Beth Hoven Rotto is a fiddler and researcher of Norwegian-American folk and old-time music
from Decorah, Iowa. Beth began playing violin in school and then at Luther College in
Decorah. Her interest in Scandinavian fiddle music developed in the 1980s, and in 1988 she
began an apprenticeship with Bill Sherburne at the Highlandville Dances. She formed the band
Foot-Notes in 1991 to continue the dance tradition.
Foot-Notes released the albums "Decorah Waltz" and "My Father Was a Fiddler..." in the
1990s, and performed at the Smithsonian Institution's Festival of American Folklife in 1996.
Beth has continued to collect and teach fiddle tunes and dances, and has collaborated on
projects highlighting the music of Norwegian-American musicians such as Ole Hendrick and
John Arndt Mostad.
In the spring of 2022, Beth Hoven Rotto became the musician-in-residence at UW-Madison,
working with the Center for the Study of Upper Midwestern Cultures and at the Mills Music
Library to study the university's collections of Upper Midwest Scandinavian music.
