Welcome
Hello, Aanii! We are very excited that 2023 is shaping up to be a great year for Strings Across the Sky (SATS) with plans for more First Nation teaching visits, Summer Fiddle & Music Camp and Community Fiddle Music Circles. On May 14, 2023, the amazing Natalie MacMaster & Donnell Leahy are coming to the Parry Sound Stockey Centre to perform in support of Strings Across the Sky.
Last year in 2022, with a “post Covid” reset, we were able to slowly resume SATS teaching programs which included:
- Parry Sound Fiddle Music Circles (Naazhaabiigehguhn) – in partnership with the Parry Sound Friendship Centre (PSFC) SATS offered weekly guitar and fiddle lessons youth.
This free music circle is open to beginners and the more experienced children who want to build on musical skills. - Annual Parry Sound Fiddle & Music Camp – in partnership with PSFC and Festival of the Sound (FOTS) for indigenous and non-indigenous youth
- Student Concert at the Stockey Centre as part of (FOTS)
- French River Pow Wow – student fiddle performance
- First Nation Teaching Weeks – Sagamok Biidaaban Kinoomaagegamik & Nawash Kikendaasogamig- In October thru December SATS teaching teams taught fiddle and guitar in elementary community schools from grades 4 to 8. The students shared their music in community performances bringing joy to all!
Since 1987, a generation of children have benefited from the music education provided by SATS. It combines the best of music, tradition and community spirit. With a focus on indigenous communities across Canada, SATS helps rekindle and sustain the once thriving cultural and social tradition of fiddle music. Today, Strings Across the Sky lives on in the legacies of Aurora Fiddle Society, the Kole Crook Fiddle Association, as well as many indigenous communities in the far north and throughout Canada.
“Reconciliation in Action”
Learning and playing music together fosters opportunities for both indigenous and non-indigenous children to build respectful, lasting relationships with one another.
The many resulting friendships from SATS programs nurture cross cultural bridges and supports the Truth and Reconciliation Report’s 94 Calls to Action.
Learn more About Us.
Encyclopaedia of Native American Music of North America “There is also a lively indigenous fiddling tradition in the Arctic region. The active fiddling tradition in northern Canada today has benefited greatly from the Strings Across the Sky (SATS) program. This began in 1988 after violinist Andrea Hansen noted the response of young persons to the performances of the Toronto Symphony on their 1987 tour”... .
The Aurora Fiddle Society “owes its origins to the Strings Across the Sky program. The program was founded in 1987 in Inuvik by Andrea Hansen of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. Hansen had identified an interest and aptitude for fiddling in the North and worked tirelessly to provide youth with the opportunity to learn to play the fiddle. Throughout the communities, many people volunteered countless hours through workshops and performances to revive the history of fiddling. Twenty years later, the Yellowknife chapter of “Strings Across the Sky” decided to develop a Yellowknife-centric fiddling organization and opted for independence.”
