BY CLARE MARIE CELANO
Staff Writer

FREEHOLD — Anyone who doesn’t think bluegrass music is popular in Freehold has never met Julianne Koserowski.

The 13-year-old fiddler who hails from the borough started tinkering with the strings of a fiddle when she was 6 and has been going strong ever since.

Not only does she continue to play and master her craft — she is also influencing many young people who, like herself, have a flair for a style of music that was created by Bill Monroe in the 1930s.

Julianne’s playing has achieved such a level of expertise in her seven-year musical career that she was asked to teach a workshop at the Gettysburg, Pa., Bluegrass Festival in May.

The goal of the workshop, which was dubbed “Kids and Bluegrass with Julie K and Friends,” gave young musicians a chance to jam, and more importantly, allowed instructors to help to pass on the legacy of Monroe’s music.

Julianne joined with four other young bluegrass musicians that she met years ago when they all attended the Gettysburg Academy for Kids. Through the Internet and regular mail, they became friends. Last year the five youngsters formed the Academy Band. The band’s members are Julianne, who plays the fiddle and the mandolin, and sings lead vocals; Zach Mongan, 15, of Maryland, who plays the banjo; Etienne Cremiuex, 14, from Boston, who plays the fiddle; Justin Glass, 11, from Boston, who plays guitar; and Ethan Hughes, 13, from Delaware, who plays the dobro.

Julianne said teaching the workshop in May was “exciting and really cool.” She taught two 45-minute workshops for children between the ages of 5 and 13.

“We talked about our instruments and how we got started and how

they themselves could get started,” Julianne said.

The young musician said part of the workshops addressed the parents of the 30 students.

“We told the parents to continue to encourage and motivate their children to keep on practicing,” she said.

After completing the workshops, the Academy Band performed at the bluegrass festival for thousands of fans.

Julianne has written a book titled “Ten Great Fiddle Songs” that she shared with her students in the workshop. The songs are arranged to help children learn the fiddle and to enjoy learning the instrument.

Julianne said she fell in love with bluegrass music when her father took her to a bluegrass festival when she was 6.

“I saw a girl playing the fiddle on stage and I wanted to play it,” she said. “After the festival I told my dad and a month later he bought me a fiddle and I started taking lessons.”

Her favorite performers are Rhonda Vincent and the Rage and fiddler Jason Carter.

Julianne is also studying the mandolin, another favorite instrument of bluegrass musicians.

According to her father, George, Julianne has been very busy lately. She performed in Manalapan at a square dance with County Music Hall of Fame member Jim Murphy and the Pine Barrons. On Feb. 20 she was featured on mandolin in a performance at the Joe Val Bluegrass Festival in Boston, which led to other invitations.

The band has played gigs at the Friendly Inn and Cactus Flats outside of Washington, D.C., the city that Julianne’s father said is recognized for its love of bluegrass music.

Last year Julianne performed on fiddle with her father backing her on guitar at the Polish Heritage Festival at the PNC Bank Arts Center, Holmdel.

Julianne will play at the Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival in upstate New York between July 13-17 and at the Gettysburg Bluegrass Festival in Gettysburg, Pa., from Aug. 24-28.

Speaking about what she has accomplished, Julianne said, “We couldn’t do it without our parents. They pay for our lessons, they take us to festivals and gigs and buy us our instruments. It never ends!”

In addition to Julianne’s already pretty cool music career, two things make her even more unique — she doesn’t get nervous when she performs and she doesn’t have to be told to practice. In fact, if she could play her fiddle and mandolin all day long, she probably would.

Does Julianne have aspirations to be a bluegrass great? Absolutely.

Is she depending on this to make her living? Absolutely not.

Julianne, who will enter eighth grade at the St. Rose of Lima School in September, is planning on a career as an investment banker “just in case” her music career does not go where she would like it to.

But then again, radio announcer Lee Michael Demsey, who hosts a bluegrass show on a Washington, D.C., radio station and who acted as master of ceremonies at the Gettysburg festival in May, told the audience of thousands that Julianne and her band must “keep on going” because each of them are the “bluegrass stars of the future.”