Community Fiddle Orchestra in PEI

Jeff Green | Aug 05, 2015

It was the trip of a lifetime for the Blue Skies Community Fiddle Orchestra when they visited Prince Edward Island from July 15 to 22.

In their 16 years together as an orchestra they have never attempted anything like this. The logistics were staggering. The 37-member orchestra is made up mostly of fiddle players, but there is a violist, a cellist, a bassist and guitarists as well, and all of their instruments needed to be transported.

Since it is an all-ages group, with members ranging in age from under 10 to over 75, the trip was a family affair. In addition to the musicians, families (parents, mates and children in some cases) came along to soak up the atmosphere.

Some traveled by plane to PEI, and others drove, making a family camping trip out of it. Since the orchestra is also based on a pay-as-you-can philosophy, the group spent 18 months fundraising to cover many of the collective costs and to subsidize some members as well. Through bake sales, concerts, grants, busking, and even a Kickstarter campaign, $30,000 was raised.

By the time the planes, vans and automobiles all landed at the Ski Lodge (the hill was never found) next to a potato field on Harmony Road not far from the eastern-most point of Prince Edward Island on a warm evening on July 15, it was a logistical miracle in itself. Surely the trip itinerary would ensure a relaxing week on sunny Prince Edward Island beaches, eating seafood, punctuated by a performance or two and workshops by some of the best musicians on the island.

And it went sort of like that - minus the sunny beach time.

First off, the weather turned windy, then more windy, and by the time the rains came, as those orchestra members who were tenting on the ocean found out, it came in a horizontal fashion, more of a storm at sea than a rain shower.

By the next morning (all the people survived but some tents were in need of repairs) the weather was sunny but the winds were still up. The orchestra met to rehearse that afternoon and then played their first concert in one of the community halls. There was something different about the performance on that night for the orchestra, however. It was partly due to the work they have done under Orchestra Director Cindy McCall over the last three years or so, adding a rhythm section to the orchestra and bringing some talented young musicians along to join with the solid corps of long time members who have remained in place. On top of that, McCall has added new repertoire, using her own arrangements that were tailored for the ensemble. The final piece of the puzzle was the effort put in by the orchestra as they prepared to bring their music to Prince Edward Island, where fiddling is a way of life.

The confidence, the timing, the tone, everything that the orchestra played that night had more musicality than ever before. They had arrived.

The next day the orchestra played at noon next to a lobster shack on the causeway between Souris and Rollo Bay. It was still windy. The members couldn't hear each other, and some of them were a bit the worse for wear after a party the night before, but the players persevered and the view of Souris harbour was spectacular.

The focus of the trip then switched to the Rollo Bay Fiddle festival, which was one of two key reasons for the orchestra deciding to come to PEI, instead of other east coast fiddle hot-beds such as Cape Breton or Newfoundland. The festival is held in a small, bowl-like valley. The wooden stage has seen the best of PEI style fiddling, both the eastern variety that revolves around the Chaisson family, and the more Acadian styles from the west, as well as a few from in-between. The most common combination on stage is a fiddler or two, a piano and a guitar, and many of the players can play at least two or all three instruments without skipping a beat – and they are fast beats.

The orchestra came on as a special guest, and they played their Ontario tunes on this occasion, not wanting to venture into some of the PEI numbers they have learned.

The rains came the next day. Literally and metaphorically. The orchestra played a fiddle service at the South Lake Church, just off from the East Point Lighthouse that separates The Atlantic Ocean from the Strait of Northumberland. They performed some tunes they learned for the occasion, including “I'll Fly Away”, and member Linda Grenier, who performs professionally with the Long Sault Trio and as a solo act, sang the Gillian Welch song “By the Mark”.

As some members were off seeing the sights and others headed over to the Rollo Bay Festival, a cold rain set in.

At the festival, Peter Chaisson, the patriarch of the fiddling Chaisson family, was working with other festival organizers to set up indoors, when he suffered a heart attack and died.

It shut the festival down and devastated the community, the orchestra included. Orchestra members met together and talked, and many went back to the festival grounds for an impromptu wake as family and friends did the only thing they could do under the circumstances, play a few of Peter Chaisson’s favourite tunes.

The next day the orchestra split into groups and took part in workshops at cottages and an artists’ retreat. The other reason the orchestra went to PEI is that one of its members, Finlay Mullaly, lives in Perth most of the year but hails from Prince Edward Island and has a family cottage on the ocean just kilometres from Souris and Rollo Bay. He hosted and helped organize the workshops. Since Peter Chaisson and his nephew JJ were supposed to be workshop leaders there were extra challenges, but the community of musicians came through and the workshops were a great success.

On the final night of the trip, the Fiddle Orchestra played a 90-minute concert at St. Margaret's Hall, near the Neufrage Harbour.

The acoustics in the small hall are superb, the orchestra was playing its fifth concert in six days, and they were primed.

It was their best performance ... ever.