One Canada’s finest fiddlers and one of Canada’s finest guitar players join forces in Oak Bay this week.
The upstairs lounge of the Oak Bay Recreation Centre plays music hall on May 3 for award-winning musicians Shane Cook and Quinn Bachand, performing together for the first time.
“When I met him, it was insane how good he was. A lot of fiddlers have their sound but he has this sound and is so clean and fast; he is the perfect fiddle player,” Bachand said of Cook. “It’s exciting to play with fiddlers who play with purpose.”
Bachand, half of Celtic music duo Qristina & Quinn, boasts two full-length studio albums and extensive national and international touring credits with musicians including Ashley MacIssac, and awards for Top Traditional Group and Top Duo at the Irish Music Awards, along with numerous other international award wins and nominations.
The Reynolds secondary student looks forward to playing locally before heading off to Berklee College in Boston, one of the leading contemporary music education institutions in the world, on a full-ride scholarship. It starts with a one-night-only performance May 3, with the first and only foreign fiddler to win the U.S. Grand National Championships.
“This is really special for me. I have so many friends from your part of the world (I’ve met) playing with them on the road and at various festivals,” Cook said. “But I have never had the good fortune to make it out there, so I am pretty excited about this.”
The winner of the three Canadian Open National Fiddle Championships, three Canadian Grand Master championships and a Grand North American Fiddle championship is in Victoria to adjudicate the fiddle section of the Greater Victoria Performing Arts Festival May 3 and found a way to take advantage of the opportunity to also perform his first full Vancouver Island Concert. Doing so with Bachand, makes that especially rewarding, he said.
“Quinn is a really special musician. There really isn’t anyone else out there that does what he does,” Cook said. “You can play the same tune with someone else and it does not turn out he same way as you play with Quinn. He is such a fiery player you can’t help but go wherever he wants to go.”
Cook, with five albums and extensive international touring under his belt, said he was hoping to maximize his stay on Vancouver Island and hopes to do more.
“That is the great thing about this world of traditional music. There isn’t a start and end to any of it,” he said. “I would hope Quinn and I will have a relationship that will continue on for many years to come.”
Tickets are $15 in advance at the Oak Bay Recreation Centre or go to beaconridgeproductions.com.
Tickets are $20 at the door.