The Nevada Old Time Fiddlers were tuned up and ready. It was one o'clock and someone relayed the information that the children had started filing into the gym. We started playing "Bonaparte’s Retreat" and a few minutes later the curtains parted and at last we could see our audience of a hundred and twenty Grade 2 students sitting on the floor in front of the stage.Vera Vann Wilson, Emcee’d the program, explaining to the children who we were, why the music was important to us, and how the various songs originated. The audience was caught up in the music immediately by swaying and clapping to keep time with the music.
Some songs had been selected so the children could participate. A special microphone was brought to the stage that would allow the deaf students with cochlear implants to hear the program better.
The children were especially pleased with Bernie Knight's description of the band on the stick.
And just when you thought it couldn't get any better, Chet Swafford brought forth his fiddle collection. Each fiddle he showed the children was progressively smaller that the previous. The last fiddle was only about two inches high.
The band was joined by Sean Tyler on the bass guitar. Shawn is the music director for the Paradise School. His addition was very welcome and although he had never played with the fiddlers, his timing was right on and gave us a fuller sound.
Cathy Cottle is the teacher that worked so hard to get us to the school. She left the next day for China where she will be working with deaf children for the next ten days. Thank you, Cathy.
And we can not forget our special guests, J.D. Jones from New Mexico and Mike Farrow from Texas. They were able to see the band on hand perform a fast moving program that retained the undivided attention of the young audience for a full hour. They can certainly be proud of the club they started a few short years ago. The Nevada Old Time Fiddlers deserve to be congratulated.
A few lucky fiddlers then proceeded to the small class room with the children with the cochlear implants where a demonstration was performed showing how the various instruments worked. These special children then posed with the fiddlers in the room for a group photo.
Numerous photos were taken during the performance and will be posted on the web.
The icing on the cake came when shortly after the performance I received a phone call saying that the office wanted to know why our contact person had not wanted the fiddlers put the show on for the whole school. Cathy was instructed to inform me that we are more than welcome to come back and next time we will perform for the whole school!
Nevada Old Time Fiddlers present were J.D. Jones, Mike Farrow, Jeanne Rozzi, Vera Vann Wilson, Kay Sanderson, Vesta Piszczek, Chet Swafford, Ardel Henrichsen, Ed Wilson, Cathy Folger, Bernie Knight, Bill Thornhill, and special guest Sean Tyler
