Idaho State Fiddle and Picking Contest

On the evening of Friday, April 10, 2026, the Idaho State Fiddle and Picking Contest opened with a jam session at Calvary Chapel of Mountain Home, 350 N. Main Street, from six to nine o’clock. The organizers called the jam “a great way to learn a new tune or warm up for the next day’s competition.” The contest filled the following Saturday in the same building, and the doors were free to the public.

Two nonprofits present the contest. One is Generations Arts and Education, Inc., whose mailing address is in Melba and which also runs a ballroom youth intensive, a benefit concert, and a ukulele workshop. The other is the Mountain Home Arts Council. The contest describes its work as carrying on the traditional art of old time fiddling and bluegrass picking. For 2026 the Idaho Bluegrass Association put up the prize money for the Open Champion fiddle division.

A Saturday of rounds at Calvary Chapel

Saturday began with in-person registration at 9:00 a.m. and a judges’ meeting half an hour later. At ten the youngest and oldest fiddlers went first. The Small Fry, eight and under, and the Seniors, sixty and over, played their rounds alongside the Novice divisions, which are for players who have never competed. The pickers followed at 11:30, with a junior division for seventeen and under and an adult division for eighteen and older. The contest’s notices called for banjo, mandolin, and guitar. At noon the judges themselves played in what the schedule calls the Judges Show. The first awards went out after that, including those for oldest and youngest fiddler, and then everyone broke for lunch.

At one o’clock the afternoon opened with the Junior Junior (nine to twelve), Junior (thirteen to seventeen), and Adult (eighteen to fifty-nine) fiddlers. Twin Fiddling and the Champion division, open to all ages, followed at two. A second Judges Show and the last award ceremony closed the program at three. The schedule noted that all of it was subject to change based on the number of participants. The sponsorship page states that the contest is live-streamed on Facebook and later posted to YouTube on the FiddlerSupporter channel.

Hoedown, waltz, and a tune of choice

The 2026 rules fix the shape of every certified set. Each fiddler plays three tunes in order: a hoedown, a waltz, and a tune of choice that is neither. Certified divisions run two rounds, and no tune may be played twice in the whole competition. Novices get a single round with the same three-tune pattern. Twin fiddlers and pickers play one slow tune and one fast, in either order, each round. Order of play is drawn at random, and a contestant who is not ready to go on stage when called is disqualified.

Each round has a four-minute limit with a twenty-second grace period. After 4:20, five points come off for every ten seconds over. Trick or fancy fiddling is not allowed, and neither are contact microphones, amplified instruments, or sheet music on stage. Each contestant may bring up to three accompanists. If a string breaks, the player may finish the tune and be judged as played, or stop and begin that tune again without penalty. The first-place fiddler in each age division and in the Champion division certifies for the NOTF contest of June 2026.

The judges’ table

Four fiddlers judged the 2026 contest. Laura Waters Black of Idaho Falls began classical violin at six and turned to fiddle at nine. In 2013, at seventeen, she won the National Junior title. Later that year, by her biography’s account, she became the youngest female ever to win the Grand Master Fiddle Championship in Nashville. She has played the Grand Ole Opry and Carnegie Hall, toured Europe and China for three years with BYU’s Mountain Strings, and teaches a private studio of thirty students. Her biography says she listens for strong intonation, solid rhythm, and creative expression, and that she values confident, passionate playing above perfection.

Cristin Boeck teaches orchestra at Borah High School in Boise. She grew up playing with the Idaho Junior Jammers and taught music for ten years in the Cayman Islands and Dubai before settling back in Boise. Her judge’s page says she listens for clean, rhythmic playing with interesting and innovative variations, and adds: “You can win her over with a beautiful waltz!”

Payton Polson of Rigby has played fiddle for more than twenty years and has taught it since 2016. He also plays guitar, cello, mandolin, piano, and upright bass, and away from music he rides and trains horses. Rachel Beck started fiddle at three. Her biography calls her the soul of her family band, Fiddle Express, which has signed with Gravy Records of Sound Biscuit Productions. She was named Fanciest Fiddler at the National Oldtime Fiddle Showcase, has taught at the Idaho Suzuki Institute, and has served as concertmistress in the Boise Philharmonic youth programs and the Borah High School Chamber Orchestra.

Becks, Landons, and the oldest fiddler

Rachel Beck’s name also runs through the results. The 2023 results list her first in Swing, and first in Band with Andrew and Richard Beck. She and Eliza Beck won Twin Fiddling in 2024, 2025, and 2026, and the contest’s Facebook post of the 2026 result carried the tags #family and #siblings. Eliza Beck placed second among Juniors in 2023 and won the division in 2024. She then took Certified Adult in 2025 and 2026, and in 2026 also won Certified Grand Champion Fiddle, with Andrew Beck third. Andrew Beck won Junior Picking in 2023 and 2024. The 2026 Adult Picking result was posted with the line “OOOPPPPSS...” and the tags #recount and #goodsport: Andrew first, Eliza second.

Lincoln Landon won Certified Small Fry in 2024 and 2025 and was the youngest fiddler in 2025. In 2026 Lincoln won Certified Junior Junior and placed second in Twin Fiddling with Stephanie Landon. That year the youngest fiddler was Ellie Landon, age six, who won Certified Small Fry. The oldest was Halli Stone, age seventy, who won Certified Senior. Stone had also been the oldest fiddler in 2025, finishing second among Seniors behind Shaun Foster. The oldest fiddler in 2024 was Martin Fewkes, who won the Senior division in both 2023 and 2024.

From thirteen towns to Mountain Home High School

The contest’s website carries a copyright running from 2022, and its earliest posted results are from 2023. That year contestants came from thirteen Idaho towns: Blackfoot, Boise, Caldwell, Filer, Idaho Falls, Kimberly, Kuna, Melba, Meridian, Middleton, Nampa, Rigby, and Twin Falls. In the organizers’ phrasing, there was also a contestant “from Oregon and Arizona too!” The youngest fiddler was six and the oldest sixty-eight. Laura Black was Open Champion. The 2023 results also list categories absent from the 2026 roster: Swing, Band, and Accompanist.

In 2024 the contest moved to Mountain Home High School. It drew 88 participants from more than twenty Idaho cities, with others from California, Nevada, Oregon, and Alaska. Hadley Walrath, the youngest, was five, and Jacie Sites won Open Champion. The 2025 results opened with a note from the organizers: “Our numbers were smaller, but the talent was still mighty!”