Darrell Greer
Northern News Services
Published Wednesday, September 26, 2007

CORAL HARBOUR - An internationally acclaimed guitar maker is impressed with the skill levels he's seeing while conducting a guitar-building workshop in Coral Harbour.

Kavavow Pee sees the guitarmaking workshop in Coral Harbour as a onceinalifetime opportunity. - photo courtesy of George Rizsanyi

George Rizsanyi hails from Halifax, Nova Scotia, and is known throughout the musical hemispheres for his guitar-making ability.

The Rizsanyi family moved to Canada from Hungary during the Hungarian Revolution in 1956.

Rizsanyi was approached by former Kivalliq Outreach program director Brian Hart to lead the two-week program in Coral.

Rizsanyi said he's impressed by what he's seen from his 12 Coral students, who he refers to as remarkably talented.

"Coming from a land such as Nunavut, you have to be good with your imagination and creativity and they're certainly showing me that," said Rizsanyi.

"I'm simply amazed by how fast they're going, and they do stuff without having to be constantly told or reminded.

"I have students in Nova Scotia who I have to tell five times how to do things.

"I don't find myself doing that here at all."

Rizsanyi said time is the biggest issue he's faced with in Coral.

He said the students are working from guitar kits and he's confident the majority, if not all, of them will be able to continue working with the kits after he's gone.

"Basically, they're learning to assemble the guitars from a kit while adding their own personal touch or flair.

"Everything that's really time consuming when it comes to building a guitar has already been done."

Rizsanyi said the work of a few of the Coral students is so outstanding that he's trying to find a way to bring them to Nova Scotia to continue their studies.

He said if they could spend eight weeks with him, they'd have all the knowledge they need to start on their own.

"The people here can do anything they want to if they're exposed to people like me to get them started.

"The hamlet has approached Brian and I about returning in the spring to do an electric-guitar program geared towards children."

Rizsanyi, 52, has crafted guitars for some pretty famous musicians around the world, including Rolling Stone Keith Richards.

He said meeting Richards in person was an incredible experience.

"Richards invited my wife and I down to his house a few years back and we had a wonderful time with him.

"Then he invited me to a rehearsal in Toronto, so that was pretty special."

The gifted craftsman has also made instruments for a number of Canadian artists, including Stephen Fearing, Willie P. Bennett, Rick Fines, Susan Vanik and Fred Eaglesmith.

He said it disappoints him when he reads articles on his work and only the international stars are listed.

"The media never mentions the Canadian artists and that's really tragic.

"They always mention Richards, Sting, James Taylor, artists like that, so I'm quite pleased the Kivalliq News is interested in the Canadian artists I've worked with."

Rizsanyi said he's been quite impressed with some of the Inuit music he's heard while in Coral.

He said some of it is phenomenal and he's trying to bring it to the attention of Kiefer Sutherland.

"He has a recording studio now and he's always looking for new talent.

"I also made a few guitars for his dad, Donald, so I'm going to see if I can get some of this music to Kiefer through Donald."

Coral Wellness co-ordinator Kavavow Pee said the workshop is going extremely well and all 12 participants are enjoying the program.

He said organizers had originally planned to have four students from other Kivalliq communities in the program, but none of them were able to attend.

"The local Alcohol, Drug and Wellness committee submitted a proposal to the hamlet for this course, which council approved," said Pee.

"It was then submitted to regional co-ordinator Pelagie Sharp and everything took off from there."

Pee said he considers the course a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

He said six of the 12 participants don't actually play guitar, but, from what he's seen, that hasn't slowed them from learning how to build a quality instrument.

"I'm proud to say our elder student, Emily Natakok, is even ahead of me at this stage of the program.

"She's really into the course and is doing extremely well.

"I only know a few chords on guitar, myself, but I'm going to practise a lot more when I finish making my own instrument."