THE NEWS FROM BRUNER’S BROOD – WEDNESDAY, JULY 24, 2024 WESTERN CANADIAN FIDDLE AND FAMILY EDITION

Hi everyone!I trust that all is well with you, your family and that music continues to fill an important role in your community and family. For those of you who have recently liked and followed my artist page, I thank you publicly for your interest and kind support. Updates have continued to be made on my website, which is closer to completion. At the time of this article, I was on a Canadian holiday with my wife and daughters from July 3rd-23rd, 2024. While in Toronto, we went to Niagara Falls, watched a Blue Jays-Houston baseball game, went up the CN Tower and did other tourism attractions. But once we got to Western Canada for time with Canadian family and friends, it was time to pull out the fiddles and a guitar/piano on four different occasions. One performance was planned, two happened as a last minute decision, and the last one was planned for some and a total surprise for me. Some of these postings describe what came from Hilde’s Facebook feed (in Norwegian) while others came from Canwood and from others. As usual, this article is for both of my Facebook pages and www.trentbruner.com. On Thursday, July 11th, Cathy Sproule of Saskatoon organized a fundraising evening for Joseph Desjarlais, a fiddler formerly of Ile-a-la-Crosse, but now from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. He will be one of the Saskatchewan representatives to the Canadian Grand Masters Fiddling Competition in Whitehorse in August 2024. Along with fiddlers John Arcand, Gordon Stobbe, J. J. Guy and J. J. Lavallee, Hannah Moira, Ingrid Sofie and I performed a Norwegian fiddle set to close the show and participated in the jam session afterwards with the entertainers. There were two country vocalists who also participated in the show, There were two country vocalists who also participated in the show, Holly Gilroy and Aiden McCrorie Wilson, known as “Gil and Wil”. This public appearance happened for us at the last minute. Saturday, July 13th was set aside for a private family gathering at the Canwood Legion Hall for my mother’s late 85th birthday celebration. My mother, Gerda Bruner, has her birthday on April 20th, but this weekend was planned months in advance because my wife and kids had not been in Canada since 2016. A number of family and relatives were in attendance, making this date a practical gathering time for all. We shared a portion of Norwegian fiddle repertoire from two nights before, which provided live music that our Canadian family does not hear very often, as the girls were on standard fiddle and me on acoustic guitar. Special thanks go to my brother, Ward, and his wife, Jenn, for organizing our family gathering, as they were closer to home to do the groundwork for this celebration. Wednesday morning, July 17th, was an impromptu performance at the last minute at Whispering Pine Place, our local seniors home, with coordination help from the Canwood Public Library Board. This was an 11:00 am show that brought over 50 guests from outside the Seniors home, plus residents and staff. Hannah Moira, Ingrid Sofie and I gave a one hour show that consisted of solos, duos and the three of us with a mixture of Norwegian and Canadian fiddle tunes and the occasional piano solo. It was a time where we played some music we had not played in a while, but delightfully went well and was warmly received by the local audience who came on short notice. For Hilde and me, July 17th was also our 20th wedding anniversary. Thank you to all who have given us greetings and best wishes. Our final musical plan was to have our daughters compete at the 40th anniversary of the Grand North American Fiddle Championship in Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta. Since we would fly from Edmonton to Toronto after the contest on our way back to Norway, we bought bus tickets from Saskatoon to travel west for this fiddle competition and give the kids a chance to polish some of their Canadian fiddle repertoire for competition, have a chance to reconnect with our Canadian fiddle friends and reconnect with other Canadian family. On arrival in Fort Saskatchewan, we checked into our hotel, took time to relax and got a good night’s sleep that Thursday evening, July 18th. But during the night, the worldwide Microsoft internet glitch caused problems for my piano accompaniment colleague, Melika Lemelin, her husband Paul (who was to be one of the contest judges), their family who had planned to attend and compete, and for the Wild Rose Fiddlers Association, who hired Paul and Melika as contest staff for the weekend. They could not board their plane from Sudbury, Ontario to Edmonton because of this technology problem! On Friday morning, while Hilde and I ate in the Hotel’s breakfast room, a contest committee member saw us, greeted us and explained the situation with Paul and Melika. I was approached on the spot to be a house accompanist to help Melika while her family’s travel plans were in the process of being reset, and together with fellow house pianist Garnet Borch, I became part of the accompaniment trio for the weekend. Plans changed immediately once I was called in, but with 75 contestants competing and other entertainment planned, I was delighted to work alongside Garnet and Melika as house accompanists and work with Paul Lemelin, Mark Sullivan, Alex Kusturok and Lucas Welsh as the contest judges for the weekend. As for Ingrid Sofie, she won the 18 and under Youth class that Saturday. For Hannah Moira, she competed in the Championship Class for the first time against a very high level of fiddling from past Canadian Grand Masters contestants, finalists and champions. Two time Canadian Grand Masters Champion Ethan Harty of Lougheed, Alberta, won the championship class this past weekend. Although Hannah Moira did not make the finals, she still played well and will use this experience to further prepare for her musical future. If you check Hilde Midtbø’s Facebook feed, you can watch how each daughter played in their first Canadian fiddle contest since 2016. As I close for now, my next article will come in mid-August as I perform in Meadow Lake and Canwood, Saskatchewan for two fiddle shows and one dance (confirmed as of today) before the 34th Canadian Grand Masters Fiddling Competition in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory on August 23rd-24th. I will also work alongside Guylaine Ganger at the Pembroke Fiddle and Stepdance Contest Labour Day weekend, August 30th-31st. But since schedules can change, check back for updates. In the meantime, I return to work with the Norwegian Lutheran Church until Friday, August 16, when I return to Canada for my annual fiddle tour. Until next time, see you somewhere down the musical trail! Musically Yours, Trent