Music
Since age 3, starting Suzuki violin lessons in Kansas then having my stage debut in Santa Barbara with my family in 1975, I've played violin in a variety of styles and have toured internationally to nearly 30 countries. My parents also taught me to play piano and clarinet; also a bunch of obscure Renaissance and Medieval instruments like harpsichord, viola da gamba, krumhorn, rauschpfeife, hurdygurdy, handbells, finger cymbals. Violin stuck!
My entire family is musical: Mom was Grammy-noted recording artist Salli Terri, and her father played violin in the Detroit Symphony. Dad is the composer John Biggs, and his parents were the Organist and the Choirmaster at Blessed Sacrament Church in Hollywood for decades. Sister Jennifer Walton is a leading Los Angeles-based violinist; founder of LA Curbside Entertainment, a live music booking agency; InstrumentalCasting, a musician's casting agency; and was co-creator of CMG Music Recording.
In 2009, I joined Danny Click & The Hell Yeahs, a chart-topping Americana band, and through more than 300 shows we have twice been voted Best Band in the San Francisco North Bay (Marin and Sonoma counties) and have shared the stage with Carlos Santana (twice), Shana Morrison, Elvin Bishop, Angela Strehli, Tommy Castro, Jessie Bridges, and many other notable musicians at a variety of Bay Area venues including Slim’s, Great American Music Hall, Sweetwater,Phil Lesh’s Terrapin Crossroads,Freight & Salvage,142 Throckmorton, Portland Waterfront Blues Festival, and at several Bay Area summer street festivals including twice at the Sausalito Art Festival and the Kate Wolf Music Festival.
In June 2020, with a cellist and another violinist, I formed TRIO VIVA, a Covid-compliant strings ensemble which performs live, outdoor, acoustic music from Bach to Beatles, Sinatra to Santana, Mancini to Metallica, and more. Super fun! In its first eighteen months, the trio performed nearly 100 shows including Mill Valley Fall Arts Festival, TreasureFest, O’Hanlon Center for the Arts, and Mill Valley Community Center; regularly for outdoor diners at IL Davide in San Rafael, Cucina and Jillie’s Wine Bar in San Anselmo, and Poggio in Sausalito; multiple times at the Mill Valley Lumber Yard, Sausalito Yacht Club, Sausalito Bookshop By the Bay, Bread & Roses, and BioMarin, as well as The Claremont Berkeley, Sausalito Chamber of Commerce ribbon cutting, and ArtWorks Downtown; weddings at the Theological Seminary and Deer Park Inn; and many times in private yards, San Rafael to Napa.
Contact us HERE if you’d like us to come play for you!
In Spring 2018, a personal musical highlight was when I was chosen by Essence Goldman to play violin on the song Unusual Boy, for a music video (below) honoring Bernie Dalton. This video was selected from thousands submitted to the NPR Tiny Desk competition, and was also featured on All Songs Considered. This makeshift band of professional musicians, called Bernie & The Believers, was then invited by legendary host Bob Boilen to appear on his Tiny Desk show at NPR headquarters in Washington, DC in October, 2018. Bernie’s incredibly moving story was first featured in the San Francisco Chronicle, and then picked up by the BBC worldwide:
And in 2019, I was recruited to join the strings section of Sven and the Masterful Orchestra, a popular San Francisco-based 18-piece swing jazz ensemble which performs in concert halls, nightclubs, for corporate parties, and the public:
