Well fiddle camp season is over for another year and what a summer its been, including my own 2nd annual Fiddle Camp. 7 top-notched fiddle instructors including John Arcand, Gordon Stobbe, Mark Sullivan, Patti Lamoureux, Randy Foster, Daniel Gervais, Trent Bruner on piano, Richard Chernesky on guitar & 55 students, spent four fun-full days of instruction in St Edouard. The weather was absolutely gorgeous, the meals were second to none and the Renewal Centre continues to provide us with an excellent facility. With one year under our belt, and having received great comments and ideas on the evaluation forms, several new ideas were implemented and they all worked great. A few more tweaks on this year's changes and next year's camp should be one of excellence. The first change came by way of the audition process, which took less than ½ hour and had everybody properly placed for their group classes. So much, that not one student moved classes throughout the week. The audition process worked so well, that the Canadian Grand Masters did the same thing at their camp and both students and instructors were very pleased with this new way of doing things. Another major change came with the student's concerts.... Fiddle students were accompanied by Trent & Richard & piano/guitar students would accompany an instructor of their choice. This was also a very positive change. Following the audition process, camp kicked off with the first lesson taught to the entire group by Calvin himself. The class was called 'Jam Etiquette' and it was followed by the first tune of the week 'Calvin's Camp 2-Step'. This tune was played by all to end the student's concert on Thursday evening and what a powerful moment it was, it finished the camp on a high note... Dates for 2009 will be Sat - Wed, July 18-22, 2009. Details are now posted on the website. We hope you can join us next year. |