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Eliza Doyle has organized a 12-month music program starting next week in Stanley Mission. (submitted photo/Eliza Doyle)
Musician returns

Doyle launching year-long music program in Stanley Mission

Aug 30, 2019 | 2:07 PM

A year-long Musician in Residency Program organized by Eliza Doyle will begin next month in Stanley Mission.

“There will basically be someone like me up there for a full 12 months,” she said. “I have three different people coming as well as myself. We will all have 12 weeks.”

Doyle, who completed a five-week program in Stanley Mission back in January and February 2019, received a grant from the Saskatchewan Arts Board for the 12-month project. She noted a second grant was also approved by TD MusiCounts, which went toward purchasing musical equipment including fiddles. The program will begin Sept. 3 with Eric Nelson, a former band member of The Dead South.

Doyle also mentioned the program will focus on engaging participants in music lessons and building local capacity by mentoring community members to job-shadow the program facilitators. She hopes the mentorship portion will be successful because, if there are enough people who are interested, the program can become self-sustaining.

“They are really happy we got the grant,” Doyle said. “Everyone has been very supportive and are partners in it. We jointly applied for the grant together.”

In January 2020, Doyle also plans on bringing the music program to Pinehouse Lake through a partnership with The Cultural Exchange Society. It will be similar to her first project in Stanley Mission and will serve as a way to find out if it’s a fit for the community and see if residents are interested.

Doyle is also currently busy planning for Doylefest from Sept. 6 to 8 located 66 kilometers west of Saskatoon. Stanley Mission’s The 2EZ Band will perform at the festival Sept. 7 at 4 p.m. All the proceeds go towards music programming in Saskatchewan for under-served communities.

derek.cornet@jpbg.ca

Twitter: @saskjourno

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