Music on Cape Breton's Heritage Coast Program

Feb. 14, 2010 - PRLog -- Cape Breton’s Heritage Coast, on the southern side of Cape Breton Island, reflects a strong cultural diversity, with a significant Acadian population, the Chapel Island First Nations Community, and centres of English, Irish and Scottish cultures, along with emerging pockets of more recent arrivals from parts of Europe. This interesting blend of cultures has inspired music, song, and dance representative of the region. Our musicians, young and young at heart, are among the finest Cape Breton has to offer.

The Destination Richmond Tourism Co-operative (DRTC) wants to cherish and nurture the musical culture and heritage on Cape Breton’s Heritage Coast. The idea of having live music available every day of the week for visitors to Richmond County to enjoy quickly became an objective of DRTC.

To achieve this goal, during July & August 2010, DRTC plans to hire four local student musicians to perform in participating restaurants, at Visitor Information Centres, festivals and events, historic sites, and gathering places around the county. If successful, local restaurants throughout the area would be able to book lively entertainment for customers to enjoy, and not-for-profit organizations would be able to book musicians to enhance their museums, community hall functions, and festivals and events free of charge.

The Destination Richmond Tourism Cooperative has focused on seeking out and providing opportunities for residents who perform traditional music and dance from this region to congregate to develop their skills in order to preserve this culture and to be able to share their talents with locals and visitors. DRTC works to assist its member organizations to develop tourism product in keeping with the “Cape Breton's Heritage Coast” theme. Under the Music on the Heritage Coast program, DRTC members would be able to access these musicians to enhance their existing product and provide their customers with the added value of an interactive experience with traditional music.

Richmond County has produced many great instrumentalists, dancers, and singers. Several youth from Richmond County are members of the Young Fiddlers Association and have performed abroad. The county is home to several dance troupes, highland, step, square dancing, and Chapel Island First Nation is in the process of developing a drumming and dancing group. Many of our musicians perform regularly outside of Richmond County, especially during the tourism season; DRTC is striving to provide them with opportunities to perform closer to home, hone their skills, while at the same time helping tourists make lasting memories while visiting Richmond County.

At a Music on the Heritage Coast performance, interactions with the audience would be key. Traditional and local compositions and storytelling would make for wonderfully diverse repertoires and will keep the performances relevant and entertaining. Ideally, the musicians will be able to perform music from our founding cultures – Mi’Kmaq, Acadian, Celtic (Scottish and Irish), and English. Repetoires would include a minimum of 50% traditional Cape Breton music in order to maintain authenticity yet be flexible enough to incorporate audience requests. Music on the Heritage Coast performances would be the medium through which both visitors and residents connect to the heritage and culture on Cape Breton's Heritage Coast.

Over the past few years, DRTC has successfully managed several projects as part of the Cape Breton’s Heritage Coast program. In 2008, DRTC accessed significant funding to develop a Cape Breton’s Heritage Coast Website and Signage Plan. The completed website and soon-to-be completed main gate signs will give the region an increased presence on the worldwide web and will enable it to reach more potential visitors than ever before.

In October 2009, DRTC supported a successful Kitchen Racket series in association with the Celtic Colours International Festival. Musicians and music fans gathered for eight consecutive nights for an open jam session in which the audience was invited to participate. Each night was hosted by a different Richmond County musician and the first hour featured an up-and-coming Richmond County youth musician. The series was popular with both locals and tourists and the unique format filled a previously unmet need to provide visitors a chance to perform alongside with Cape Breton musicians.

Throughout the winter of 2010, a Kitchen Racket committee is working to prepare for and improve the offering for the next Celtic Colours. A Kitchen Racket is being held once a month, and the group is working to identify musicians both young and young at heart who want to develop their skills and share their talents with locals and tourists.

This winter DRTC also supported two Square Dancing Workshops which will culminate with a Square Dance on February 27th. Richmond County has its own unique style of square dancing which this workshop promoted. The workshop was very well attended, and DRTC hopes that this tradition of square dances, which were only one generation ago popular weekly events, will once again be an activity enjoyed regularly by locals and visitors to our region.

The Music on the Heritage Coast performances would be designed to draw residents of Richmond County as well as visitors to our region. It is well known that today’s tourists want authentic, cultural experiences, and this can only be achieved by meeting and interacting with local characters. Performances will be promoted to residents and visitors alike in order to ensure an ideal mix of both groups in the audience.

The proposed Music on the Heritage Coast program would give four student musicians a chance to live and work in their own community. As music professionals, the students would develop performance skills, stage-presence, and become ambassadors for the tourism industry on Cape Breton’s Heritage Coast and in Nova Scotia.

This exciting new venture would incorporate new communities, organizations, and musicians, all holding true to the goal of showcasing local talent and culture, and welcoming visitors to our region, and providing them with a way to experience the heritage of Cape Breton’s Heritage Coast first hand.

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Cape Breton's Heritage Coast! provides experiential travel information for the south coast of Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, Canada