L-R: Ben Rainer's left hand, Mieka Schneidereit, Olivia Crowhurst, Ava Shaw, Norah Figuera, Lua Javaheri, Mia Stahuliak and Verena Wessler (photo by Miriam Stahuliak)

By Jordan Davidson

fiddling their way to victory

Local youth fiddlers once again take top spot in CBC’s Music Class Challenge

Dec 16, 2021 | 10:46 AM

NANAIMO — A local fiddling group of talented youth won top prize for the second straight year in a nationwide musical competition.

Nanaimo-based Cross Canada Fiddle’s Fiddelium topped the community/independent/private school category in the CBC Music’s and MusiCounts annual Canadian Music Class Challenge.

Fiddelium co-director Trish Horrocks said just like last year, they plan on investing some of the prize money back into the community.

“We do really feel that it’s important to pass it along to the community…we’ll choose a music program in town that’s in need of some instruments or some books, and that’s where that money will go.”

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The Canadian Music Class Challenge invites musical youth groups from across the country to cover a Canadian song and upload it to their website, which is then voted on by their panel of judges.

The Fiddelium group picked the song ‘Top of my School’ by Burlington, Ontario singer-songwriter Katherine Lynn-Rose.

One of the panel judges was Juno-nominated songwriter and CBC music producer Jasmine Denham, who said their outstanding performance and arrangement of the song shows the group’s exceptional skill level.

“I keep watching this performance over and over again… I’m mesmerized! These young musicians are performing at a professional level. It’s crazy to think that they are teenagers,” Denham said.

Their top prize included $1,000 in gift certificates for Long and Mcquade, as well as a gold record Horrocks is proud to display.

She said the decision to give back to the community was an easy one after watching some of the over 500 videos submitted to this contest.

“It’s really apparent when you watch the videos there are some schools that are really well funded, they have a lot of instruments and a lot of resources, and then there are other classes who have no resources. I think that it’s important that if the purpose of the Music Class Challenge is to support music education, then we need to do that with the prize money.”

Last year Cross Canada Fiddle’s Fiddelium won the Junior Instrumental category of the CBC’s Canadian Music Class Challenge and donated part of the prize money to the Learning Alternatives program.

They beat out a number of high school classes across the country as well, impressive for the small group of kids aged 11-16.

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jordan@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @JordanDHeyNow