COASTLINE
Where: First Church of Christ, Scientist, 1205 Pandora Ave.
When: Thursday, June 15, 7:30 p.m. (doors at 7)
Tickets: $20 ($15 students) from or at the door
Ivonne Hernandez moved to Limerick, Ireland, last year in order to study Irish traditional music and dance. The move made perfect sense for the Belmont grad, who picked up the fiddle at the age of three and has spent the better part of her life playing, studying, or teaching the instrument.
Hernandez, 40, has been back in Victoria for the past month on a break from school, where she is studying to receive her master’s degree. Upon graduation, Hernandez has been given the opportunity to teach at the university. A permanent move may be in the cards, which would rob Victoria of one of its most decorated and devoted musicians, a Juno Award winner who received the City of Victoria’s Honorary Citizen Award in 2021, for outstanding leadership and service for the betterment of the community.
“I’m just playing it by ear right now,” Hernandez said. “Victoria is still home, but I’m going to see what I can do in Ireland and Europe for a little bit.”
She returns to Ireland on Monday, but not before leading Coastline, her 19-piece fiddle ensemble, through a key fundraising concert. The upper-echelon group — whose members range in age from 11 to 22 and play guitar, cello, and fiddle — performs tonight at First Church of Christ, Scientist on Pandora Avenue, which is a part of a larger fundraising drive.
The students are travelling to Ireland in August, where they will perform and collaborate with traditional Irish youth groups. They will reconnect with Hernandez when they land. Coastline’s founder and artistic director led the collective from afar during much of the past year, part of what has rendered the future of Coastline somewhat uncertain, Hernandez said.
She will continue to teach the students when she’s available, though the pace of previous years may not be sustainable. The ensemble’s fourth recording is due at Christmas; Hernandez is not planning much beyond that, however. The Coastline Youth Music Society has always been a fluid entity, both for the students and their instructor, but something about this next stage feels more open-ended than unusual, with the August tour looking like a natural cut-off point.
“We’re going to have a handful of people soon graduating from Coastline, either going away for school or busy with work. I’m just trying to figure out how it’s going to look moving forward, how many people will be in it, that kind of thing.”
Change has been a constant for Hernandez, so this is nothing new. The former Grand North American Fiddle Champion and B.C. Provincial Fiddle Champion has toured regularly during her career, and spent eight years in Boston, where she received her a degree in violin performance and music business from the Berklee College of Music.
Coastline has toured Canada, Scotland and Ireland in the past. By giving her students the ability to do so once more, for perhaps the final time, it is an opportunity Hernandez is not taking for granted.
“I didn’t have an end plan, it has snowballed into what it has become. There’s a sense of family in Coastline. The kids are from all over Greater Victoria, but they are best friends and hang out all the time. When the grads come back from university, they all want to hang out. It’s really cool to see.”
