THE NEWS FROM BRUNER’S BROOD - THE 35TH CANADIAN GRAND MASTERS FIDDLING COMPETITION: KAMLOOPS, BRITISH COLUMBIA - MONDAY, AUGUST 25, 2025

Hello, everyone! As I write this article from the Calgary Airport (Alberta) on route to Ottawa, Ontario, I trust all is well with you and that you continue to have a good summer. For those who have recently liked and followed my artist page since my last posting, thank you for your interest and kind support, as I warmly welcome the new followers who have come onboard. Please share this page with others, tell those you know that this page and website exists, and let them know that activities and events are lining up for fall and winter 2025. Here’s the latest for my Facebook pages and www.trentbruner.com. I have many memories of the 35^th Canadian Grand Masters Fiddling Competition (CGMFC) in Kamloops, British Columbia that require another article to document. In this article, I wish to give a vote of thanks to a number of people. I have always viewed this national fiddle gathering each August as “The Grey Cup of Canadian Fiddling.” It is Canada’s national fiddle championship, and the quality of music has been at a high standard for many years now. As one of the house accompanists working alongside Melika Lemelin of Sudbury, Ontario for another year, we were the fortunate ones to help other fiddlers become the best they could be as they competed for the honour of Canadian Grand Masters Fiddle Champion. Not only do we thank the Canadian Grand Masters for having us serve in this role, but we also thank the fiddlers who put their faith in us to do a job that puts us in a team environment, sharing the stage with them and accompanying them with their competition sets. They always share a part of themselves when they perform, and it is our pleasure to share a part of us in their performances each time we appear at a fiddle contest. Thank you for including us. The pleasure is ours to serve and help. To the members of Kamloops Branch #12 of the British Columbia Old Time Fiddlers Association (BCOTFA) led by Jackie Davis: A major thank you goes to this branch for offering to host the 2025 competition, honouring a vision by their local and provincial Life Member of the BCOTFA, Leo Ready. It was his dream years ago to see this national fiddle event come to Kamloops. It came to reality when a bid from Kamloops Branch #12 was accepted by the Canadian Grand Masters Board in September 2023. Although it’s one thing to organize an annual fiddle contest locally or provincially, it’s another matter when you realize that organizing the Canadian Grand Masters Fiddling Competition is different. It requires at least a two year planning cycle with many volunteer hours of planning, organizing and teamwork locally, provincially and nationally. As others throughout Canada who have organized this event before will attest, you need every available person to help in the many details along the way. I will comment here on one example. In my role as historian and archivist for the CGMFA Board of Directors, I have a teamwork role regarding annual inductee selections for the Canadian Fiddle Hall of Honour. The lead board member on this file works with the host committee, the CGMFA Board of Directors and the CGMFA President months in advance to select and approve the list of inductees. Inductees are honoured during the Saturday Night Finals, which has been an annual tradition since it began as the Lifetime Achievement Award ceremony in 1991. We honour those in the host province/region who have paved the way for the present Canadian fiddle scene to exist, either as performers, builders, musical legends or recipients of special citation. When PowerPoint slides are shown with photo collages of each recipient during Competition Saturday in the host theatre, individuals and groups are honoured. When I meet those accepting these honours personally or on others’ behalf, this is where history meets the present and builds the future of Canadian fiddling, all at the same time. These people are examples of musical representatives giving of each other to each other for each other. This is all done for two reasons: The love of the music, and the love of the people, putting others ahead of themselves. We honour them, thank them, and do our best to follow their positive examples, knowing that fiddle music means a gathering of one or more communities in various ways, and that when know where you’ve been, you’ll know where you’re going. Congratulations to all past and present inductees for being the trailblazers in our fiddle communities near and far. A salute also goes to Daniel Lapp, our weekend Master of Ceremonies and lead instructor of the 2025 B.C. Youth Fiddle Retreat (along with assistant instructors Kai Gronberg and Michael Burneyat) for brilliant efforts through this past week. Daniel is musical director of the B.C. Fiddle Orchestra based in Victoria. It is an ensemble of musicians 18 years and younger who were the guest entertainers for Competition Saturday, with performances during the afternoon preliminaries and Saturday Night finals. He has organized a traditional fiddle archive of B.C. fiddle music, documented some backgrounds on those who have played, composed fiddle tunes and assembled a collection of fiddle recordings from his home province. We are thankful for his assistance and consultation with the CGMFA regarding inductee selections going into the Canadian Fiddle Hall of Honour. Another salute goes to CGMFA President Mark Sullivan, who not only worked hard behind the scenes, but also worked extra duty as a backstage manager on short notice and was a guitar accompanist for some of the contestants during the preliminaries and finals. Many thanks go to him for his efforts and professionalism throughout the entire planning and execution of the 35^th edition of this national fiddle event. We are forever thankful that you stepped up when the needs were there, and these efforts paid off. The sound crew at the Sagebrush Theatre did a wonderful job hosting and setting up stage sound that worked well. Thank you to them for being accommodating and helpful to all parties concerned throughout the weekend.For those of you who watched the live stream on the Canadian Grand Masters Fiddling Association’s Facebook page on August 23^rd, thank you for doing so and for sharing the live feed with your families and friends inside and outside Canada. Share the links of the replay of this celebration of Canadian fiddling as soon as possible. Since Facebook has changed rules on video storage, these videos will only be available until September 22^nd, as they have now put a 30 day limit on these video posts for anyone posting a video. This set of videos will be edited and moved to the CGMFA’s YouTube Channel in the coming weeks. Check the Canadian Grand Masters Fiddling Association Facebook page for further details once they are available. The results of the 2025 Canadian Grand Masters Finals are as follows: 1. Max Francis, Victoria, BC 2. Kyle Burghout, Winnipeg, MB 3. Jane Cory, Winnipeg, MB 4. Ben Rutz – Bedford, NS 5. Paul Lemelin – Val Therese, ON 6. Michael Burneyat – Vancouver, BC 7. Eric Provencher – Cochrane, AB 8. Raymond Knorr – Stratford, PEI 9. Kai Gronberg – Vancouver, BC 10. Adam Johnson – Quesnel, BC (Max is the first B.C. fiddler to win the CGMFC and the youngest contestant at this time to ever win the CGMFC at age 14.) Ward Allen Memorial Award for Best Waltz – Max Francis for “Lovers’ Waltz” from the Preliminaries People’s Choice Award, sponsored by Calvin Vollrath – Max Francis Yamaha Silent Violin Winner – Kyle Burghout The 36^th Canadian Grand Masters Fiddling Competition will be held in Alberta for the second time on August 28-29, 2026 in High River, south of Calgary. Details and further announcements can be found via the link at https://www.canadiangrandmasters.ca. My next report will come from the 47^th Pembroke Fiddle and Step Dance Contest on Labour Day weekend in Ontario. Until next time, see you down the musical trail! Musically yours, Trent