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Time to take a bow

Hansen instructs youth in violin fundamentals

Derek Neary
Northern News Services

Fort Simpson (July 19/02) - Strings Across the Sky is growing louder and louder.

Andrea Hansen, who played with the Toronto Symphony for 24 years, brought her talent to Fort Simpson last week.

Spending afternoons and evenings in Deh Cho Hall, she taught several youth the fundamentals of playing fiddle. She reviewed proper posture -- sitting upright on the edge of the chair with feet planted firmly on the floor -- and proper positioning of the fingers on the violin's neck.

When they started, the students knew next to nothing about the fiddle. By the time they finished they played an elementary song at the Open Sky Creative festival on Saturday evening.

"It's not going to make (instant) violinists out of any of them, but it's going to make them feel better about themselves," Hansen said.

Her Fort Simpson trip got off to a bit of a rocky start when eight of her fiddles were sent to Montreal and then on to Halifax.

Therefore a mad scramble turned up several local fiddles, but some of them were too big and the students had to stretch and strain a bit until Hansen's fiddles arrived on Thursday afternoon.

Hansen started the Strings Across the Sky program 15 years ago after the Toronto Symphony toured the North.

"It might give (youth) a taste that there's something to life for young people other than booze and drugs," she said.

Her experience isn't strictly classical. She has played in box cars and night clubs, she noted.

"So I can make it fun for the kids. I quit the symphony before they fired me because I couldn't sit there and keep my mouth shut any longer," she laughed.

Janice McClelland, of Fort Simpson, arranged to bring Hansen to Fort Simpson.

She saw her and some adolescents from Wrigley perform during the Beavertail Jamboree talent show in March. She said she was amazed at how much the Wrigley youth had progressed in just a few days under Hansen's tutelage. Now there's a new group of Strings Across the Sky proteges.

Natalie Villeneuve, 8, said she found the lessons as "very easy" and "very fun." She said she got involved because the music sounds really nice.

Dakota Burrill, also 8, said he joined the class because he was curious about the type of wood the fiddle was made from and how the fiddle strings were made.