Ten years is a good time to take stock.
Last week the 10th annual Sunshine Coast School of Celtic Music took place at Roberts Creek Elementary School with 196 registrants - about an average number for this popular camp, now the biggest in western Canada - featuring 20 instructors teaching fiddle, cello, accordion, guitar, voice, dancing and, the most popular of all for teenagers, the Youth Trad Band class.
Memories of the first year abounded. Michelle Bruce, one of the school's original instructors and the founder of the Coast String Fiddlers (CSF), taught cello this year. She recalls the first year as having fewer kids and fewer instructors. When she looked back on the tapes made during the first year she realized how the quality has improved.
"The level has come up a lot," Bruce said. "The first year we were doing Twinkle, Twinkle."
She indicated the full classroom of youth this year learning more sophisticated band music under the tuition of Scottish musicians Harris Playfair and Iain Fraser.
"It's the fourth year of trad band," Fraser said. "It's a melding of more traditional tunes with contemporary jazz influences."
Fraser was receiving some help from one of five student tutors, Sophie Heppell, recently graduated from music college. All the young tutors are CSF alumni who chose to continue with music studies.
The friendly Fraser has taught at almost every camp since its first. In fact, he's responsible for giving it an early boost. He met Ann and John Law, the school's founders, while at a music camp in Colorado. The Laws told him about the eager young fiddlers on the Coast who needed help, and the three brainstormed.
"If you start a school there, I'll be along," he told them.
He was true to his word. After 10 years, he points out, the work has left a musical legacy that has been incorporated into the repertoire of young performers.
And now, after 10 years, Fraser believes it's time to take stock.
"Kids change, music changes," he said.
The board of the music school has also arrived at this same thought. In a statement to Coast Reporter, the Laws, along with fellow directors Yvonne Hart, Wendi Rottluff and Kathy Wood, said: "After 10 great years with hundreds of great participants and great volunteers, we have decided as a committee to take a year off. Our committee, however, will be hard at work during this time."
At this milestone, they will be looking forward at their direction and structure and making a critical review of the past. They plan to re-evaluate the program with the needs of the community, their resources and mandate in mind. The directors proudly point to the achievements: they've made talent grow and they have welcomed happy participants and volunteers year after year.
"We love what we do and intend to return refreshed with a great program that continues to support traditional music in our community," the statement concluded.
At the annual gala concert held last Friday (July 9), there were a few nostalgic notes among the superb performances.
Once again the 465 seats in the Rockwood Pavilion in Sechelt were packed full, with the audience knowing from experience that they were in for a good show.
One of the first acts was Bruce playing with music student Holly Beckmyer. Law explained that Beckmyer was one of the youngest of the original CSF who learned from Bruce many years ago. Beckmyer played and danced with grace to the piano music of her mother, Heather Cattenach.
Much-loved musician and vocalist Mairi Campbell returned to sing the haunting poetry of Robert Burns in her angelic voice. On another song, she harmonized with music school instructors Gillian Frame from Scotland and Mairi Rankin from Cape Breton. It was a moment to remember - and will likely linger in the history of this first decade at the School of Celtic Music.
