Donegal_Fiddlers_Orchestra_2014

The Community Press

Fiddlers Orchestra returns to roots

Asphodel-Norwood – The Donegal Fiddlers Orchestra is coming home.

After four years of using the old town hall in Havelock as its base for Saturday night performances, the fiddlers will return to the Asphodel-Norwood community to its monthly dances. A media release last week said the municipality and the orchestra have come to an agreement for the use of the Norwood Town Hall “that is satisfactory to both parties.” And that means the Donegal Fiddlers will be performing their range of celtic, traditional, country and dance music in Norwood.

The doors to the hall will open at 7 p.m. “and the strains of fiddle music will fill the century-old spaces,” says Donegal Fiddlers member Marie Forgrave, of Campbellford, adding that the musicians are looking forward to utilizing the ample space at the Norwood Hall and being able to accommodate the orchestra’s ever increasing monthly crowd.

The fiddle orchestra has added a variety of instruments to its base of 16 fiddles, guitar, bass fiddle, tin flute, mandolin, accordion, keyboard and percussion which resulted in “an ever more interesting sound,” making the orchestra “truly a unique group” that is ready to provide fun and entertainment.

The musicians who later became the Donegal Fiddlers at first came together simply to practise and socialize. Then people started to drop in to listen, and soon the informal group had a devoted audience. Pushed by founding members such as Alilee Thompson, the band coelesced and formed an identity and a musical pattern. They adopted the name of a 19^th-century one-room school house southeast of Norwood that had been turned into a community centre called the Donegal Hall. The hall became their headquarters, and the fiddlers played there until 2005, when the building was sold, becoming part of a residential property. That’s when the group turned to the old town hall on Mathison Street in Havelock, where they started performing the first Saturday of every month. In between, they performed at church halls, community dances, diners clubs, agricultural fairs and dinners, summer festivals, trailer parks and service club fund raisers, including the Frankford Fiddlers on the Trent review for the World Food Grain Bank.

The Donegal Fiddlers have also taken their show east, playing a concert in a small community near Sherbrooke, Que. before going on to play in Murray Harbour and North Rustico, P.E.I., Bay St. Lawrence and Ingonish, Cape Breton Island, and Pictou, N.S.

The Donegal Fiddlers have been recognized with a Peterborough County arts award. And they have made CDs “for our own enjoyment” says bassist Ron Scott, noting that the recording sessions also helped the musicians focus and refine their music.