<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div>Courtesy of today's (December 4, 2014) Spokesman-Review.</div><div><br></div><div>--------------------------------------</div><div><br></div><div><h1 style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; clear: both; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; line-height: 1.2; font-size: 28px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(17, 17, 17);">National fiddle champion Tony Ludiker dies</h1><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Five-time national fiddle champion Tony Ludiker, a classically trained Spokane Valley music legend who toured internationally, has died following a lengthy battle with kidney cancer. He was 52.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Ludiker’s death Tuesday night in Spokane was announced by his daughter, Kimber, a founding member of the Grammy-nominated bluegrass band Della Mae.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“Tough day for our family, friends, and the fiddle world in whole,” she said in a Facebook posting shortly before 11 p.m. “Dad lost his battle to cancer this evening. He went peacefully surrounded by family while listening to Benny Thomasson play ‘Sally Goodin.’ More info to follow. Been a hard day.”</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Ludiker, a 1980 graduate of Central Valley High School, played and taught fiddle in Spokane for decades and was a regular performer at the Flying W Ranch in Colorado Springs, Colorado, for six years before the venue was destroyed by wildfire in 2012.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">In addition to teaching and touring, Ludiker was an accomplished classical musician who served as concertmaster for the Coeur d’Alene Symphony a decade ago. He also performed with British rocker Rod Stewart and country singer Ray Price.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Ludiker, who had been living in Colorado Springs in recent years, had beat cancer once, but learned in 2012 that it had returned.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">This past August he started a Facebook page detailing his ongoing treatments and on Nov. 21 posted this to his personal page: “Huge change. Leaving Colorado tonight for Spokane to die soon – unless something happens on the alternative front. My days are bad and getting worse.”</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Last year, friends and family organized a benefit fundraiser for him to help with escalating medical bills. His daughter’s band headlined the sold-out event, which drew scores of his former students.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“I feel very fortunate,” he said in an interview with The Spokesman-Review in 2013. “I’ve been involved in fiddling for 40 years. Until a few years ago it was basically in Spokane. I’ve been so involved in it and trained so many people. … They are all friends and feel like family.”</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">--------------------</span></p><p class="caption" style="margin-bottom: 21px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Tony Ludiker was an accomplished old-time fiddler and classical musician.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><img src="cid:29514CEB-59C0-4ED8-A28B-965828B8E480" alt="image1.jpeg" id="29514CEB-59C0-4ED8-A28B-965828B8E480"></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><a href="http://www.spokesman.com/photos/2014/dec/04/276331/">http://www.spokesman.com/photos/2014/dec/04/276331/</a></p></div><div>--------------------------------------</div><div><br></div><div><b>"Say Old Man" </b>by Tony Ludiker</div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="http://youtu.be/eutWJf46-DQ">http://youtu.be/eutWJf46-DQ</a></span></div><div> </div><div>Rest well, Mr. Ludiker.<br><br><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"Moscow Cares"</span></div><div><a href="http://www.moscowcares.com/" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font color="#000000">http://www.MoscowCares.com</font></a></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></div><div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Tom Hansen</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Moscow, Idaho</span></div></div><div> </div></div></div></div></div></body></html>