Darrell Greer
Northern News Services

Repulse Bay (Sep 14/05) - The sweet strains of the violin have been heard drifting from the library at Tusarvik school in Repulse Bay for the past month.

The school has purchased five violins for the new program, which is being attended by senior students Sarah Sivanortok, Georgina Putulik, Michael Putulik, Jason Malliki and Darcy Katokra.

Tusarvik music teacher Stan Meredyk says all five students have previous credits in the music program.

He says the students are following the Suzuki method of instruction in learning to play the violin.

"The only thing they don't have is their own violin at home, so we give them as much extra time with their instrument at the school as we can," says Meredyk.

"There's lots of classical material contained in the Suzuki method, but we also do plenty of others just for the fun of it, and fiddle-style pieces to keep it a little bit different for the students.

"We follow the program all week and then let our hair down with some of the other material on Fridays."

Meredyk was introduced to the Suzuki method of instruction years ago when he took the program in Saskatchewan with his children.

He says the method is strictly regimented in its teaching techniques.

"The Suzuki program is popular right across Canada and is recognized by the Toronto Conservatory of Music.

"The students have really taken to the instrument using this method. The instruction books are easy to follow and, after only one month of instruction, it's quite impressive to hear these five students play. They're already half-way through the first volume of instruction."

Meredyk says music is becoming increasingly popular in Repulse, with more and more youth playing the guitar all the time.

He says the time was right to introduce another instrument into the mix. "These students had already taken the ukulele music-reading program, which taught them how to read notes.

"That helped them with the violin because knowing the notes is much easier than learning to play just by ear.

"However, we do cover ear training, especially during our fiddle playing."