Children fall for fiddles
Workshop inspires weekly violin lessons in Qikiqtarjuaq
Casey Lessard
Northern News Services
Monday, May 11, 2015
QIKIQTARJUAQ/BROUGHTON ISLAND
Annual fiddle workshops planted a seed in Qikiqtarjuaq and a love for the violin continues to be nurtured in the hamlet.
Violinists Ileen Kooneeliusie and Annie Nookiguak of Qikiqtarjuaq are learning to play from Anita LeBaron. - photo courtesy of Anita LeBaron |
Anita LeBaron has been teaching between three and 10 students each week since the Tusarnaarniq Sivumut Association Music for the Future - the group that introduced fiddles to the community - last held a workshop there in October.
"The community had actually invested in some violins, so we have a bunch here and some of the kids have bought them and taken them home, so they can practice at home," LeBaron said. "There was already a foundation and interest in having a more permanent violin teacher."
LeBaron has had to scale back her twice-weekly winter availability to once weekly, but it's keeping the activity alive.
"I think anything that's different and creative, people are interested in, at least to see it and hear it," she said. "There are quite a few kids here who picked it up very quickly and have a natural artistic ability."
"It's fun," said Grade 9 student Annie Nookiguak, who has been playing for two years. Her favourite song to perform is O Canada, and she thinks it's an activity she will continue to do.
"Kids can just show up and they can choose from any songs that I have written out, or they can bring a song to me that they're interested in learning and I can try to write it out for them," LeBaron said, explaining her students come from 4 to 5 p.m. on the days classes are held. "No obligation, they don't have to sign up, it's kind of a drop-in type thing."
The students range in age from children as young as 11, to one woman in her 40s.
The younger musicians are keen to learn how to play the music they hear on the radio.
"One of the songs one of my students is learning for the end-of-year concert is Say Something, by A Great Big World and Christina Aguilera and some One Direction songs," LeBaron said. "But they also like some of the fiddle tunes. Whatever they feel like bringing to the table on that day."
The group is not affiliated with Inuksuit School, but joined the school's Christmas concert to showcase the work the students are doing.
"We just joined the school and all of the classes did performances, so my violin group did a couple of Christmas songs," she said. "We're going to try to do the same thing as an end-of-year thing and make it a community event."
Through the classes, Nookiguak gets to play music with her friends, and the results get favourable reviews from her family, she said.
"They seem to like it," she said.
So is she the next violin star?
"I don't know yet."
LeBaron has confidence in her protege. She doesn't expect to be in the North forever, and suggested Nookiguak might be a good successor to continue the classes.
"I'd love for someone who is a permanent resident in this community to be able to teach people, even just the basic skills, so they can carry on themselves," she said. "I'd really love to be able to see the kids continue to be able to play."
