Fiddling prodigies team up to win

In 2009, Alina Geslison and Grace Dayton can say they're the best pair of fiddlers in the nation.That's because Alina, a BYU-bound 17-year-old from the Provo Utah Bonneville Stake, and Grace, a Mia Maid in the Pleasant Grove Utah East Stake, won the 2009 National Old-time Twin Fiddling contest last month in Weiser, Idaho.The competition — open to fiddlers of all ages — required each entering pair to play two songs. For Alina and Grace, the selections were \"Josephine's Waltz\" and \"Nicaraguan.\"Alina's and Grace's victory surprised even them. This year was the first time the duo competed in Twin Fiddling at nationals. The competition was formidable: the second-place team in Twin Fiddling comprised the individual Grand Champion winner (i.e. de facto \"best fiddler in the world\"), Kimber Ludiker, and her brother Dennis. Finally, the selections they played are, according to Alina, \"numbers you wouldn't normally hear at a competition like this.\"\"I was thinking we didn't have a chance,\" Alina said. \"We thought we would go up and have fun and see how we did. We were really surprised.\"\"We were in shock, actually,\" Grace added.See the full story on ldschurchnews.com.