Tanglewood

The Valley Youth Fiddlers are proud to present their latest touring production, Tanglewood, a mystical woodland tale of misadventure and music. The Valley Youth Fiddlers are a community of 65 musicians from ages 6 to more than 60 based in Smithers, BC. This remarkable ensemble of fiddles, guitars, pianos, bass, drums, mandolins, and accordions, have toured the province and beyond, playing contemporary and old-time fiddle music and telling stories to the delight of audiences from Victoria, the Sunshine Coast and Vancouver, to Prince George, Prince Rupert and Whitehorse.

This is community-based music and storytelling at its finest—an inspiring collaboration of musical families steeped in the performing arts. Mentored by leading fiddle composers and instructors from right across Canada, this group thrives on playing great music from a broad range of musical styles and traditions. Even the youngest players are seasoned performers.

Tanglewood is a playful mix of storytelling, animation, music, and dance. These performance elements are carefully woven together to carry the audience along an imaginative journey, a journey through Tanglewood. Tanglewood features music written and arranged by Lea Kirstein of the celebrated Toronto folk band Medusa, Order of Canada recipient Gordon Stobbe, Canadian Folk Music Award winners Jaron Freeman-Fox and Oliver Schroer, Juno nominated James Stephens, and five-time Grand North American Fiddle Champion and Juno winner Ivonne Hernandez.

Tanglewood is a story about the music of place. It is about the sounds that layer one over another to make a unique musical landscape. These sounds have been shaped by the mentors that have brought their tunes to share, and by the natural resonance of land itself. The story is told through the lens of the woodland characters that inhabit Tanglewood. Hiccup, the flying squirrel, finds herself swept away in a terrible storm hanging desperately to a string attached to a boat-shaped kite. To make her way back to Tanglewood, she seeks the help of musical acquaintances she meets in unfamiliar surroundings: an owl, a fox, a lynx, a bear. Together, they must listen their way through forest and field—piecing together the sounds and melodies that echo Hiccup’s Tanglewood home.

The Valley Youth Fiddlers are Tanglewood—they are a vivid expression of landscape-infused music and culture. They embrace the music of their mentors, which include tunes written specifically for the Valley Youth Fiddlers and for Tanglewood.