Tobi Magruder has been playing the fiddle for almost 20 years. She started taking violin lessons, and after a year became bored with the Suzuki Method. She then attended a fiddle contest and found that her true passion was the fiddle. She took violin and fiddle lessons throughout high school. In 1988 she became the Junior Division Idaho State Champion, and in 1989 and 1990 she placed 4th then 5th in the Women’s Division at the National Fiddle Contest in Weiser, Idaho. She attended Montana State University in Bozeman on a partial music scholarship, and was involved in a country band for a little over a year while in Bozeman.
She now spends her time taking care of her husband and two boys, Jacob, eight, and Levi, five. She has lived in the Billings area for the last nine years, and teaches fiddle lessons part time and works full time for a Northwestern Mutual agent.