Fiddlers on the Loose!

From Churchill and Snow Lake to Flin Flon, the MCO’s Fiddlers on the Loose are all over the province playing and work-shopping fiddle and folk music.

The six musicians and MCO's Director of Education and Community Engagement travel by bus, van, plane, and train to the more remote regions of the province, providing music education and performances to young people and communities facing economic and geographic challenges.

The musicians who make up our group bring the rigour and experience of internationally trained professionals who’ve spent years developing their craft.

At the same time, we are deeply respectful of such Manitoba traditions as Red River fiddle music, in which many of the young people with whom we work are steeped. We strive to support traditions and programs that already exist in the communities we visit.

And so, our approach is as collaborative as it is instructive: we have a blast performing and sharing fiddle tunes with students in community centres and schools, while also offering technical and professional advice about musicianship. We work closely with music teachers and fiddle instructors, and they have commented on the program’s impact beyond the classroom.

Children develop and hone skills like self-discipline, team building, musical techniques, presentation skills, confidence, and awareness of different career opportunities in music.

The Fiddlers on the Loose strive to create performance opportunities for young people too. So far, the Frontier Fiddlers, a group of talented young student musicians from the Frontier School Division, have twice performed alongside the MCO as part of our regular concert series.