Diary Of A Fiddler #2 is a monumental recording by Darol Anger which features fiddle duets with Darol and many of his former students, most of who have embarked on successful careers in music. This, the sequel to 1999’s Diary #1, is an aural document of sharing the utter joy of making music together with beloved former students playing Darol’s original compositions. Darol says: “[this recording] …feels like a culminating moment and a sufficient justification for my incredibly fortunate life on this planet”. It took a few different kicks to set this rather sizable document in motion. The first was probably my ten-year tenure as a professor in the String Department at the Berklee College of Music. The second was the long hiatus from everything during the pandemic, when I started the massive overdub project involving 25 fiddlers whom I’d mentored in some way. Third was my move to Nashville, where so many of these young players are now working and tearing up the world’s fiddle landscape. I could just get people in my living room with a couple of mics and play for 3 hours. But if we really think back, the original inspiration for Diary #2 was the recording of Diary #1, which was released in 1999, took 2 years to make, and celebrated the “Big Bang” moment of a momentous coalescence of the world fiddling community, instigated by Fiddle Camp directors Mark O’Connor, Alasdair Fraser, and Jay Ungar.