ABOUT
Kiana June Weber was born and raised on a farm just outside the small town of Chelsea, Michigan. She began playing the piano at the age of 5, but soon after, she begged her parents to let her play the violin. At the age of 7, she started taking Suzuki violin lessons and by 14, she was playing in the most elite youth orchestras and ensembles in Michigan. During high school, Kiana developed an interest in fiddling and guitar. She performed with a Celtic band called The Chelsea House Orchestra (CHO) across the Midwest. During her time with CHO, she also began gigging on her own as a singer-songwriter and won numerous awards for her songwriting.
After graduating high school, Kiana attended the University of Michigan (UM) where she studied violin with Stephen Shipps. While at UM, she continued to gig with many bands while exploring alternative styles on the violin. She has taken lessons and appeared in Master classes with Rodney Friend, Gabriel Bolkosky, Aaron Berofsky, Alasdair Fraser, Jerry Holland, Christian Howes, Dennis Wilson, Ellen Rowe, Marian Hayden, and Jeremy Kittel. In 2007, Kiana formed her own acoustic trio called the Daughters of Newgrass, which performed original compositions of a diverse fusion of rock, Celtic, Bluegrass, and Jazz. She also performed in an alternative rock band with Charlene Kaye and Darren Criss (of “Glee” fame). In 2009, Kiana’s studies were put on hold when she was recruited by the world famous violin troupe, Barrage.
Kiana toured with Barrage for three years and appeared in theaters, festival stages, and television specials all over the North America, Central America, Europe and Asia. One of the highlights of her travels was performing on Beijing TV’s televised Chinese New Year Special to an estimated 50 million viewers. After Barrage Kiana returned to her studies and graduated at the top of her class at University of Michigan’s prestigious School of Music. In the fall of 2012, Kiana hit the stage as the newest member of the famous Irish band, Gaelic Storm. With GS Kiana toured all over North America and headlined the largest Celtic festivals in the world. Since, she has recorded four No.1 Billboard World Music Albums, which is a record for her young age.
In 2017, Kiana left the band to pursue her own career. She currently tours all over the world, performing her own music and as a featured soloist with Grammy-Award-Winning artist, Carlos Nunez.
In 2019 Kiana joined the touring cast of Tony Award Winning musical Come From Away. Playing fiddle with this production, Kiana brings her expertise of Celtic music and on-stage charisma to this first national tour.
