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During the practice for the concert, Jarrett Moses, left, Dwight Moses, Jenssen Clille and Kenneth Baton picked away at some tunes. - NNSL file photo

Fiddler's memory lives on

Roxanna Thompson
Northern News Services
Monday, May 28, 2007

FORT SIMPSON - The Kole Crook Fiddle Association is celebrating its fifth anniversary in the business of teaching and nurturing fiddlers.

After years of growth, Lewis Beck the association's president, is planning for even more expansion in the near future.

"I see us jumping to a whole new energy level," said Beck.

The association is in the middle of planning their fifth annual fiddle camp. The camp will be held from July 3-8 in Fort Providence.

This is the first year the camp has been held in Fort Providence. Starting in March 2003 the camp has been held alternately in Fort Smith and Fort Simpson. This year Fort Providence was chosen because of its central location for the growing number of fiddlers linked to the association, said Beck.

The association has seven chapters located in Wrigley, Fort Simpson, Jean Marie River, Hay River, Fort Providence, Fort Smith and Kakisa. This year, the association is collaborating with the Yellowknife chapter of Strings Across the Sky which will bring Yellowknife fiddlers to the camp.

Between 40 and 45 young fiddlers are expected to participate in the camp, an increase over the average of 30 in the first four years. The camp will also be led by five instructors instead of the usual four, Beck said.

At the camp fiddlers learn new tunes, better bowing and fingering techniques and how to care for their fiddles. The camp also has a strong focus on teaching.

"There's a real shortage of fiddler teacher in communities," he said.

As part of their goal to reawaken fiddling in the North, the association has been working to give more advanced students the skills to teach younger fiddlers.

"Playing fiddle and teaching fiddle are two very different skill sets," said Beck.

Through their camps and other activities the association has fostered a number of promising fiddlers, said Beck. More than 70 fiddlers have been touched by the work of the association. The number jumps to more than 200 if you include the students taught by Andrea Bettger in Hay River, said Beck.

These numbers are an accomplishment for an idea that began as a way to honour the memory of a friend.

The Kole Crook Fiddle Association began as a way to remember Kole Crook.

Crook was a Metis fiddler from Hay River who died at the age of 27 on Dec. 31, 2001. He was flying from Fort Good Hope to perform at the New Year's Eve dance in Tulita when the plane he was on crashed into a mountain due to bad weather.

In February 2002 Beck and Stella Pellissey decided to start teaching interested students in Wrigley how to fiddle so Crook's fiddle legacy could live on. In March, instructor Andrea Hanson came to help and that winter they played at the Beavertail Jamboree in Fort Simpson.

The performance led to a request for assistance to set up a club in Fort Simpson. From there, a series of workshops were held in the village, Fort Providence, Kakisa, Hay River and Wrigley during the summer of 2002. Beck compares the result to the seed planted in the story Jack and the Beanstalk.

"Little fiddle communities sprang up," said Beck.

The Kole Crook Fiddle Association was incorporated as a society in January 2003 with five board members. The first act was holding a camp in March 2003. Volunteers with little or no fiddle experience kept the resulting fledgling fiddle chapters alive.

"It's phenomenal really," said Beck.

Yvette Bruneau, in Hay River, and Violet Landry, in Fort Providence, kept fiddlers going with the skills they learned at the first camp.

"They managed to keep the ball rolling," he said.

In Fort Simpson a chapter was started by Gerda Hazenberg after her daughters attended one of the camps.

"She knew nothing of fiddling," said Beck.

In the early years, the association would bring in professional instructors when they could to give a boost to the clubs. Teachers are now brought in on a regular basis, said Beck.

"It's a very growing association," said Hazenberg, the vice-president of the association and a teacher at Bompas elementary school in Fort Simpson.

The association has had a positive impact in Fort Simpson, said Hazenberg.

By providing fiddles and expert fiddle teachers the association has created a thriving group of fiddlers where there wasn't any before.

With the backing of the association the Bompas fiddle club was formed which then led to the Thomas Simpson fiddle club, said Hazenberg.

Looking ahead, Beck sees nothing but new opportunities for the association.

"The potential is great," he said.

The association is expanding into other communities including Fort Good Hope and Tulita. There are also plans in the works to enter Fort Liard.

"We want to help more communities get started," he said.

To help their goal, the association is developing a distance education program for fiddling with the Fiddleworks Community Development Society based on Salt Spring Island, B.C. Together the groups are looking at developing more teaching resources, creating an online site for information and maybe offering classes online using high speed Internet and web cameras.

"There's a lot of stuff coming down the pipe," said Beck.