For the first time in over 20 years the Canadian Grandmasters Fiddling Competition will be held outside of Ontario. On Aug. 24 the best fiddlers from across Canada will attend Saskatoon for the event.
Though this is exciting for the fiddling community across Saskatchewan, Michele Amy, local fiddle teacher is extremely excited to be taking a 100 person orchestra to the event with over 30 local musicians taking part in the historic event.
Amy describes the venture as an intriguing, difficult, but thrilling task as fiddlers of five-years-old and up will play together on the Grandmaster's stage in front of some of the best fiddle players in Canada and around the world.
"Our fiddlers get a chance to strut their stuff," Shamma Sabir, a proficient fiddle player and instructor, said while teaching at Amy's fiddle camp, the Kenosee Lake Kitchen Party.
The orchestra will be joined by approximately 20 teacher leaders from across western Canada. All involved have been practicing extensively three songs, arrangements put together by Gordon Stobbe. Stobbe had two arrangements well suited to the event and created another specifically for the Grandmaster's stage.
Stobbe has been highly involved across Canada with a number of fiddling ventures including the Kenosee Lake Kitchen Party. While a project dear to his heart is the "Fiddler's History of Canada," which tells the story of Canada through music. He will also act as the Master of Ceremonies for the Canadian Grandmasters.
"They [the arrangements] need to be playable and teachable in a short amount of time because we don't always have the luxury of time," Stobbe laughed.
The excitement is hard for the three to contain as they feel this will revolutionize the Grandmaster's competition. Always having been held in Ottawa, it first began as something exciting only to repeat itself and become stale in a sense according to the fiddlers.
Therefore a change of venue and the inclusion of this orchestra will breathe new life into the event.
In addition to the excitement regarding the Grandmaster's being hosted in Saskatchewan, Stobbe is extremely interested in creating a musical community and believes, along with Amy and Sabir, that being able to showcase Saskatchewan's talent in this way will also open doors to creating a Saskatchewan fiddling community.
"How can music be a binding force in a community?" Stobbe inquired philosophically.
Amy in turn answered the question explaining that such an event as this, requiring all Saskatchewan players and instructors to come together has opened up a community that had been long lost.
"It [the Canadian Grandmaster's] will spark a sense of community back in Saskatchewan," Amy explained. "By creating this big fiddling community we're all becoming connected."
Through hosting the Grandmaster's everyone involved in planning across the province has agreed to create the Saskatchewan Fiddle Connections following the Grandmaster's with hopes of having an annual showcase of Saskatchewan talent in the future years.
Many of the fiddlers from southeast Saskatchewan will be attending Amy's fiddle camp, Kenosee Lake Kitchen Party, before boarding a bus to the Grandmaster's Competition.
Amy explains 165 tickets have been sold to the event simply for friends and family to support their loved ones on the stage. Tickets are still available for the event, which will feature not only the best fiddlers across Saskatchewan but the best Saskatchewan fiddlers of all ages.
