The fiddlers went to Whitehorse
Stories we loved to tell: Young Nunavut musicians showcase their skill and commitment
Young fiddlers from Iqaluit, joined by others from across Nunavut, attended the Pan-Northern Youth Fiddle Summit in Whitehorse in August. Rehearsing beforehand in Iqaluit are, from left, Edward Lewis, Carter Lewis, Taiga Las, Meegwun Scale, Brianna Savard, instructor Darlene Nuqingaq, Amaija Healey-Akearok, Alexa Senkow and Aramea Arnatsiaq-Murphy. (Photo by Gord Howard)
It would have been a heck of a plane ride to Whitehorse if they had busted out the fiddles.
That’s what I was thinking back in August, after I wrote about a group of young Nunavut fiddlers who were jetting off to the Yukon capital for a four-day youth fiddle summit.
The trip came about because of Darlene Nuqingaq, a teacher who started up the Iqaluit Fiddle Club 30 years ago and continues as a member and youth instructor.
“We have pan-territorial Arctic Winter Games but we don’t have anything of that nature for youth arts or music,” she said, explaining why she jumped at the chance to help send her young players to the first-ever summit after she learned it was being organized.
So 10 young players from Iqaluit, eight Fiddle North members from Pangnirtung and two players from Igloolik packed their fiddles and bows and headed to the Pan-Northern Youth Fiddle Summit, held from Aug. 21 to 24.
It wasn’t a competition, just a chance to perform with other young people from Yukon and Northwest Territories and make a few friends between songs.
I’ll admit here, I’m a musical dabbler — I know some guitar chords but hardly any songs, I have a keyboard but can’t play it. One time I held a clarinet in my hands for a minute or two. But I lack three key ingredients musicians require: skill, discipline, and ears that aren’t made of tin.
So I was really, really impressed by these young musicians when I went to one of their rehearsals.
Like Brianna Savard, who was 17 at the time of the trip. She started playing fiddle in Grade 3 when Nuqingaq was her teacher at Joamie Ilinniarvik School, and went on to become an after-school teacher herself.
And Taiga Las, then 16, who played the fiddle for six years — and also plays piano, clarinet and guitar. She sings, too. She teaches fiddle as well, and is a member of the Inuksuk Drum Dancers at the Iqaluit high school.
Not only that, she was taking private classical violin lessons.
Did I mention that I know a couple guitar chords?
By the time I left, the group was back to rehearsing in the lobby of a building in downtown Iqaluit. Nuqingaq had her fiddle, too, and was playing along.
It was a sunny day; you could hear the music, faintly, from the street. They sounded good.
*Wonderful that your article title may perhaps be a reference to that great fiddle classic, “The Devil went down to Georgia”
*Would it be possible to include a link to a video of these and other Nunavut/Nunavik musicians in future articles?