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Scottish Fiddle Champ to Play at African Shelter
Fiddler Hanneke Cassel had planned to perform at an orphanage in Kenya’s Coast Province in April. The orphanage, One Home Many Hopes (or “Mudzini Kwetu” as it’s known in Kenya), rescues, shelters, and educates 32 girls who previously were street children in Mtwapa. Cassel, a US National Scottish Fiddle Champion, learned of the shelter through her friend Thomas Keown, who has been raising funds and awareness for the orphanage. “[Keown] was talking about the doctors and the people who help build stuff, and nowhere did he mention anything musical happening with orphanage,” Cassel says. “That’s awesome that they’re going to get great medication and good schooling, but they really need some music in their lives.”
Cassel also plans to help her friend Lindsay O’Donovan teach the girls to play recorders. “I wish that we were going over there with a bunch of fiddles, but that will have to be a later trip to get the place outfitted with fiddles for them to play,” Cassel says. —R.W.
