Strings Across the Sky

Our Story

In 1987, the Toronto Symphony on its Canadian Odyssey tour performing for six different language groups above the Arctic Circle. TSO Violinist Andrea Hansen (1938-2014) discovered a once vibrant musical heritage brought to the Beaufort Sea by early European whalers, sealers and Hudson’s Bay Company trappers.

These early travelers brought and played their fiddles. The music was rhythmic and infectious those around them. The Inuit and other Northern First Nations gradually developed a love of adopted new musical art and adopted it as their own. For centuries, almost every village or settlement had at least one “fiddle entertainer”. But with time, elders passed away, communities were displaced, children were taken and teenagers fell prey to alcohol and drug abuse. The fiddling tradition began to fade.

While in the high Arctic, Andrea Hansen met Frank Hansen, an amateur fiddler and businessman. He shared his dream to keep the fiddle alive in the North. The two co-founded Strings Across the Sky, and began to collect unused fiddles and other instruments.
Andrea composed Frank’s Delta Dream to honour him.

With a passion for music and a desire to share and create learning opportunities for children in indigenous communities across Canada, Ms Hansen created a unique, active and fun teaching method which combines violin with traditional fiddling.

Andrea returned several times each year with her brand of teaching magic. Students young and old were always mesmerized by her methods. First performing Mozart’s classic, Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. She then led the youngsters through an array of Twinkles; angry, a sad and happy fiddling versions. In minutes, students learned a violin communicates emotions. They are “hooked”. To hold an instrument and make it “talk” is an experience and much more interesting than passive learning. The experience leads to achievement, inspiring dreams and confidence in achieving personal goals; these are the building blocks to self-esteem. Hansen witnessed it over and over again. She was not alone. Parents noticed that their children’s motor skills and co-ordination improve along with an ability to focus.

A Unique Method: The children learn to hold a violin first by holding wooden “spoon fiddles” a method Hansen used herself over 60 years ago when she first began to play in the remote bush near Kenora, Ontario. Next, they play on violins and four open strings, followed closely by fingers none, 1, 2 and 3. In turn, students gain an immediate feeling of fiddle playing. By using the open strings with a note pattern and listening to guitar chords, students easily learn the basics skills needed to play a fiddle tune.

“Early on, music is mathematics. It’s a clear form of communication and it releases stress. If you learn to read music, then you learn to read,” Hansen explained.

• Andrea Hansen
• Philosophy
• Our Story
• 1987 to 2026
• The Violin