Mabou Musical Mentorship Program
Derrick
and Melody Cameron are pleased to be the co-ordinators for a new unique project
that they helped to develop for Feis Mhabu. If you are not familiar with what a
Féis is, it is a community based Gaelic cultural festival designed to provide
interaction with Gaelic language and culture through workshops, classes,
ceilidhs, concerts and other events. Feis Mhabu is based in the Mabou area and
has presented workshops, concerts, etc. for over fifteen years. The new program
is called the Mabou Musical Mentorship Program and it teaches through house
sessions. This mentoring program was offered for the first time in the fall of
2005.
The youth participants who are taking part in this
mentorship program range in age from 14 to 19 years old and come from different
communities in Inverness County, Victoria County and Richmond County. These
young participants are all good players in their own right. Some of them have
even released CD's.
Derrick and Melody along with Feis Mhabu feel very
fortunate to be able to feature talented mentors from across Cape Breton that so
generously contribute to these sessions. These mentors all have a great deal of
experience to draw from. Some of these players have toured extensively, others
may not be as well known outside Cape Breton but they have played countless
dances, community ceilidhs and house sessions and are well respected in Cape
Breton’s musical community.
This program is about more than just teaching
music. It is about forming bonds between the young players that come from
different communities. It is about giving these young players access to very
experienced performers in an atmosphere where they can not only absorb the rich
musical style some of these tradition bearers have, but also hear these mentors
recall stories about past experiences and stories about some of the players that
are no longer with us. This helps the younger players to make a personal
connection with this style of music, the people who play it and where it comes
from. It is our hope that this will help to foster a sense of responsibility to
be true to the traditional Cape Breton style of music. The home is still the
best setting to create this type of atmosphere, that is why we did not base
these sessions in a classroom or hall.
The youth participants that participate in this
project come from many different communities on the Island. They will take the
experience they gained at these sessions back to these communities. This will
help to ensure that Cape Breton remains one of the strongholds of Celtic music
and dance. These young people are the next link in a long chain of traditional
artists that have come from Cape Breton. They will be the performers who will
play for the dances, concerts and ceilidhs all over the island and beyond.
For both 2005 and 2006, there have been eight of
these weekly sessions offered starting early in November and running weekly up
to late December. Feis Mhabu also schedules a community concert in Mabou on
Easter Sunday of of 2006 and 2007. The community concert showcases the Musical
Mentorship Program and are organized with the input of the youth participants.
It also gives the youth an opportunity to share the stage with many of the
tradition bearers that served as mentors. Also, the concerts showcase the talent
of the young performers to the fans of traditional music.
Please note - Photo top left taken at Carl MacKenzie and Pat Chafe 2006 mentoring session; Photo bottom right taken at J.P.
Cormier and Hilda Chiasson-Cormier 2006 mentoring session.
2006 Mabou Musical
Mentorship Program Schedule:
November 3rd - Howie MacDonald and Kathleen Leblanc-Poirier
November 10th - Carl MacKenzie and Pat Chafe
November 17th - Shelly Campbell and Brian Doyle
November 24th - Jerry Holland and Joel Chiasson
December 1st - Jennifer Bowman, Kyle Gillis and Dawn Gillis
December 15th - Rannie MacLellan and Maybelle Chisholm-MacQueen
December 22nd - Glenn Graham and Patrick Gillis
January 5th (2007) - J.P. Cormier and Hilda Chiasson-Cormier
For more information on Feis Mhabu, click to visit
their website:
Derrick
and Melody Cameron are pleased to be the co-ordinators for a new unique project
that they helped to develop for Feis Mhabu. If you are not familiar with what a
Féis is, it is a community based Gaelic cultural festival designed to provide
interaction with Gaelic language and culture through workshops, classes,
ceilidhs, concerts and other events. Feis Mhabu is based in the Mabou area and
has presented workshops, concerts, etc. for over fifteen years. The new program
is called the Mabou Musical Mentorship Program and it teaches through house
sessions. This mentoring program was offered for the first time in the fall of
2005. 