I feel obliged to share my enthusiasm for your endeavours

I feel obliged to share my enthusiasm for your endeavours

When my family moved to the Shuswap music instruction was certainly competent, but lacked diversity in instruction technique and performance opportunities were very traditional, recitals and church events mostly. Until one day a young woman graced our community with enthusiasm, flair and originality and changed the face of music in the Shuswap for what we hope is a very long time.

That young woman was you, Rhiannon.

My daughter is very musical and decided it was time to learn "fiddling" as she put it. The Fiddleheads orchestra was becoming a familiar name at local venues and I enrolled an enthusiastic 16 year old for a year of intensive violin training. We got a whole lot more than we bargained for.

The Fiddleheads movement isn't just about playing violins. It's all about bringing music out of living rooms and studios into shopping malls and play parks and out to the wharf. It involves players of all ages and all skills in an environment of support and energy and then plunks them in the middle of town to strut their stuff.

The Fiddleheads name has been at so many community ventures that it has become synonymous with violin instruction in the Shuswap, to the point where other instructors are having their students referred to as "Fiddleheads". While I am sure it is less amusing to other violin teachers it indicates the level to which you have brought music in our community.

I know that you have been working toward the establishment of a community orchestra for at least three years, and were instrumental in the establishment of the Shuswap Violin Society which will benefit all potential and accomplished violinists in our area. With luck it will inspire those proficient with other instruments to establish a similar system of encouragement and support for people longing to excel in other fields of study.

Perhaps someday we will even see the establishment of a Shuswap Music Society. With what you have begun in the SVS there are so many ways to grow.

I was delighted to see you downtown in your performance clothes assisting young people at the "busking" services this past summer providing street entertainment for visitors to our popular Roots & Blues Festival. Your support encouraged youngsters to stand up and perform without all the usual support mechanisms, no captive audience and no one to tell them what to play or when to play it and they did a wonderful job. I would hope the Downtown Improvement Association will embrace the concept again this coming summer and we will see even more young violinists bowing on the streets of Salmon Arm.

The many celebrations you have organised and presented from picnics in Elks Park to your Strings Alive Music Festival are so numerous that I can't possibly list them all. When you appear in the paper it is always with words of praise and encouragement for our entire community, not just the musical portion of it and for this we are all grateful.

It inspires us non-musical folk to participate in any way we can, even if it's wrapping gifts at Christmas for the Shuswap Violin Society or delivering the Fiddleheads Gazette, another enterprise with which you have successfully elevated the awareness of music and its benefits in our community.

I am certain that as soon as I sign this off I will remember a thousand other instances for which you deserve praise, but I must have faith in others putting pen to paper. You have made a huge difference to music in the Shuswap, primarily through your approach to your business and I believe you have richly earned every and any success you might enjoy.

Your work ethic is laudable, your commitment to our community is memorable and I would love to see you rewarded for it.

January 13, 2004
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