| Jan 08, 2009


Colleen Cosens and Japhy Sullivan perform "All Throught the Night" during the penny whistle portion of the show.

Three years ago, the Blue Skies Community Fiddle Orchestra was forced to re-schedule their Christmas Concert to January because of an ice storm on the evening when the concert had been scheduled.

To the surprise and delight of Orchestra Director Carolyn Stewart, the afternoon concert on the first weekend of January in 2007 was a resounding success, and ever since then, the Fiddle Orchestra has been holding Christmas in January.

This year, they were joined by their old friends, the Ompah Choir, on Sunday afternoon (January 4) at a packed Maberly Hall.

The concert featured a selection of seasonal fiddle songs, in addition to tunes written by orchestra members Judy Diamond (After Alton) and Martina Field (Armstrong Line). For the second time, the orchestra also performed “The Marvelous Christmas Machine”, a play written by Inie Platenius, with music by Jennifer Bennet.

“The Marvelous Christmas Machine” is a light-hearted cautionary tale about Christmas and community that portrays the author's bias against the much maligned Brussel Sprout. It requires members of the orchestra to stretch their musical repertoire, and to act out their roles using only their voices. They pulled it all off with confidence this time, to the delight of the audience and the play’s authors, who were in attendance.

The Fiddle Orchestra has also been developing their skills at Penny Whistle this year, aided by flutist Anne Archer, who conducted the orchestra for several penny whistle tunes, including a dizzying version of “God Rest You Merry Gentlemen”.

It’s hard to believe it’s been ten years since Carolyn Stewart received funding from the Blue Skies Music Festival to establish a fiddle orchestra. At the time, Stewart was teaching fiddle in local schools, and between the school newsletters and notices in the Frontenac News, she managed to pull together a group of novice, intermediate and more advanced fiddlers from local communities, and the orchestra was born. It has seen many changes in personnel, particularly as younger players have grown up and left for schooling, but the membership has remained steady at around 20 players, enough to produce a fully rounded sound, and to improve continually and grow musically, which was again in evidence at this January concert.

After the intermission, the Ompah choir took the stage. The choir is not exclusively an Ompah institution; it has members from nearby Plevna. The choir director is John Inglis, who also provides keyboard accompaniment. The essential feature of the Ompah choir is a love of singing and a love of music. They performed some of their favourite Christmas music, but also a varied selection from the past and present. Marily Seitz, who is a charter member of both the Ompah Choir and the Fiddle Orchestra, performed a memorable song with her husband Stan, before Stan took a turn on an old coal mining song. The choir then returned the stage to finish off the afternoon with their final numbers.

The audience thoroughly enjoyed the varied program.

Support local
independant journalism by becoming a patron of the Frontenac News.