Tony Alanak

from Ulukhaktok traveled in July to Parry Sound, Ontario, where he performed at the Stockey Center to an audience who were so moved, they were teary eyed. He was one of the participants of the Strings Across the Sky Instructor Training program, and was in Parry Sound to help First Nation Students hone their skills at the beginner level. Fellow performer and SATS (Yellowknife) student, Shaun Russenholt from Edmonton even learnt to play the fiddle brilliantly despite the obstacle of Cerebral Palsy.

Strings Across the Sky is a national organization dedicated to teaching youth the art of fiddling. It began in remote northern communities, and has now “spread like wildfire” all across Canada, to Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Regina, Northern Ontario and Northern Quebec, according to founder and music director Andrea Hansen. Andrea first taught Tony to fiddle when Paul Bennet, the principal of Helen Kalvak School at that time, heard about her project and invited her to teach at his school.

“The 2nd time I went to Ulukhaktok, Tony was already trying to help teach the kids from what I’ve taught him…He was a perfect candidate for the teacher training course.”

Now, Tony has garnered his certification (at the age of 24) as a music teacher. What’s more important, talent or enthusiasm? “Both”, said Andrea. And Tony has both.

The Inuvialuit Regional Corporation (IRC), Canadian North, and Aklak Air sponsored Tony’s 4 day trip from Ulukhaktok to Parry Sound. Tony has even traveled to the Orkney’s (Scotland) with SATS to help reintroduce Scots to their own style of traditional fiddling!

Andrea said she got the idea to start SATS when she came up to play in Inuvik with the Toronto Symphony in 1987. “It was the first time a big symphony orchestra played North of the Arctic Circle. I stayed at the home of Frank Hansen and his wife Sandy, and their daughter Andrea. He said it was so sad that fiddling was dying out up there and I said, let’s do something about it.”

Eighteen years later, SATS is going strong. “We’re going to try to make this an annual event. We hope we can keep reaching out and finding more people like Tony and Andrea from Sioux Lookout, because that’s what we need, for more young people to follow in our footsteps. Music is the rhythm of life, everybody has it, but some don’t know that they have it. When we wake people up through the art of fiddling, it’s amazing to see their eyes and heart open a little wider,” Andrea said.

For more information, please visit the website www.stringsacrossthesky.ca