This is an archive page for the 2013 Chris Driscoll Memorial Workshops. The workshops were held during the festival that year and were part of a series that started after Chris died in 2005.
Who Chris was
Chris Driscoll grew up in Charlottetown and played drums. He went through the school band programs on the Island, came up through City Stages, and then went to McGill to study jazz performance. He was in his fourth year there when he died in a skiing accident in January 2005. He was 21.
At McGill he played in a quartet called Mobile Preid. The group was chosen by the International Association for Jazz Education to represent the university at the North Sea Jazz Festival in 2004. They were the first Canadian group to get that nod. His bandmates and teachers remembered him as someone with a lot of talent and a lot of warmth, the kind of person who held a group together.
The workshops
The festival started the workshop series in his memory the year after he died. The idea was simple. Bring working musicians in to talk about how they approach the music, keep it open to anyone who wants to listen, and do it in a room that feels welcoming. The sessions were held at St. Paul's Anglican Church in later years, and they were free to festival pass holders.
Over the years the workshops covered a range of topics. Improvisation. Rhythm. How to build a solo. How to listen to the rest of the band. The visiting artists who led them changed from year to year, but the spirit stayed the same. No pressure, no gatekeeping, just a chance to hear someone who has spent their life on the music talk about how it works.
2013
In 2013 the workshops continued as part of the festival program. Details from that specific year are thin in the archive, but the series carried on in the same format. The Chris Driscoll Memorial Workshops became a regular part of the festival weekend, a quiet corner of the schedule that meant a lot to the local music community.
If you knew Chris, or you played with him, or you just want to know more about the workshops, get in touch. We are always glad to hear from people who were part of it.
For the current festival, head to the schedule page or the main lineup page. This archive is kept for looking back.