Mary Pat Kleven Background
Mary Pat (Linton) Kleven grew up in Milwaukee and received a bachelor’s in music from UW-Stevens Point. She spent most of her career working in non-profit management at various organizations in Wisconsin and Minnesota before pursuing legal and medical technology training. Ms. Kleven worked for 12 years as an adjunct faculty member teaching Medical Law and Ethics at Metropolitan Community College in Omaha, Nebraska. She is now retired, spends time as a caregiver and volunteer and resides in Portage, Wisconsin.
Mary Pat turned from classically trained violinist to fiddler in 2004 after attending a summer fiddle camp. She has studied a wide range of traditional fiddle styles, competed in dozens of fiddle contests and became involved in the Minnesota State Fiddlers Association (MSFA), serving as their president from 2014-2024. During that time, she received two artist grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board, Jumpstart Your Fiddle and the Elmo Wick Project. She also obtained two grants from the Southeastern Minnesota Arts Council for the MSFA for the Upper Midwest Folk Fiddle Fest and the Fiddle Contest and Showcase. Mary Pat joined Hoof on the Roof and started to focus most of her playing and tune research on the fiddle music of her Upper Midwest heritage. She presented a paper on the fiddle music of Little House on the Prairie’s Charles “Pa” Ingalls to the Laura Ingalls Wilder Research and Legacy Association (LIWRLA) at their 2019 “LauraPalooza.” During COVID, Mary Pat transcribed the tunes of fiddler Iva Dingwall (Superior, Wisconsin) from her 1950’s source recordings and posted a playlist of YouTube videos of each tune.
Community Collaboration
By 2022, Mary Pat had returned to the Madison area and joined the community band formed as part of Beth Hoven Rotto’s musician in residence with the Center for the Study of Upper Midwest Cultures. The Scandinavian American Old Time Dance Music Ensemble was intended to provide community members with the opportunity to learn some Upper Midwest fiddle tunes and have the experience of playing for some dances. The group was having so much fun that Mary Pat agreed to continue the effort as a community group. The Scandinavian American Old Time Dance Music Ensemble (aka ScandiAm Jam) meets monthly to learn and swap tunes from the Upper Midwest and perform at local functions to share this unique music tradition. They video some of their more unusual tunes and post them on our YouTube channel to help promote the music.
The ScandiAm Jam’s relationship with the CSUMC is a convivial one; they enjoy participating in musical events sponsored by the Center and hosted Renee Vaughan, musician in residence, for two community events featuring her Nordic Newcomers project. In turn, the group has been hired to play at a couple of CSUMC events which has helped the group to have a small fund for their activities. They regularly access the digital files at the Mills Music Library for tune and research information and continue to stay in touch with Beth Hoven Rotto and the faculty at CSUMC.
Photograph by Richard Linton.