Editor's note: The Coast String Fiddlers are in Aberdeen, Scotland for the Aberdeen International Youth Festival and parent chaperone Kathy Wood and some of the participants will be updating Coast Reporter readers in the next few weeks of their trip.
It's been a very busy week and we are all wondering where the time is going as tomorrow is Friday (Aug. 6) and our second last performance of the festival. We have been giving all our energy to our audiences and getting double that amount back.
On Monday evening, Aug. 2, we performed at the Holy Trinity Church in Alford, which is a small farming community just outside of Aberdeen.
We were welcomed bythe Rev.John Cook and church member John Lewis and the most sweet church ladiesheaded byGladys who gave us a snack of tea and scones and prepared our 'tea' which is dinner. This was a beautiful old stone church withamazing acoustics. As fiddlers and singers we enjoyed playing in this church.
We felt amazingly looked after. We had a bit of a piano mix up and arrived without a piano in place, but soon Cook was on the phone rounding us up a piano by contacting everyone in town. Turns out they had to move an upright piano from the hall to the church not before which they had to remove several doors in the process! Emily Wood, our piano accompanist was very grateful for their efforts.
Our concert was well received and it was not unlike similar concerts we have performed at St. Bart's Church so we felt right at home.
A friendship sprung up the moment we played our jig set and church ladies broke out into a dance. The local scout group hosted the intermissionrefreshments and we found out that they were fundraising to build a new club.
As our Coast String Fiddler Lucy Wilson is a member of the Gibsons Scouts, we donated some proceeds of our CD sales to their project. At the end of the evening, we presented Gladys and the kitchen a set of oven mitts and tea towel in the Coast Salish design and our piano moving reverend and Lewis the Sunshine Coast calendars.
Our parting was accompaniedby cries of 'Haste ye back' and we do hope we are able to return some day!
- -Kathy Wood
