500, a jacket and a special bronze trophy for first place. Second-place went to Tristan Clarridge, another five-time national winner, who received a check for $1,100 and a trophy. Ridge Roberts placed third and earned a payday of $900 and a trophy. Fourth place and a check for $700 went to Tashina Clarridge and Maddie Denton came in fifth place and earned $600 and a trophy for her efforts.  
 Family, friends and fellow fiddlers offered congratulations in the practice room at Weiser High School after she  won the title. It was a late night with the final awards presentation finishing up after 11 p.m.
 Nicolayeff, who lives and teaches fiddle in Meridian, is no stranger at the finals of the National Oldtime Fiddlers’ Contest. She was the national grand champion in 2011, 2013, 2016 and 2018.
 She has been competing in Weiser since she won the small fry, junior and junior junior championships decades ago.
 There were two rounds on Saturday night for the National Grand Champion contestants. The first round included the top eight finalists, and the second round was cut down to the top five finalists.
 “I felt good,” Nicolayeff said of the final round.

All of the fiddling competition took place in the auditorium at Weiser High School, which features an upgraded sound system and lighting. This was the second year in a row the finals sold out and organizers had to turn people away.
 Weiser resident Lorna Dennett was in the audience on Saturday night for the fiddling finals, and there was no place else she wanted to be.
 She said she remembered the first fiddle contest in Weiser 67 years ago.
 “I don’t think you could go anyplace else and see a better show,” she said.
 Nikole Scribner, the emcee for the Saturday night finals, also had praise for the five finalists vying for the title of National Grand Champion.
 “This is a world-class group of fiddle players,” she said.
 The five judges were sequestered in the school’s library where they listened on headphones as the contestants played a hoedown, waltz and a tune of their choice on stage within the allotted time.
 For the finals on Saturday night, each contestant had five minutes. The format was “blind judging,” which means the judges could not see who was on stage.
 The five judges scored the contestants on danceability, oldtime style, rhythm and tone. Each fiddler’s score is determined by adding the scores of the three songs together. The high and low scores for each contestant are tossed and the middle three scores are used.  The score is carried over from one round to the next and the total score determines the winner, according to the NOTFC rules.
 Ridge Roberts, a 16-year-old fiddler from Granbury, Texas, was the youngest contestant in the Grand National Champion division this year.
 A crowd favorite, he won the National Junior Champion title last year and decided to go for the big prize.
 During the competition on Friday night, he said he had a solid first round and a better second round, “so I’m feeling good about it.” He finished in third place in his first shot at the National Grand Champion.
 The grand champion division had a total of 11 entries this year, which is two more than 2018. The field of contestants was thinned during five rounds of competition that began with the first round on Thursday.
 The NOTFC finals were also streamed live over the internet for those who could not be there on Concert window.