Lydia Ryals Stuart
Lydia Stuart was born April 21, 1965, in Fort Worth, Texas to Lenn and Phern Ryals. Lydia is the youngest of three children all of whom are musicians. Lydia learned to play from watching and paying attention to other musicians around her. She progressed quickly with the help of older siblings. At the age of eight years old, this lead to Lydia being one of the youngest children ever to play with the Fort Worth Youth Orchestra
As Lydia's music career continued to grow, she competed in fiddle contests and often played with her musically talented family. Lydia grew up to be a very talented fiddler and became one of the first women directors of TOTFA, Texas Old Time Fiddlers Association, a fiddle association that promotes Texas music to reach all ages. Today Lydia has been teaching for over twenty-five years and currently teaches fiddle, mandolin, piano, and guitar in Valerie's Music Studio. She has inspired hundreds of students to develop and pursue their musical abilities. Many of her students have gone on to achieve these goals with a number of them winning the same TOTFA contests she once directed.
Lydia has taken her dreams one step further and developed her own style of the TAB method for guitar so that students do not struggle but are able to learn to understand the correct placement for their fingers. When asked what she does today to help her students, she will tell you she is always learning as much as she can in order to pass the knowledge on to students. Lydia is a wonderful contribution to her profession, providing a constant effort to keep the history and knowledge of Texas Fiddle music alive. Lydia is truly an inspiration to not only the music community but to everyone who has the pleasure of knowing her.