Northern Sask. teen siblings gear up for gig at bluegrass music festival

Teen siblings Leander and Eris Worm have traveled south from Stanley Mission, Sask., to jam with other musicians and perform at the Northern Lights Bluegrass and Old Time Music Festival. 

Eris,14, and Leander, 16, are excited to hit the stage together during the festival this weekend at the Ness Creek festival site. 

"It's a lot better than just being solo because you can have a lot more confidence," Leander said. 

"Because we've known each other all of our lives, we're so comfortable with each other," said Eris, who sings and plays guitar and ukulele. Her brother plays the bass. 

The duo is relatively new to performing. 

"We first started a few months back," said Leander, explaining that they have only played a few gigs like at places like the Stanley Mission graduation and the Napatak Ramble in La Ronge. 

But their music teacher Eliza Doyle said they didn't hesitate when asked to play a "tweener" set on the mainstage for this festival. 

"These guys are really really brave, like a lot of people when they start playing music don't necessarily perform in front of people, or they can be really shy," she said. "They were like, 'yeah we're going to do it, let's do.'" 

Doyle met Eris when the girl was in Grade 5 and Leander last year when he started taking bass lessons. Doyle, a musician and educator, has established a community arts mentorship program (CAMP) that operates in remote and under-served communities like Stanley Mission, which is about 390 kilometres northeast of Saskatoon.

The program runs in eight northern communities. Doyle said CAMP partnered with the festival so that people from all eight communities could participate in a music camp that took place just before the event. 

"Then they get to perform on the main stage, so we're really grateful for that partnership this year." 

Doyle said the purpose of CAMP is to create opportunities for connections throughout the province, helping musicians and music teachers travel north and south to collaborate and learn. 

CAMP's goal is to strengthen the role music and art plays in culture, community, identity and self-esteem for youth, adults and elders in the communities. 

Doyle said she wasn't planning on starting up the non-profit. She had only planned to run a five-week music program in Stanley Mission in 2019. But at the end of the five weeks, the community members asked her to keep it going.