The Twisted String project is about to blow Vancouver away. The local group of nine fiddlers that calls itself NYWP is a select group of the Coast String Fiddlers, all-youthful and all of whom play at about the same level. The audience loved them during their recent appearance in Heartstrings, a dance performance from Dominique's DSdanse group in which the fiddlers blended effortlessly with the dancers. The NYWP (the initials are rumoured to stand for Nice Young Well-dressed People) are part of a larger group of fiddlers, the Twisted String project, who have been mentored by major Canadian composer and musician Oliver Schroer. He also mentors another group of Twisted, a select group of 10 Valley Youth Fiddlers from Smithers. From July 16 to 18, the Vancouver Folk Festival has invited Schroer and his Twisted String fiddlers to perform all three days on the various stages including Friday night's opening extravaganza.
The local teenagers, Holly Beckmyer, Steven Beckmyer, Johanna Dalgleish, Tyler Dickson, Sophie Heppel, James Law, Graeme McGillivray, Chelsea Sleep and Anna Williams, first met Schroer when he came to the Coast to teach at the Celtic Music School last summer. Schroer composes specifically for the group with the aim of using the full sonic palette of the fiddle to create exciting sounds. The group will be performing contemporary music, says Ann Law, who has a son among the NYWP, making a change from the traditional Celtic tunes.
"It takes them another step," says Law, who along with Heather Beckmyer has been their musical director so far. This is not the first time that the group has performed in Vancouver. "They had a blast at the Children's Festival recently," says Law. The well-dressed label aside, the kids will likely not be wearing their special NYWP T-shirts for the Folk Festival. The avant-garde, fashion-conscious Schroer suggested they dress up a bit and has sent them to the thrift stores in search of Hawaiian shirts.
