St Anns Concert
Each year, the Cape Breton Fiddlers’ Association, whose web site you can find here, presents a two-day festival in the field forming the natural outdoor amphitheatre at the Gaelic College of Celtic Arts and Crafts in St. Anns’s, whose web site is here, on the week-end containing the third Sunday in August. In 2006, the festival was held August 19-20.
The St Anns concert is important as it provides a gauge of the health of the music, featuring, as it does, the upcoming youth players and many of the Island’s best players. Unfortunately, this year as last, this concert fell on the same day as the Kintyre Farm concert in Judique, so a number of players were there and not at St Anns. Nevertheless, this concert revealed that the music is in very good shape, with lots of very talented youth coming up and the youth of a few years ago now taking their rightful rôle as sought-after, experienced performers of the music.
Saturday consists of workshops and a youth concert which runs from 16h-20h (or later); the weather this year was very fine, but I took no pictures of the portion of the youth concert that I attended—I arrived after the concert had begun and, having forgotten my camera in the car in a rush to get onto the field, didn’t want to miss what was going on on stage.
Sunday is the main concert, which runs from 14h-18h (in theory—it usually lasts until well after dark). This year, Sunday was a rainy, inclement day, so the concert was held indoors in the Hall of the Clans at the Gaelic College.
I had my camera with me on Sunday and, thanks to the kindness of a friend, a front row seat, which allowed me to capture the pictures you will see here. Unfortunately, I was sufficiently far to the left of the stage that the accompanists at the right did not come out as well as I’d have liked; the camera also seems to have been confused by the light shining bright at the right of the stage. The microphones got in the road too, in several cases casting shadows on or obscuring the performer. So, don’t expect professional photographs here; what you will see is what my camera captured, improved using iPhoto where necessary and possible to bring it up to viewable quality.
Earlier this summer, youth members of the Cape Breton Fiddlers’ Association had gone to Victoria, British Columbia, as part of a YMCA-sponsored youth exchange program, to join their BC counterparts in the Victoria Fiddle Society, whose web site you can find here. In turn, the Victoria Fiddle Society youth members came to Cape Breton in August for the exchange visit and to participate in the annual Cape Breton Fiddlers’ Association Concert.
Like so many festivals on Cape Breton, this festival could not have been mounted without the commitment and perseverance of many volunteers, whose support is crucial to this festival’s continued success. To the directors, stage managers, sound technicians, canteen crew, chaperones, those staffing the ticket tables, maintaining the membership lists, selling merchandise to raise funds for the Association, ferrying youth players to and from practice sessions and concerts, and carrying out the many other functions all year long that are necessary to make this festival the success it is year after year—to all of them we owe a huge vote of thanks and appreciation for their time, work, and dedication.
The concert, emceed by Wendy Bergfeldt of CBC Radio and Bob MacEachern of 101.5 The Hawk, began at 14h10 and ended around 21h10. Seven hours of fine music and dance, with only one short break, entertained an enthusiastic and knowledgeable audience. The performance listing below reflects the names I heard and wrote down at the concert, but given my lack of acute hearing, what I present here may well not be what was said. Moreover, I did not get all of the names and I apologize in advance to those whose names I have shown as question marks, mis-heard, or misspelled. Thanks to Marcellin Chiasson, Kimberley Wotherspoon, and Donald MacPhee for helping me with some of the names. Corrections are most welcome: use the feedback link to notify me of any errors.
Each year, tickets are sold on a fine fiddle to raise money for the Association. This year, the fiddle was won by Marcellin Chiasson. I regret that I did not get pictures of the wonderful surprised look that came over his face when his name was read from the ticket drawn—it was priceless. As many said later, the fiddle couldn’t gone to a more deserving person, as Marcellin has actively supported the Association and sold a lot of tickets over the past years. While I didn’t get a picture of the fiddle presentation at the concert, his daughter, Denise Muise, has authorized me to use on this web site the picture she took of Marcellin with his new fiddle (this photo was also published in the Oran). You will find it in the Contributed Photos section below the Performance Listing.
To begin looking at the pictures, click on the “Next” link in the navigation bar at the left and continue through them in sequence by again clicking on the “Next” link on each subsequent page. (The “Previous” link, which appears on pages after the first, will take you to the previous page in the sequence. The “First” and “Last” links take you to the first and last pages of the sequence, respectively.) Alternatively, click on any picture in the “Picture(s)” column of the Performance Listing or Contributed Photos section below to jump directly to the page holding those picture(s).
Performance Listing
| Id | Performance | Picture(s) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Maynard MacKenzie and Buzzy MacLeod on fiddle accompanied by Donald MacDonald on guitar and Lawrence Cameron on keyboards |
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| 2 |
Cape Breton Fiddlers’ Association first group number, accompanied by Lawrence Cameron on keyboards and directed by Eddie Rogers |
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| 3 |
Kay Hanrahan stepdancing accompanied by Troy MacGillivray on fiddle and Allan Dewar on keyboards |
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| 4 |
Melody Cameron on fiddle accompanied by Derrick Cameron on guitar and Allan Dewar on keyboards |
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| 5 | Andrew MacFadden |
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| 6 |
Allie Bennett on fiddle accompanied by Leanne Aucoin on keyboards |
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| 7 |
John Robert Gillis stepdancing accompanied by Troy MacGillivray on fiddle and Allan Dewar on keyboards |
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| 8 | Stuart MacInnis on guitar |
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| 9 | Victoria (BC) Fiddle Society group number |
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| 10 |
Troy MacGillivray on fiddle accompanied by Paul MacDonald on guitar and Allan Dewar on keyboards |
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| 11 |
Tribute to the Fallen Members of the Association: Cape Breton Fiddlers’ Association second group number, accompanied by Allan Dewar on keyboards and directed by Eddie Rogers |
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| 12 | Chris Rogers |
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| 13 |
Leanne Aucoin on fiddle accompanied by Chris Rogers on keyboards |
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| 14 |
Tribute to Betty Matheson: Cape Breton Fiddlers’ Association third group number, directed by Eddie Rogers |
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| 15 |
The Glengarry Fiddlers accompanied by Lawrence Cameron on keyboards |
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| 16 |
Stan Chapman on fiddle accompanied by Janet Cameron on keyboards |
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| 17 |
Larry Parks on mandolin accompanied by Brenda Stubbert |
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| 18 |
Allison Mombourquette and Kayla Bona on fiddle accompanied by Stuart MacInnis on guitar with Leanne Aucoin on keyboards |
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| 19 |
Youth Fiddlers accompanied by Leanne Aucoin on keyboards |
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| 20 |
Edmund Hayden on fiddle accompanied by Lawrence Cameron on keyboards |
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| 21 |
Cape Breton Fiddlers’ Association fourth group number, accompanied by Brenda Stubbert on keyboards and directed by Eddie Rogers |
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| 22 |
Larry Roach on fiddle accompanied by Lawrence Cameron on keyboards |
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| 23 |
Douglas Cameron on fiddle accompanied by Lawrence Cameron on keyboards |
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| 24 |
Douglas Cameron on fiddle accompanied by Quinn Bachand on guitar |
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| 25 |
Kolten MacDonnell on fiddle accompanied by Melissa Emmons on keyboards |
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| 26 |
Leanne Aucoin and Brent Aucoin on fiddle accompanied by Howie MacDonald on keyboards |
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| 27 |
Krysta MacKinnon on fiddle and singing accompanied by Quinn Bachand on guitar |
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| 28 |
Krysta MacKinnon on fiddle accompanied by Quinn Bachand on guitar and Kolten MacDonnell on keyboards |
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| 29 |
Howie MacDonald on fiddle accompanied by Brenda Stubbert on keyboards |
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| 30 |
Denis Larade on fiddle accompanied by Éphraïm Bourgeois on guitar and Lawrence Cameron on keyboards |
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| 31 |
Brenda Stubbert on fiddle accompanied by Howie MacDonald on keyboards |
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| 32 |
Stephanie MacDonald stepdancing accompanied by Brenda Stubbert on fiddle and Howie MacDonald on keyboards |
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| 33 | Patrick Ellis and Qristina Bachand on fiddles |
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| 34 |
Jason(?) Philips on fiddle accompanied by Kelly Ohmsby on guitar |
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| 35 | Michael Cavanaugh |
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| 36 | Kaitlin MacIntyre and Emma May |
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| 37 |
Ian MacLeod on fiddle accompanied by Lawrence Cameron on keyboards |
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| 38 |
Margie and Dawn Beaton on fiddles accompanied by Lawrence Cameron on keyboards |
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| 39 |
Rachel Davis on fiddle accompanied by Leanne Aucoin on keyboards |
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| 40 |
Finale: Cape Breton Fiddlers’ Association fifth group number, accompanied by Lawrence Cameron on keyboards and directed by Eddie Rogers with various stepdancers |
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Contributed Photos
| Id | Subject | Picture(s) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Marcellin Chiasson with the new fiddle he won at the Concert (photo by Denise Muise used with permission) |
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