Dick’s performances have pleased audiences across upstate New York for over 40 years.  He is energetic, skillful and versatile, an excellent vocalist who plays many instruments including violin, viola, Celtic harp, guitar, autoharp, banjo and piano. Dick’s enjoyable programs highlight his natural musicianship, engaging stage presence, good humor and artful selection of tunes and songs.

He performs as a soloist and collaborates with many other musicians in performances of traditional American and celtic music.  Dick provides entertainment for private and public events including parties, receptions, weddings, concerts and festivals.  He is a member of the popular Irish trio Tullamore Celtic Band,  works as a free lance fiddler for contra, square, English & Scottish Country dances and has played American old time Appalachian music with Doc & The Snake Oil String Band and The Varish Cooks. 

Dick performs 19th Century historical and Civil War music at living history museums and re-enactment events.  He is a member of the Flint Hill Folk, the resident music group of the Genesee Country Village & Museum in Mumford, New York.  He performs at the Farmer’s Museum of the New York State Historical Society in Cooperstown, New York, with Jim Kimball, Ethnomusicologist and Prof. of Music at SUNY Geneseo.

Dick also plays fiddle for the Rochester Snowbelt Morris Dance Team.

Dick teaches private violin/fiddle lessons.

Dick has worked as music minister, cantor, soloist and instrumentalist at parishes in the Rochester New York area.  In May, 2004,  Dick graduated from St. Bernard’s School of Theology and Ministry having earned a Certificate in Designated Ministry in Pastoral (Liturgical) Music.  He has worked as a Music Minister at Sacred Heart Cathedral, The Pastoral Center of the Roman Catholic Diocese,  the Church of the Assumption, Fairport, Our Lady Queen of Peace, Brighton and at Blessed Sacrament.  He is a member of the National Association of Pastoral Musicians, The American Guild of Organists, Rochester Chapter and the Music Professional Concerns Committee of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rochester.

Dick worked as a music minister for The Church of the Epiphany Sodus, N. Y..  He taught guitar & music reading for the church's Music Ensemble of the resident and migrant Mexican community which celebrates a Spanish mass at 2 p.m. each Sunday.

Dick began his violin and music training at age 8 through college with 12 years of private classical violin lessons:  first with Dr. Klaus Liepmann, Director of Music, MIT, Cambridge , MA, then with Dr. Myron Kartman, graduate of Julliard & Eastman Schools of Music. 

During the past 30 years Dick has studied a variety of traditional fiddle genres, styles and repertoires, including

• Irish with James Kelly & Liz Knowles
• Southern Old Time with Rafe Stefanini, Jimmy Triplett, Dave Bing, Allan Jabour, Bruce Molsky, Brad Leftwich & Geoff Seitz
• Scottish with John Turner & Alasdair Fraser
• Bluegrass with Fletcher Bright
• Cape Breton with Carl Mackenzie & Emerald Rae
• French Canadian with Lisa Ornstein.

Dick studied harp with Roxanne Ziegler and voice for 8 years with Colleen Liggett, Eastman School of  Music, and Mario Martinez, Nazareth College & Eastman. 

Currently  Dick is a piano and organ student of Stephanie Honz, an Eastman performance graduate, concert organist and Director of Liturgy and Music, St. Louis Church, Pittsford, NY.

Dick is a physician who retired from medicine in 2000 after 31 years of practice in Family, Preventive, Environmental & Occupational Medicine.  He now works full time as a musician. 

Dick's general academic and professional education include:  high school at The Cambridge School of Weston, Weston, MA;  Antioch College, A.B. Biology; University of Rochester School of Medicine, M.D., residency and fellowship.  He has specialty training, certifications or formal training experiences in Family Medicine, Psychiatry, Preventive, Environmental and Occupational Medicine.  Dick worked at Eastman Kodak Company as a Medical Director in Corporate Health, Safety and Environment.  His various assignments at Kodak included Director of Occupational Medical Programs and Director of International Medicine.

With his violin, music and medical backgrounds Dick brings to his fiddle & guitar teaching pedagogical expertise in violin playing and the performing arts, such as the biomechanics and ergonomics of proper violin playing techniques.

For more information about Dick Bolt’s lessons or performances please call (585) 461-2751 or e-mail