Biography

The Michigan Heritage Awards Biography Frank Mattison, 1985 Awardee. 

From the OMFA 1986 book, page 12:

              “Frank is our oldest living fiddler in OMFA and is presently 92 years old. He is a native of Columbus, Ohio, but gre up in the Cadillac area. His wife, Irma, just passed away several years ago. She was also musical and played saxophone and clarinet regularly in Frank’s band. They had 3 children (2 daughters and 1 son), but lost the son as a young man. Both daughters are musical. 

              Frank’s life has always been a musical one. Everyone he knew as a boy was a fiddler as were his neighbors. His uncles were show people and he was practically trained by them since he was a child. He has been a teacher of music since he was 17 and taught all band and orchestra instruments, but didn’t teach guitar until about 4 years ago. As a young man he made his living touring vaudeville theaters in Cadillac. He is a member of the Grand Rapids Symphonette. He has owned 50-60 violins during his career and none can compare with the Wurlitzer with its clear sound and ‘carrying quality.’ His prize violin is special because of its rare Italian mountain-grown Balsam Fir top. He has a special style of fiddling which he coined as ‘Michigan Style’  to distinguish it from the country style fiddling.

                OMFA is proud to have him as an honary[sic] member of the association. He is still going strong in pursuit of his musical interests.”