Skye Carrasco has played the violin since the wee age of 5. Childhood=violin practice every day, making paper snowflakes while reading green eggs and ham, & worshiping Alanis Morissette. Years later, when Skye was studying Sonata in D major Opus 94 bis for violin & piano by Prokofiev, she felt her relationship with music changing. She wanted to find a way to write original music that expanded her classical training & that also encompassed her love for singing, poetry & the rich culture of gypsy folk music. Skye has been writing & performing her own music ever since, with special inspiration from her first chamber-pop band, Skursula (violin, cello & accordion, 2006-2008). In 2008, Skye spent some time in Portland, Oregon. She found creative solitude with the Cascadian pine trees & old time music radio. Her time out west has fueled a new kind of solo music-making, a style born from Stumptown espresso, steady rain, & drinking red wine in woolen slippers. Once again based out of Iowa City, Skye calls on company of J.S. Bach, Bjork, Ella Fitzgerald, Shostakovitch, & Violeta Parra to create a mingled duet that resonates between her violin-playing & vocals.

Ida Jo: It is easy to wonder where Ida Jo came from. A student of violin from the age of 7, her life has been full of honors including the prestigious Emerson Scholarship to Interlochen Arts Center at the age of 14, and the first of several performances at the Winnipeg Folk Festival at 15. These days, Ida Jo employs a seldom heard violin technique that is developed from a folk fiddle style called "chopping".

"Providence is a reminder that pop instrumentation still has a lot of boundaries to be pushed. To that end, Ida Jo's violin is a welcomed shove." - Isthmus