Winnipeg fiddler stringing listeners along with a year’s worth of tunes

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This article was published 18/07/2015 (4019 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

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There’s something about fiddle music that just invites a smile, and Patti Kusturok is in the middle of providing 365 consecutive days of smiles.

Kusturok, an award-winning Winnipeg performer who is known across North America for her smooth-sounding style traditional fiddle music, began an ambitious project on Jan. 1, called 365 Days of Fiddle Tunes. She has performed a fiddle tune for every day in 2015, from wherever she happens to be, recording it and uploading the video of the performance to YouTube.

On Day 190, for example, Kusturok took her fiddle to the St. Vital Park duck pond and played the Rippling Water Jig, turning heads and attracting some curious onlookers for a closer look.

“People have been really receptive to the idea and really supportive,” Kusturok says. “A bonus has been that I’ve been able to reach people with the music that I’ve never met and who have never heard of me before now.”

“I’ve had people (from outside Canada) say they’d like to set up a concert for me, if I was ever in the area, which is really nice. People are sharing (the videos) on social media and that’s been a key to spreading the word (about the project).”

Kusturok said she borrowed the idea from fellow fiddler Vi Wickam from Colorado, who performed A Fiddle Tune a Day in 2012 — which came to 366 tunes, because it was a leap year. She followed Wickam’s online posts of his performances and decided to take a similar journey.

“I really liked that he just did a fiddle tune wherever he was and brought people in that way, to wherever he was,” she says. “That’s what I hope to do, bring people in with the music. It’s a huge commitment but it’s been a lot of fun so far.”

Kusturok knows more than 1,000 fiddle tunes by heart. The biography on her website describes her fiddle style as “a little bit Métis, a little bit Québécois and a whole lot of feel.”

Giving a few of her daily fiddle performances a listen, it’s a bit surprising how many of Kusturok’s choices are such a recognizable part of Canadian culture.

On Day 31 for example, Kusturok played an oldie called Buffalo Gals that most will remember. Day 97’s Whiskey Before Breakfast is often played by children in school fiddle programs.

She’s taking requests by email at pattikusturok@gmail.com.

A busy traveller who performs and teaches in fiddle camps across Canada, Kusturok is also a charming storyteller. Prior to each video, she tells a delightful little tale about where she is, who is with her and how she came to know the tune she’s about to play.

“It’s not just about saying, ‘Here’s this tune’ and playing it; there’s stories behind them,” she says. “I enjoy telling the stories about how I learned the tune or who I learned it from.

“I got to see a lot of my fiddle idols growing up who are huge names in the fiddle world. There’s stuff that (Canadian fiddle legend) Reg Bouvette taught me sitting around his kitchen table of his house. People enjoy hearing stories like that… To me, the entertainment value is in the storytelling along with the music.”

On days 137 and 138 in May, she performed with her son Alex in Richmond, Ont., where they were attending a fiddling contest. In a special moment, she introduced him and hugged him; she was a proud mom sharing a musical moment with her son.

On Canada Day (Day 182), she and a friend, Halifax fiddler Gordon Stobbe, played the Canada Day Swing, a song they wrote together while doing laundry at the same laundromat during a previous fiddle tour. Prior to playing, they carried on engaging banter about pretending to have mixed up their laundry.

Kusturok has passed the 200-day mark and she has posted fiddle-playing moments in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario and New Brunswick.

“I’ve just started thinking about (the outcome of the project) now that I’ve hit the halfway mark,” she says. “People are asking if could put out a book with the fiddle tunes, so I’d like to do that.

“Most of the tunes are other people’s, so I’d have to look into getting permission once I decide what the next step will be. Hopefully this will be a springboard for me to have the chance to get more playing gigs, because I’d really like to travel more and get out playing more.”

Kusturok, who teaches about 50 students, including some by Skype across Canada and the United States as well as countries such as Australia and Norway, said posting the 365 Days of Fiddle Tunes project is a unique way to share the songs that are more than just music to her.

“I started to play when I was four; it was my parents’ idea and it was always part of our lifestyle at home. I’ve been immersed in fiddle music all my life and it’s been my life,” Kusturok says, noting she loves to play for others but she also plays for her own enjoyment. “I play when I’m happy, when I need a little pick-me-up or when I’m just relaxing at home.

“It’s not just something I do. It’s something I am.”

ashley.prest@freepress.mb.ca