JJ Guy, from Saskatoon, is leading the fiddle mentorship in the region. (Submitted photo/Mitch Dureault)

By Derek Cornet

music program

Fiddle mentorship underway in La Ronge and nearby communities

Dec 9, 2021 | 1:44 PM

A professional fiddler was in Hall Lake, La Ronge and Sucker River since last week teaching two mentors and engaging with community members.

JJ Guy was hired through a grant from the Saskatchewan Orchestral Association to work with Kacy Lee Anderson and Micah Erenberg on how to better teach fiddle in a group and classroom setting while offering students at their respective schools free fiddle lessons.

The grant was submitted by Mitch Dureault through the non-profit Community Arts Mentorship Program (CAMP).

“With this specific grant, we wanted to focus on fiddling to kick off the New Year because in the New Year, Hall Lake and Sucker River will have Tristen Durocher up as their fiddle instructor,” he said.

Dureault explained the idea of training professional musicians on how to teach in a classroom setting is to give them the opportunity to meet the students, inspire students and create a connection to the communities. That way when they come back year-after-year, they can keep building on the student’s strengths and train any community members who are interested in hopes, somewhere down the line, a local individual will take over the program permanently.

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Training at Hall Lake and Sucker River schools began Nov. 29 and ends this Friday. Dureault also partnered with Métis Nation – Saskatchewan (MN-S) regional representative Laura Burnouf to host a two-hour community session at the Senior’s Hall in La Ronge last weekend.

“Fiddle used to be the dominate instrument,” Dureault said about music in northern Saskatchewan. “It was easy to carry around, easy to take on canoes and in vehicles. It was like the rock star at the time for a lot of the folks who are now in their late 60s and up.”

Dureault mentioned he is thankful for the support from the Lac La Ronge Indian Band and a local couple who donated two weeks of accommodations to make the mentorship possible.

From Saskatoon, Guy is a well-known award-winning fiddler who was recently inducted into the North American Fiddlers’ Hall of Fame in the United States.

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derek.cornet@pattisonmedia.com

Twitter: @saskjourno