File: arsenaultrobert06-oh-futureofmusic.mp3
Speakers:
RA-Robert Arsenault
RA:Tthis whole idea of where is it [Island fiddling] going and how far has it come. When you take it out of the kitchen and put it on the stage then you're getting into a whole new set of things. So one of the things that we do, that I do is we do Kitchen Parties, we call them jams Acadian Jams or Acadian Kitchen Parties. If I organize an Acadian Kitchen Party, I'll invite players that I know can carry the evening. And we just sit there and play some tunes. So it's not like getting a show together and doing a show, having a set list, and having these things to say in between, and you know, costumes and staging. But where does it [fiddling] go? There's quite a few young players that are playing, there's a group of players out in Wellington who meet, so they keep that goin'. But there's a lot of interest for the fiddle. I think we're always going to get our talented musicians amongst the gang. If you look way back, there wasn't that many great fiddlers. There was maybe a bunch that were playing, but there was always only one or two really good fiddlers in any given area. You know the last of the really good fiddlers that were learnigng in a generational kind of thing is rarer and scarcer and scarcer. You're gonna get a heck of a lot more that are just going to pick it up through lessons. The young people have so much talent, the best talents I have are 7, 8, 9 years old, 10. They're just sponges, they just take it in. And if they're exposed to it B it depends on the families. All of them -- the parents bring them and they say, "No, we don't want classical violin, we want her to play the fiddle, or him to play the fiddle."
KP: That's so different from the way it was 15 years ago.
RA: Yeah. They're bringing them in and they want them to learn the fiddle. They want them to learn traditional music.
