Strings across the Sky

By Sarah Bothwell
Program Assistant, Touring and Collaborations

Imagine you’ve just been handed a violin and told that in five short days, you’ll be playing it for a room full of eager spectators. Intimidating?

“Not a chance,” says Andrea Hansen, fiddler extraordinaire and co-founder of the Strings Across the Sky (SATS) program. Braving the frosty Canadian climate, Hansen and her team travel to northern communities, violins in tow, to teach the art of fiddling to mostly Aboriginal youths between the ages of 7 and 21. Not long ago, she travelled to Kinomaugewgamik Elementary School in Shawanaga, a First Nations community of about 477 people located in Parry Sound.

“I saw an increase in student attentiveness and learning while involved with Andrea and the violins,” says Vaughn Johnston, principal at Kinomaugewgamik Elementary School.

Hansen designed the SATS easy method of learning, and using her methods, it isn’t long before most of the school body is engaged in playing the fiddle.

“After just four days of intense learning, they’re ready to put on a concert. The whole community comes out. Parents, grandparents, siblings and extended family members clap and reinforce the students’ success. Students are rightly proud of all that they’ve accomplished,” says Lynne Atkinson, general manager of SATS.

As for the challenges the SATS program faces, Atkinson explains, “These youths live in the most remote communities within Canada. In many ways, our organization is as invisible as the students we seek to reach. The Ontario Arts Council provides the only ongoing government support to Strings Across the Sky outside of the Northwest Territories.”

Strings Across the Sky was funded through the Touring and Collaborations program. To find out more information about SATS, visit http://www.stringsacrossthesky.ca

Photo:
Andrea Hansen, fiddler and co-founder of the Strings Across the Sky (SATS) program.
(Photo: Daphnée Nostrome)