The Pearl Company

“Spirit of the Narrows”: One woman’s journey into the world of Aboriginal fiddling. Seven performances only: Nov. 19-22  & Nov. 26-28. $25/$20 Seniors/Students/Un(der)waged. All shows @8, Nov 22 Matinee @2:00.  This fascinating voyage is created and written by internationally respected, award-winning fiddler, Anne Lederman, and performed by Anne and Capucine Onn, As a young musician, Anne became fascinated with the unusual sound of Métis and First Nations fiddling in her home province of Manitoba.
Her journey to learn more introduced her to fiddlers such as Carl Grexton, Emile Spence, Teddy Boy Houle, and a host of others. Entering a world very different from her own, the play is her journey – from present to past, from one culture to another, also from one state of mind to another. It is the story of a uniquely Canadian music, of the people who created it, and who, against all odds, continue to play it. It embodies Ojibwa, Cree, Scottish, French, English, American, and Eastern European traditions, all played on a small box with four strings.
Anne has performed a solo version of the show from Wells B.C. to Aberdeen, Scotland, in theatres, classrooms, folk clubs, and Church basements. In 2004, the Blyth Festival invited her to adapt it to a two-person theatrical experience, which did so well they brought it back for a second season on 2005. The Pearl Company is delighted to revive the show for the first time in Hamilton. http://www.annelederman.com/

 “Spirit of the Narrows” is alive with humour, insight and respect and is a tribute to the people and the music she came to know. Audiences come away from the show not only with the sounds of some of the most beautiful folk fiddling in the world ringing in their ears, but with a new understanding of how this music could only have been created by the accidental coming together of many peoples under conditions unique to our Canadian past. Like Anne, you will not be the quite the same on your return.