The donation will go a long way when it comes to delivering music in Saskatchewan. (submitted photo/Eliza Doyle)

By Derek Cornet

late musician

Sizable donation of instruments a promising gift for music mentorship programming

Dec 15, 2020 | 3:59 PM

The legacy of a well-respected Saskatchewan musician will live on through a sizeable donation of instruments to a mentorship program currently serving northerners.

In total, 50 accordions, 35 fiddles and five ukuleles were bestowed to Eliza Doyle’s Community Arts Mentorship Programming (CAMP) from the late Everett Larson. He was known for his love for music and taught music in Saskatchewan for more than 60 years. Larson passed away in July 2019.

Larson received numerous awards including the Saskatoon Preschool Foundation Educator of Distinction Award in 2001. At Fiddle Fest in 2008, he was the first recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition and appreciation of his outstanding contribution to Old Time Fiddling and Saskatchewan Music.

“I feel a sense of responsibility and duty to do the best I can with these instruments and reach as many people as I can kind of in his honour,” Doyle said.

Doyle collected the instruments from Larson’s daughter Susan Miazga Dec. 13 in Saskatoon and she’s looking forward to using them in programs like the one currently underway in Stanley Mission. Doyle explained Miazga and her husband went through each instrument before donating them to her to ensure all of them were in working order.

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Doyle hopes to one day expand CAMP is several other communities in Saskatchewan and she mentioned the donation assists in making that dream a reality.

“Everett Larson had been a music instructor and program developer for years and years, and he brought these instruments all across Saskatchewan going a similar thing,” Doyle said. “I thought it could be really good to use them in the same fashion. That being said, if people really fall in love with them and don’t have their own instrument, I think it is a good opportunity to gift people their first instrument as well. We’ll see how it goes and how it develops.”

Eliza Doyle (far left) and Susan and Barry Miazga. (submitted photo/Eliza Doyle)

In an email to larongeNOW, Miazga wrote she first heard of CAMP last year while listening to an interview featuring Doyle. It wasn’t until September 2020 when she was going through her father’s instrument collection that she remembered about CAMP and reached out to Doyle about donating them to her.

“She quickly responded that she would love to do so and that she was actually working on her fundraising and instrument donation drive, so the timing was perfect,” Miazga wrote. “I know our dad and mom would be very happy to know that they are going to support a worthwhile project, and a young and hardworking musician such as Eliza. We look forward to following her journey and encourage others to support her efforts.”

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derek.cornet@jpbg.ca

Twitter: @saskjourno