teaching
Calvin Cairns has toured around the world and Canada as a performer with Stringband and The Romaniacs, and The Bill Hilly Band. He has and appeared with Connie Kaldor, Spirit of the West, The Halifax Symphony, Thunder Bay Symphony, Pete Seeger, Stuart Maclean and many others.
Calvin has extensive experience as a musical arranger and director, in theatre and other performance disciplines, principally with The Caravan Farm Theatre, Public Dreams (Vancouver), and Welfare State International (UK). In 1993 he collaborated with Pete Moser of Welfare State to workshop and create the Community Orchestra, a drum and horn marching band based in East Vancouver and still playing at community events in the east end.
A music graduate of Grant MacEwan College in Edmonton (1977-79), Calvin went on to study classical violin and Alexander Technique with Paul Collins at the Alexander Study Centre, in England. In Victoria, Calvin has taken lessons in classical violin technique with Sydney Humphrys and is a member of the Victoria Civic Orchestra.
In 1995 Calvin began teaching violin / fiddle, using a blend of the Colour String Method and the early Suzuki repertoire leading to a programme of international folk fiddling styles. He taught for two years on Saltspring Island, and formed the Saltspring Island Fiddlers. Since moving to Victoria in 1996 he has been at the Victoria Conservatory, where he teaches group classes in fiddling. He is the musical director of the Conservatory Fiddlers. The all ages Fiddle Orchestra which he founded in 1998. now has over fifty members.
